Try not to ask hopeful about female Dem 'rising stars'

(PNI) Get out that binder full of women …If a woman hasn't decided to run against Mario Diaz next year, she should grab the brass ring the community-college district board candidate tossed out this month.

Diaz, a Democrat and a candidate for a seat on the Maricopa County Community College District governing board, was part of recent panel discussion. Asked to name "rising stars" in the Democratic Party, he rattled off men's names, but came up blank on the women.

That is, until Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix and state Senate star, mentioned the slight on her Facebook page. The reaction was fast and furious. Comments ranged from "unbelievable" to "what an idiot" to a dissection of his campaign supporters -- of which women accounted for only 21percent, according to one post. Oh, and he has GOP supporters, too. So much for bipartisanship.

Diaz called Hobbs to apologize and then posted his apology, saying he "froze" when asked the question.

"My comment was to say that our community needed more women in political power, not that there are not women who serve in such posts," he wrote. "I have no excuses, I apologize."

What's wrong with this math? … Thirty-eight Republican members of the Legislature voted against Medicaid expansion. But 36 signed on to the lawsuit challenging that decision.

The missing plaintiffs were Sens. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, and Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale. Shooter has said he doesn't like to sue his friends. Reagan voted for Medicaid expansion before she voted against it.

Missing from the vote and the lawsuit is Sen. Rick Murphy, R-Peoria. Murphy said he feared he wouldn't have standing to sue, since he was on vacation when the vote was taken.

Standing -- or having a legal reason to sue -- may not matter, at least as far as Gov. Jan Brewer's legal team sees it. None of the lawmakers has a right to sue, the lawyers argue, since they're not paying the "provider tax" at the heart of the plaintiff's lawsuit.

We'll see what the courts have to say about that matter; the case is before a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

An unusual raffle … As part of the Christmas raffle this year, the Republicans in Legislative District 26, which covers parts of Tempe and Mesa, gave away an AR-15 rifle.

They said the point was to raise awareness about gun rights.

LD 26 Democrats issued a news release decrying a gun raffle held within days of the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Committee Chairman Randy Keating, in a news release, called it "irresponsible" and "grossly insensitive."

"Arizona deserves much better from the LD 26 Republican leadership, and that is why we have decided to help collect donations for one of Arizona's leading gun-safety groups, Arizonans for Gun Safety," Keating said.

Pick your evil: insensitive timing or using the deaths of 20 children to make a political point.

A call to arms … Gov. Jan Brewer last week posted an "I Stand With Jan to Defend Christmas" postcard on her Facebook page. Within 24hours, it had garnered nearly 75,000 likes.

But based on the comments, both supporters and dissenters seemed to have missed the spirit of the season -- whatever season they choose to celebrate this time of year -- entirely.

Here's a little sample:

"Merry Christmas. I'm Hispanic and I'm tired of how all of these corrupt racist liberals like (President Barack) Obama and his supporters are trying to turn this great country into a 3rd world one."

"What exactly is Christmas being attacked by? This is idiotic. I can't believe you're in charge of an entire state."

"From what, pray tell?! What scaremongering phonies you are!"

"Merry Christmas Jan. Believe me I say it to everyone whether they like it or not."

Tweet of the week

"Just landed in Chicago. Saying it's cold would be like saying CPS (Child Protective Services) has 'a few issues.'"

--House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.

Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl, Alia Beard Rau, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Rebekah L. Sanders. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.

Copyright 2013 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Try not to ask hopeful about female Dem 'rising stars'

(PNI) Get out that binder full of women …If a woman hasn't decided to run against Mario Diaz next year, she should grab the brass ring the community-college district board candidate tossed out this month.

Diaz, a Democrat and a candidate for a seat on the Maricopa County Community College District governing board, was part of recent panel discussion. Asked to name "rising stars" in the Democratic Party, he rattled off men's names, but came up blank on the women.

That is, until Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix and state Senate star, mentioned the slight on her Facebook page. The reaction was fast and furious. Comments ranged from "unbelievable" to "what an idiot" to a dissection of his campaign supporters -- of which women accounted for only 21percent, according to one post. Oh, and he has GOP supporters, too. So much for bipartisanship.

Diaz called Hobbs to apologize and then posted his apology, saying he "froze" when asked the question.

"My comment was to say that our community needed more women in political power, not that there are not women who serve in such posts," he wrote. "I have no excuses, I apologize."

What's wrong with this math? … Thirty-eight Republican members of the Legislature voted against Medicaid expansion. But 36 signed on to the lawsuit challenging that decision.

The missing plaintiffs were Sens. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, and Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale. Shooter has said he doesn't like to sue his friends. Reagan voted for Medicaid expansion before she voted against it.

Missing from the vote and the lawsuit is Sen. Rick Murphy, R-Peoria. Murphy said he feared he wouldn't have standing to sue, since he was on vacation when the vote was taken.

Standing -- or having a legal reason to sue -- may not matter, at least as far as Gov. Jan Brewer's legal team sees it. None of the lawmakers has a right to sue, the lawyers argue, since they're not paying the "provider tax" at the heart of the plaintiff's lawsuit.

We'll see what the courts have to say about that matter; the case is before a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

An unusual raffle … As part of the Christmas raffle this year, the Republicans in Legislative District 26, which covers parts of Tempe and Mesa, gave away an AR-15 rifle.

They said the point was to raise awareness about gun rights.

LD 26 Democrats issued a news release decrying a gun raffle held within days of the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Committee Chairman Randy Keating, in a news release, called it "irresponsible" and "grossly insensitive."

"Arizona deserves much better from the LD 26 Republican leadership, and that is why we have decided to help collect donations for one of Arizona's leading gun-safety groups, Arizonans for Gun Safety," Keating said.

Pick your evil: insensitive timing or using the deaths of 20 children to make a political point.

A call to arms … Gov. Jan Brewer last week posted an "I Stand With Jan to Defend Christmas" postcard on her Facebook page. Within 24hours, it had garnered nearly 75,000 likes.

But based on the comments, both supporters and dissenters seemed to have missed the spirit of the season -- whatever season they choose to celebrate this time of year -- entirely.

Here's a little sample:

"Merry Christmas. I'm Hispanic and I'm tired of how all of these corrupt racist liberals like (President Barack) Obama and his supporters are trying to turn this great country into a 3rd world one."

"What exactly is Christmas being attacked by? This is idiotic. I can't believe you're in charge of an entire state."

"From what, pray tell?! What scaremongering phonies you are!"

"Merry Christmas Jan. Believe me I say it to everyone whether they like it or not."

Tweet of the week

"Just landed in Chicago. Saying it's cold would be like saying CPS (Child Protective Services) has 'a few issues.'"

--House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.

Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl, Alia Beard Rau, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Rebekah L. Sanders. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.

Copyright 2013 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Sheriff hopeful bails out inmate <nbsp/>

The tip came in like so many others, with a distraught family member claiming a relative had been beaten by detention officers in Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail.

That information was enough to persuade John Rowan, a Democratic candidate for sheriff, to bail 18-year-old Kolton Brian Clark out of jail last week.

But the Sheriff's Office denies Clark's claim. And video that captures Clark's entire time in custody raises questions about whether the assault took place. A Phoenix police report shows that the injuries Clark attributes to sheriff's detention officers may have been suffered in the fight that landed him in jail.

The same report indicates that Clark blacked out during his time with police and repeatedly asked officers why he was in jail.

Clark now faces assault and disorderly conduct charges. He has pleaded not guilty, and a pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug.10, according to court records.

For Rowan, a grass-roots candidate with no support from the Democratic Party and scant financial backing, the notion of bailing a Hispanic inmate out of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail after the inmate alleged abuse by detention officers was a narrative that was too good to pass up. Rowan was alerted to the allegations after Clark's father contacted him.

Rowan faces former Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone in the Aug.28 Democratic primary. The winner will go on to face Arpaio and independent Mike Stauffer in the November general election.

The Sheriff's Office denies that any detention officer hit or stomped on Clark, as he alleges, and the County Attorney's Office this week informed the Sheriff's Office that prosecutors would review false reporting charges against Clark if they were submitted.

"We haven't made that decision yet," said Capt. Brian Lee, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. "All the videotape for his whole time in custody was reviewed. They didn't see anything indicating he was assaulted or there was any incident involving our detention officers or another inmate."

Rowan's communications director, Terri Woodmansee, said the decision to bail Clark out of jail was not a political ploy but an act of benevolence. However, Rowan twice related the story in speeches last weekend at a state Democratic Party meeting in Payson.

"We didn't go out to the press with this at all. He did this because a distraught parent contacted him," Woodmansee said. "Given the fact that they're Hispanic, did he make a predisposed decision based on other cases? But again, what side do you err on? It's about the side of taking a human being, given the pattern."

Two sheriff's detention officers pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault and were sentenced to probation for their roles in a 2010 assault where an inmate was punched, kicked and stepped on. Earlier this year, the family of a Phoenix man filed a $20million notice of claim against Phoenix police and the Sheriff's Office, claiming that excessive force and a series of failures by medical professionals contributed to the death of Ernest "Marty" Atencio after a struggle with police and sheriff's officers.

Audiotapes of Clark's telephone calls out of the jail indicate he and his family were also aware of prior instances of inmate assault and abuse in Maricopa County jails. The Arizona Republic requested audio and video related to the incident last week after a family member contacted the newspaper to disclose what they believed was an assault on Clark inside the jail.

In one audiotape, a woman who identifies herself as Clark's mother tells him of the Rowan campaign's involvement in his case, saying: "They're trying to prove a point. ? You're not the only victim."

Clark ended up in jail after Phoenix police responded twice to an apartment complex in the 2000 block of West Indian School Road. According to police reports, Clark was involved in two fights at the complex. The first fight took place between Clark and a man he had been drinking with, according to police. That fight left Clark badly beaten, but the other man did not want to press charges and police left.

Phoenix firefighters were unable to treat Clark for his injuries because of his aggressive behavior, according to police, and he was taken to another apartment in the complex where he passed out.

A short time later, a friend of Clark's woke him up, prompting another confrontation between Clark, two men and a security guard at the complex. The guard sprayed Clark with mace and police arrested Clark after the other two men requested prosecution and the apartment complex asked that he be cited for disorderly conduct, according to police.

Phoenix police also have no record of any officer using force against Clark. Clark's allegations are squarely against the sheriff's detention officers.

A police report describes injuries on Clark's head when he was taken to jail.

"He remained agitated and the officers attempted to calm him and Kolton was telling them he had no idea what had taken place and was asking the officers to explain why he was in jail," according to the report.

Video from the Sheriff's Office shows Clark initially being put in an isolation cell where a Phoenix officer directs him to a sink so he can wash his eyes. Clark later refuses contact with medical staff and is put into one of the sheriff's rubberized safe cells with a blanket.

Clark's conversations from jail would put the detention officers' assault around that time, but jail video shows no officers making contact with Clark. He remains alone in the safe cell from about 1:15a.m. to about 10:15a.m., when he is let out of the cell and dresses in the sheriff's standard-issue jail attire.

During the phone calls Clark made early in his jail stay, audiotapes show, he indicates that the assailant injured his eye and was wearing rings. He also indicates that sheriff's detention officers sprayed him with mace and shot him with a stun gun. Detention officers are required to fill out a use-of-force report when a stun gun is deployed, and there are no use-of-force reports related to Clark, according to the Sheriff's Office.

But after a woman named Maria visited Clark, the story began to change. The tapes indicate that Maria told Clark's mother that Clark was assaulted by detention officers. Clark's mother then begins instructing him on how to hold his head when he leaves jail to accentuate his injuries.

Clark wonders in the call what Rowan will want in return for securing his release. "He did all this (expletive) for me?" Clark asks. "He must really want to win against Arpaio then."

The phone calls also indicate that Clark and his mother were anticipating a large payout for the alleged assault.

Clark has yet to file a grievance with the Sheriff's Office or a notice of claim against the county.

His stepmother, Kimberly, said Friday that her husband was frustrated when he was trying to find out more information about his son from the Sheriff's Office. Clark did not return several messages left this week about the incident.

Rowan did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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