Coconino County Democratic Party Newsletter

Newsletter
March 30, 2023

23rd Annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Celebration

Our biggest fundraiser of the year is right around the corner! We’lllaunch the RK store durring the Monthly Action Meeting on April 8.

Buy your tickets here for our Gala Dinner at

on April 22. $85 per person.

This Edition’s Blog Post – The Continued Attacks on Reproductive Rights

by Susan Shapiro

Women’s History Month has given us the opportunity to reflect on and learn about the fascinating women whose discoveries, leadership, activism, and art has changed the course of history. It is ironic and deeply disturbing that as great women are being lauded, many legislatures in our country are treating women’s lives as secondary to the fetuses they carry and are using every possible mechanism to deny women (and people who can get pregnant) their reproductive freedom.

Some states ban abortion with no exception for rape, incest, or saving the mother’s life, and some cast suspicion or outright criminalize any pregnancy outcome that doesn’t result in a live birth, or any doctor that has to decide whether a woman is close enough to death in order to justify a life-saving abortion. And a number of legislatures have pushed the idea of making abortion a homicide.

Trump’s Supreme Court nominations were hand-picked to deliver the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, but as the Texas mifepristone case demonstrates, the ultimate goal is a complete ban on abortion nationally. The Alliance Defending Freedom group that was behind the Mississippi case that toppled Roe v Wade is also behind the case in Texas seeking to outlaw the abortion drug mifepristone, cases challenging marriage equality, and cases arguing for the right to discriminate against the LBGTQ community. They are also pushing an appeal to Arizona’s supreme court to bring back the 1864 law that would reinstate a total abortion ban.

I read an excellent newsletter by Jessica Valenti, called “Abortion Every Day,” so I’m pretty well versed in the relentless attacks on reproductive freedom. But there is good news.
*On March 7 th , Flagstaff City Council joined Tucson and Phoenix in adopting a resolution declaring opposition to the Dobbs decision and AZ laws that impede access to abortion.
*A majority of Americans – 64% – say abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, and there has been reporting that the Dobbs decision will continue to reverberate through the 2024 election cycle.
* Gov. Hobbs has convened a coalition to explore a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights.
* Indivisible has declared Arizona a “battleground state,” focusing on flipping CD1 and CD6 in an effort to take back the House in 2024, a key step in codifying reproductive rights nationally. (https://www.unrepresentative18.org/)

Abortion is legal through 15 weeks of gestation in Arizona. However, Arizona laws create many barriers to accessing services. For example, medication must be prescribed by a doctor in person, there’s a 24 wait, there are hurdles for doctors to be able to provide
services, etc. Those hurdles are the reason we lack abortion services in Flagstaff – which affects the vast area of northern Arizona that our medical facilities serve. And our Republican legislature is relentlessly pushing bills for the sole purpose of stirring up the
debate and perpetuating abortion myths.

You might be wondering what you can do to help. Here are a few options:
1. Give to an abortion fund to help Arizonians access abortion care: https://www.abortionfundofaz.org/.
2. Help Desert Star FP stay open: https://gofund.me/3f05b3b0 – we can’t afford to lose any of our dwindling number of clinics.
3. Get involved in the effort to elect Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 4 th :
https://www.mobilize.us/?q=Wisconsin%20 Read why it’s important:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/27/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-00084406
4. Stay tuned for updates on the AZ ballot initiative and be ready to help gather signatures this summer.
We will not allow a religious minority to force their extremist beliefs on us. Abortion is a personal decision that the state should not be involved in.

Arizona Legislative Update

by Darrell Boomgaarden

The Arizona 56th Legislature is in it’s first of two sessions currently. These sessions typically last 100 days from January to April in both 2023 and 2024. The length of a particular session can be changed by the legislature leadership. This first session is nominally supposed to end on April 22, 2023 but probably will be extended. Currently, Republicans control both houses of our Legislature. In the Senate the membership by party is 16 Republicans and 14 Democrats. In the House, the split is 31 Republicans and 29 Democrats. Clearly our priority in 2024 is to flip either the House or Senate or BOTH!!

Republican leadership priorities in the Arizona Legislature appears to continue to be to focus on voter suppression, anti LGPQ+ initiatives – particularly attacking transgender children, micromanaging public schools limiting teacher and administrator options, expanding private and religious school vouchers, limiting city and county ability to regulate guns, further restricting women’s rights to health care, and limiting government investment officers ability to invest smartly by making it illegal to invest based on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) risk parameters. By focusing on these priorities, the Republican leadership is appealing to it’s base rather than trying to deal with urgent requirements in our state – requirements such as future water availability, affordable housing, educational funding, etc.

The priority in the Arizona legislature has to be the budget, which needs to be passed by June 30 before state government would be forced to shut down. So far there have been no serious attempts to work with the Governor to develop a passable budget.

Our best option for voicing our opinion on the bills the Legislature is attempting to pass is RTS (Request to Speak). This option is only available when bills are in committee to be reviewed. The nominal end of committee review of bills is March 31 but is likely to extend longer. Once RTS is no longer viable, our best option to let our representatives know how we feel about bills is to directly email or call them. It is very important that as many of us that can do so and let them know how their constituents feel!!

Legislative alerts, both Arizona and Federal, are issued weekly and are posted on the Coconino County Democratic Party Website under Alerts. You are encouraged to review these alerts and contact your representatives about those bills you feel strongest about. We can make a difference!!

This Weekend – Back off Our Benefits Bus Tour Flagstaff Stop

April 1 2023, 2:30PM @ Wheeler ParkCourage for America, in partnership with Alliance for Retired Americans, is proud to present the Promise to Americans: Back off Our Benefits Bus Tour, where participants will call on House Leadership to promise their constituents they will not play politics with their hard-earned benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Bus Tour will be making stops in Phoenix and Flagstaff on April 1, 2023, and we invite you to join us and make it clear to Representatives Schweikert and Crane that Americans want them to protect our benefits! RSVP here to join at Wheeler Park in Flagstaff at 2:30pm on April 1

Additional information here

News You Can Use

Are you subscribed to the Arizona Agenda? This is an excellent SubStack newsletter created by two veteran reporters who cover all things Arizona Politics.

Board of Supervisors – District 1 Newsletter

Simon Rosenberg’s March Political Briefing with Special Guest Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler

Join us at our April Monthly Action Meeting

Please attend our quarterly business meeting, Saturday April 8, 2023 (10 am – noon), in person at the Murdoch Community Center or via Zoom. We appreciate your participation as our PCs vote to elect new First and Second Vice Chairs for our County Party.

We will also review the budget for the fiscal year April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024, recently adopted by the Executive Committee. And we will be celebrating the kickoff of this year’s Roosevelt – Kennedy fundraising activities, and gearing up for the RK Gala on April 22!

In addition to these business items, we will have our usual monthly mix of news you can use, interesting speakers, and morning snacks. Please come join your fellow Defenders of Democracy.

Upcoming Community Events

Spring is upon us (though the weather might say otherwise) and we’re gearing up for festival season! We’ll have booths throughout the community and plenty of opportunities to register voters, speak with constituents about the issues that impact them, and ultimately continue turning AZ BLUE.

We’ll be at the Earth Day festival on April 22 in Bushmaster Park and are looking for volunteers to help run our booth. If you’re interested in volunteering, contact us! If you’d like to volunteer for future events click here to complete our volunteer form and we’ll get in touch!
Catch us at theTuba City Spring Festival, April 13-16! With musical perfomances, a junior rodeo and more, this is en event that you’re not going to want to miss!

Upcoming Events of Coconino County Democratic Party

Here’s How to Reach Your Executive Committee Members

Platform