Anyone but Terry Goddard

This blog isn't a political blog, per se, although to the extent that "character matters," you can learn a lot about a person's character by their actions. So I want to tell you why you may not want to vote for Terry Goddard for governor tomorrow.

Aside from the Liberal / Conservative divide, you need to remember that Governors, like Presidents, select judges. It doesn't happen very often, so we tend to forget they do it. But, for example, it happened recently in Yavapai County, when Governor Brewer selected a replacement judge for the former judge hinson.

While judges in Arizona aren't set for life as they are in the Federal gov't, judges in Arizona are almost as good as set for life. Whether elected or retained, have you ever heard of a judge being kicked out by the electorate once they're in office? No.

So what's my beef with Terry Goddard?

Well, he was (and still is) State Attorney General.

He's been trying to garner publicity by announcing the arrest of the Nogales mayor. Didn't we pass a law requiring politicians to resign from office when running for another office so they couldn't (mis)use their office to get free publicity? (Yes.)

So, first, he's not obeying our "resign-to-run" law. (Contrast this to Andrew Thomas who resigned to run.)

As it pertains here, he believes that judges are gods. (small "g.") See my post about this and the youtube video. That is always dangerous when you believe someone can do no wrong.

More specifically, Mr. Goddard has steadfastly refused to hold judges accountable. He has refused to criminally prosecute former judge hinson and he (his office) has refused to investigate Judge Mary Hamm for criminal tampering with a public record, possible witness tampering, etc. (I see I still need to post the responses from Mr. Goddard's office regarding my several requests to prosecute former judge hinson. There never was any prosecution, so you know what his responses were anyway.)

Contrast this to what Mr. Rick Romley said on PBS's Horizons program, that no one, including a judge, is above the law. (Video pending.) So we know what the right answer is. But Mr. Goddard has shown he's on the left.