Wake-Up Call: Tuesday, August 5, 2008

With the PolitickerAZ.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Arizona's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.

With the PolitickerAZ.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Arizona's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.

Denogean: 97-year-old voter can't prove she's a citizen

Shirley Freeda Preiss of Surprise, in the Phoenix area, is one ticked-off little old lady.

And who can blame her? The 97-year-old retired schoolteacher and onetime traveling showgirl has voted in every presidential election since 1932 when she cast a ballot for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But thanks to the state's voter identification requirements, it's looking unlikely that she'll be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election. (Tucson Citizen, Anne Denogean)

Link: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/arizona/92782.php

Judge: Redo wording on 1-cent tax plan

The group backing an initiative on the November ballot to raise the state sales tax to fund transportation won a battle to get the proposal's description rewritten in the voter information pamphlet. (Daily Star, Andrea Kelly)

Link: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/politics/251324.php

Speaker seeks special session on vouchers

House Speaker Jim Weiers is asking that Gov. Janet Napolitano call lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session aimed at saving a pair of private-school voucher programs for disabled and foster-care children. (Arizona Republic, Matthew Benson)

Link: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/05/20080805vouchers0805.h...

Poll: McCain has comfortable lead in Arizona

Sen. John McCain holds a 12-point lead against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama among likely Arizona voters, according to a survey released Monday, undercutting speculation that McCain's home state could be a political battleground in the presidential election.

The survey of 1,000 voters was conducted by Public Policy Polling, a firm in Raleigh, N.C., that typically works for Democratic candidates. The company performed the Arizona survey on its own accord, rather than for a particular client, spokesman Tom Jensen said. (East Valley Tribune, Paul Giblin)

Link: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/122336

TUSD governing board president declines to run for second term

Tucson Unified School District Governing Board President Alex Rodriguez will not seek re-election to a second term.

Rodriguez, who unsuccessfully threw his hat into the ring to run for the congressional seat of Jim Kolbe in 2006, cited time demands on the home front and professionally. (Tucson Citizen, Mary Bustamante)

Link: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/92774.php

Real estate tax ban group wants signatures OK'd

Backers of an initiative to ban real estate transfer taxes have gone to court to get more of their signatures recognized as valid.

The group, organized as Protect Our Homes, contends that Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell improperly disqualified more than 1,000 signatures of the 14,259 in the random sample sent to her. Extrapolated out, that would leave the petition drive short of 105 percent of the 230,047 signatures needed for automatic qualification for the November election. That means every one of the more than 360,000 signatures submitted needs to be checked. (East Valley Tribune, Howard Fischer)

Link: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/122332

With the PolitickerAZ.com Wake-Up Call e-mailed to your inbox, phone, Blackberry or PDA first thing in the morning, you can get a rundown of Arizona's top political headlines. Sign up to get the Wake-Up Call delivered every morning.