Political Notebook: Reeling AZ Dems find feet with new chair

A year of gloom is lifting for activists in the Arizona Democratic Party, now that they’ve traded in a controversial former chair for a more widely respected new one.

On Saturday, the party’s state committee elected former state House minority leader Charlene Fernandez as their new chair. She replaces Robert Branscomb, who was ousted by a mid-term vote in July.

Fernandez is from Yuma County, where she previously chaired the party, and is looked on as an upgrade within the party. The members of the state committee elected her on the first vote, giving her about 58 percent of the vote, enough to defeat four rivals.

“People were looking for somebody who could steer the ship, and she can,” said Paul Eckerstrom, the Tucson attorney who is now first vice chair of the party. “We need to get back into the rural areas, and she’s good at that.”

Fernandez, 70, served eight years on the Yuma Union High School District board before becoming a legislator in 2015. In 2021, she resigned from the state House to become state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program.

Building the Democrats’ presence in rural and small-town Arizona is one of Fernandez’s top priorities, she said in an interview Thursday.

“Maybe it’s the messaging in the rural areas,” she said of Democrats’ problems there. “I want to look at that. Yeah, we’re saving democracy, but when you go out to these rural areas, they’re talking about housing issues, they’re talking about water issues, they’re talking about good jobs, quality public education.”

When Fernandez was House minority leader, the party went from having 22 out of 60 seats in the chamber to 29. In November, Democrats were hoping to take the majority in at least one chamber of the Legislature, but instead they lost seats in both chambers.

That’s one of the main reasons Democrats elected Branscomb, who challenged incumbent chair Yolanda Bejarano.

But in the months after taking office, Branscomb got into conflicts with some party officials and top elected officers, such as Arizona’s two U.S. senators and the governor, all Democrats. The party was also bleeding cash.

An effort to oust Branscomb succeeded at a July meeting marred by technical difficulties.

Kelly makes AI plan

U.S. Sen Mark Kelly released a plan Wednesday that attempts to grapple with the economic disturbances caused by artificial intelligence.

Kelly’s report, titled “AI for America: A Roadmap for Lasting Leadership that Benefits All Americans,” proposes creating a fund that will help American workers dislocated by artifcial intelligence, among other things.

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“It’s common sense to tap the enormous profits of the big companies developing and deploying AI so innovation thrives, opportunity is shared, and every community benefits,” the report says. “The fund would leverage multiple options for generating sustainable revenues from industry.”

That money would be used for “empowering workers and sustaining access to affordable energy, clean water, and the other resources fundamental to prosperity for all Americans,” the report says.

While it’s true that many of the companies developing AI are highly profitable — including tech big dogs like Microsoft, Google and Amazon — the industry has been plagued by huge losses in these early years. Many AI companies show no sign of making a profit even as their products infiltrate the economy.

Bisbee avoids Israel resolution

A Bisbee City Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was postponed Tuesday and may not be reconsidered after the sponsors on the council pulled it from the agenda.

Council members Pete Skinner and Trish Damon put on the agenda that would condemn the Israeli governments military assault on Gaza, call for an immediate cease fire, demand the protection of civilians and the release of hostages.

The city received a barrage of protests from around Arizona in the run-up to the Tuesday council meeting. Before consideration of the item, the council received confidential legal advice from the city attorney.

Then, during open session, Skinner pulled the item, although speakers who had come to comment on the resolution were still allowed to attend. Among them was Tucson attorney Doug Levy, who described the resolution as “boilerplate from Palestinian organizations sponsored by Hamas.”

Circles Robinson, a Bisbee resident who helped write the initial proposed resolution, said the language was actually derived from a similar resolution passed by the South Tucson city council. In May, a similar effort before Tucson’s council fizzled out.

It’s unclear if the Bisbee council will take up any version of the resolution again.

Swallow running for Legislature

The Notebook reported last week that Aiden Swallow, who filed to run for Congress as a Democrat in Congressional District 6, was still in that hunt.

No longer. Swallow, instead, is running for state House as a Democrat in Legislative District 19. That’s a district that includes a portion of the southeast Tucson metro area, plus most of Cochise, Graham and Greenlee counties.

That’s a district, favoring Republicans, currently represented by GOP House members Gail Griffin and Lupe Diaz.