About Larry Bodine

Larry Bodine is the President of Democrats of Greater Tucson, and a PC in Legislative District 9.

The Strategy for Democrats to Win in Arizona in 2022

Democrats in Arizona can flip the state legislature blue, elect the Governor and capture all eight statewide offices – if they follow a new strategy that just worked in California. Republicans have used the strategy for years. But it will work equally well for Democrats and engage independents: capitalize on fear and anger. This article was first published on The Blog for Arizona. By that, I mean: Fear: Portray Republicans as local MAGA candidates who are dangerous Trump stooges who will restrict vaccinations, restrict mask mandates, restrict voting, and eliminate abortion. The key is connecting candidates to Trump, who is extremely unpopular with voters. [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-09-19T11:45:45-07:00September 19th, 2021|Arizona Democratic Party|

Dems Must Flip the Legislature, says LD10’s Stephanie Stahl Hamilton in Senate Run

"We cannot begin to enact laws that are going to protect our state waterways and art clean up our forests and address climate change unless we flip at least one chamber in our legislature and grab the governor's seat," declared Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, speaking at the September 13, 2021 meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. Hamilton was elected State Representative from LD10 in 2020, and today she is running for the State Senate seat in LD10, formerly occupied by Kirsten Engel. Hamilton is: One of the most progressive legislators in Arizona, according to Progress Arizona.The Regional Lead for Save Our [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-09-15T11:51:39-07:00September 14th, 2021|Elections, State Senator|

Rep. Daniel Hernandez Calls for Progressive Action in Run for Congress

State Rep. Daniel Hernandez (D-LD2) is running for Congress in Tucson's CD2. The district is 27% Latino but has never had a Latino member of Congress, he pointed out at the September 30, 2021 meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. In the past, Hernandez ran the national Latino outreach program at Planned Parenthood and aims to bring Latino immigrants "from out of the shadows and into a pathway to citizenship." He supports HR1, the For the People Act, to protect Latino voting rights. His sister Alma Hernandez is also a state House member from LD3 and his other sister Consuelo [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-09-08T14:30:40-07:00September 6th, 2021|Local Candidates and Electeds, US Congress|

Supervisor Rex Scott Recaps Challenges of First 7 Months in Office

https://youtu.be/GW7VXusCRuc Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott took office in January, at the height of the Covid pandemic, and immediately had to confront issues regarding evictions, childhood education, county roads, affordable housing, redistricting, and higher water prices. Speaking at the LD9 meeting on August 24, 2021, he recounted how he solved most of the issues. The hot potato was the controversial move by the city of Tucson to hike water rates unilaterally on June 22 on people living in unincorporated Pima County. The abrupt action kicked rates up to 40% higher per month for 400,000 people living outside the city. The Supervisors had [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-29T16:47:17-07:00August 29th, 2021|Education, Healthcare, Housing, Local Candidates and Electeds|

Luci Messing and David Lujan: Overturn New Tax Laws that Gut Education

Video editing by Anne Simmons. Invest In Arizona Now leaders Luci Messing and David Lujan called on voters to sign petitions to nullify three new state tax laws that cut hundreds of millions of dollars that fund public education. David Lujan led the successful effort to pass Prop. 208, the Invest In Ed ballot initiative, in 2020. Lujan is the Director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress. He is a former member of the state Senate and House of Representatives. Luci Messing is the Chair of the Education Council of the Arizona Democratic Party, serves on the Tanque Verde [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-25T15:41:08-07:00August 25th, 2021|Ballot Referenda and Initiatives|

Save Democracy! Be a Petition Circulator Now

We need Circulators. We have less than a month to collect the remaining signatures on our six different referenda. We are currently at about 10% of our goal in Southern Arizona, and the rate of return is increasing dramatically. The number of signatures increased by 79% in this past week. We need to recruit more circulators and create more tabling opportunities as quickly as possible. Please step up and help with this effort. Help put the three most egregious voter suppression bills, the three tax giveaways to the rich, and the initiative to make dark money transparent on the 2020 [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-23T16:40:33-07:00August 23rd, 2021|Education, Referendum|

Why You Should Sign All the Petitions

Have you seen volunteers carrying the six referendum petitions and the one initiative petition? All seven of these petitions are nonpartisan. Many thanks to the Democrats of Oro Valley for compiling this detailed information. If the new bills that they target go into law, all Arizona citizens will be adversely affected: AZ will lose almost $2 billion annuallySales taxes are raised to plug the shortfallServices may be cut by local governments and school boardsLegal voters will be purged from the early voter list and don’t receive their mail-in ballotsCounty election officials can’t use grant money to cover election shortfallsAn identifier is placed on your ballotThe [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-23T16:57:08-07:00August 23rd, 2021|Referendum|

Support New Districts for Democratic Justices of the Peace

JUSTICE of the PEACE Redistricting Please email the Board of Supervisors before Sept.7th! The Pima County Supervisors will vote on Justice of the Peace redistricting Sept. 7 (or 21). They will vote for 1 of 3 maps. Option 1 is the only Democratic map. We oppose Option 2 & 3 which are Republican maps. Please email each Democratic Supervisor to ask for their vote for Option 1 which brings equal population & fairer representation to the JPs. ARGUMENTS to Use in your Email: Equal Representation, should be at the heart of redistricting. Only Option 1 meets this criteriaby creating nearly [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-23T18:11:41-07:00August 21st, 2021|Elections|

Councilman Richard Fimbres on the Renaissance of Ward 5

Video editing by Anne Simmons. Democratic Richard Fimbres is a member of the Tucson City Council representing Ward 5, where he is a lifelong resident. He was first elected in 2009 and is running unopposed in the November 2, 2021 election. Richard is running to continue his work as the Ward 5 Council Member, continuing the Renaissance of Ward 5 and the Southside. During his time as your Ward 5 Council Member, Richard Fimbres has worked to: Open businesses in Ward 5 and create 14,000 jobs;Bring GEICO’s Regional Office, Dave & Busters, Costco, Curacao, CenturyMark 14 Theatre, Amazon Distribution Center, APAC Pharmaceutical [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-20T19:39:03-07:00August 19th, 2021|Tucson|

Assessor Suzanne Droubie Fights to Use Bilingual Forms and Website

Video Editing by Anne Simons. Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie pledge to fight to make the office's forms and website bilingual. Droubie, who spoke at the August 9, 2021 meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson, that the state Department of Revenue told her all documents must be in English. Article 28 of the Arizona state constitution was approved by voters in 2006 and makes English the official state language, even though 29% of Arizonans are Hispanic. Article 28 also provides, "Official actions shall be conducted in English." "To me, it's a discriminatory article that was put in place to disenfranchise [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-12T14:38:35-07:00August 12th, 2021|Local Candidates and Electeds|