Monday, December 15, 2003
Political Notebook: Dean to visit Sun City, Sierra Vista and Yuma
By C.J. Karamargin
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean swoops into Southern Arizona on Tuesday to hold rallies in — of all places — Sierra Vista and Yuma.
The weather in either town sure beats New Hampshire or Iowa in December, but they aren't exactly hot spots on the campaign trail.
Frank Costanzo, Dean's campaign director in Arizona, said the itinerary makes sense for a candidate catapulted to front-runner status because of deep grass-roots support.
"We have an incredibly big group of supporters in Yuma and Sierra Vista," he said.
Earlier that same day, Dean is scheduled to be in the retirement community of Sun City, where he is expected to win the backing of former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt.
The logic of going there is also obvious. "Retired folks tend to vote in higher numbers in primaries," Costanzo said.
Democrats in Arizona go to the polls on Feb. 3.
Clark's military service
The television ad introducing Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark to Arizona stresses his military service.
For a nation at war, the strategy makes sense. But the retired Army general is also bolstering his domestic policy credentials.
"I want people to see me as a whole person," Clark told the Arizona Daily Star in a telephone interview last week. "I'll get us out of Iraq, but that's not the only thing I'll do."
Clark, a former commander of NATO who helped guide U.S. policy in the Balkans, is mounting a determined effort to court Arizona. "I describe it as a key objective," Clark said. "I want to win Arizona."
Clark's ads feature a series of black-and-white photographs of the candidate in uniform serving in the Balkans as an announcer says he "led a multinational force that stopped a campaign of terror, liberated a people, and brought peace, without the loss of a single American soldier."
Last week, though, Clark was focusing on education policy. He told the Star he wants to spend $70 billion over 10 years to make the first two years of college free for most Americans, and at the same time restrain tuition increases and encourage families to save for college. "We don't want to waste an ounce of human potential," he said.
Ridge's comments welcomed
It was a quick visit, but a tour of the Arizona-Mexico border that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge took earlier this month must have made a lasting impression.
The New York Times and Washington Post reported last week that Ridge wants the U.S. government to consider offering legal status to as many as 12 million illegal immigrants.
Ridge's comments were welcomed by Rep. Jim Kolbe, who is sponsoring immigration reform legislation with Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jeff Flake of Mesa.
"It is clear the time that he spent on the Arizona border recently was helpful in crystallizing his thoughts on the issue of dealing with illegal immigrants," Kolbe said. "We need to have a better understanding of who is in this country. At the same time, the administration needs to couple any action dealing with illegal immigrants with a guest worker bill that is aimed at those currently overseas who want to come to this country to work."
Ridge on Dec. 3 met with law enforcement officials in Phoenix to discuss the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's recent operation against people smugglers, then flew to Fort Huachuca for a presentation on the unmanned aerial drones the agency is preparing to deploy along the border.
U.S. funds for institute
Forgive us for not mentioning this sooner, but the U.S. Senate late last month passed legislation that continues federal support for the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, part of Tucson's Morris K. Udall Foundation.
Sponsored by McCain and Kolbe, the bill funds the institute until 2008.
"The demand for the institute's mediation services has greatly exceeded expectations," McCain said in a statement.
"By continuing support for the institute, the opportunity to settle environmental conflicts through mediation, rather than costly litigation, benefits both the stakeholders and taxpayers."
* Contact C.J. Karamargin at 573-4243 or at tcjkarama@azstarnet.com.
