Terry Goddard

In what could be a sign of bad news to come, Attorney General Terry Goddard announced he was cutting 20 people from his staff. The layoffs are believed to be the first by a state agency in response to Arizona's growing budget crisis.
Goddard's statement:
"In response to the state budget deficit, our office is taking steps to economize in every way possible. The biggest step is a staff reduction this week of 20 persons, including attorneys, investigators and support staff. Making these cuts now will maximize savings in the current fiscal year.
I am striving to provide maximum protection for Arizonans at ...

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The guys over at Sonoran Alliance have a long (over 1200 words!) defense of Randy Pullen from an attack by lobbyist and blogger Farrell Quinlan. They start the post with a declaration of the purpose of blogs:

But blogs also play a similarly vital role: Correcting other blogs. Every blog makes errors and the more authors and posts, the more likely that errors will be made. Certainly Sonoran Alliance has made its share.

Yep, they make their share. In fact, they made one only two paragraphs later:

Quinlan praises Sen. Jim Waring for trying to crack down on elected public officials who use taxpayer dollars to fund communications to the public that do more to promote themselves than anything else.

Blogs have gained national prominence for their ability to scoop the national press, or even make news from the mainstream media’s errors or fabrications — who can forget Rathergate? But blogs also play a similarly vital role:  Correcting other blogs.  Every blog makes errors and the more authors and posts, the more likely that errors will be made. Certainly Sonoran Alliance has made its share.  But innocent errors are different from undisclosed bias or hypocrisy.  This is a conservative, pro-life blog, and it says so, plainly. As such, readers know what they are getting before they read a single post.  It is unfortunate that other blogs do not disclose their bias in such plain language.

Two years ago, Attorney General Terry Goddard prosecuted state Treasurer David Petersen for doing the exact same offense with which Stapley is charged. 

Since the Arizona Republic failed to post online the County Attorney’s op-ed that ran in the paper today, we are reproducing it here. The Republic has been running countless articles and opinions slanted against the Sheriff and the County Attorney, siding with indicted Board of Supervisor Don Stapley instead. What’s interesting also is that they printed yet another editorial to rebut the County Attorney’s submitted op-ed which makes no sense if you didn’t read the County Attorney’s op-ed. 

The editorial accuses the County Attorney of being disingenuous, but in fact the Republic was.

If Gov. Janet Napolitano becomes President-elect Obama's secretary of homeland security, she will be leaving behind a lot of good will and a possibly contentious governor's race in 2010, according to a new poll from ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism and KAET-Eight.

The poll, conducted by Bruce Merrill and released Tuesday night, shows that 76 percent of Arizonans rate Napolitano "good" or "excellent," while only 19 percent say her performance is "poor" or "very poor." Five percent said they didn't have enough information to judge.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, a likely Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2010, and Jan Brewer, the sitting secretary of state who may replace Napolitano as governor if the latter goes to Washington, also received a lot of support, though many respondents said they didn't know enough about Goddard and Brewer to give an opinion.

Attorney General Terry Goddard, a probably candidate for Governor in 2010 is launching an investigation into the possible campaign finance violations but the Arizona Republican Party. Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer, also alikely gubernatorial candidate, concluded there was reasonable cause for an investigation by the AG and forwarded on the case.

The contribution in question is a $105,000 donation from "SCA" which has been tied to employees int he Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer has told the Arizona Republican Party that she wants to know who belongs to the Mesa group SCA by Oct. 31, according to her office.

SCA is at the center of a controversy that was sparked when the group, which is not registered with the Secretary of State's office as a political committee and whose membership has yet to be divulged, contributed $105,000 to the Arizona Republican Party's state fund.

Democrats contend the funds were "earmarked" by the GOP to be used to attack two Democratic candidates in Maricopa County races, which would be a violation of the state law that prohibits "soft money" contributions - such as those to a political party - from being solicited or given for use in a specific race.

Maricopa County attorney candidate Tim Nelson has unveiled a list of high-ranking prosecutors past and present who support him in his bid to unseat incumbent Andrew Thomas.

At a press conference Thursday to announce the endorsments, Nelson appeared alongside several of the backers, inluding Gov. Janet Napolitano, a former U.S. attorney and Arizona attorney general; Terry Goddard, the current attorney general; and perhaps most notably Grant Woods, a Republican who preceded Napolitano at the AG's office.

"Tim Nelson is one of Arizona's finest lawyers," said Woods. "I have no doubt Nelson will be an outstanding county attorney."

DENVER -- Attorney general Terry Goddard is fulfilling two roles at the Democratic National Convention: delegate and blogger.

As part of AZCentral.com's convention coverage, they've enlisted several delegates to deliver their impressions of the DNC. While Jim Pederson, another guest blogger, is the former chair of the Arizona Democratic Party and was a senatorial candidate in 2006, Goddard has taken the rare step of being a high profile elected official who has turned commentator and spokesman for his party's delegation.

Though no stunning revelations are to be found in his once-a-day blog, the novelty of a possible gubernatorial candidate taking a turn as citizen pundit is noteworthy of itself.

Attorney General Terry GoddardDENVER -- Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said resolving the issue surrounding how U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) will be included in the Democratic National Convention will be the "most important" part of the proceedings.

Goddard, who became a delegate at the Arizona Democratic Party Convention in April and is supporting U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), explained, "the [Arizona] delegation is split fifty-fifty - half Obama, half Clinton."

"My wife is a Clinton supporter," he continued, "so I see this at home."