According to the latest Rasmussen poll of 510 likely Republican primary voters, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is the clear leader for the Republican nomination for governor.
Poll results show 26% of Republican voters supporting Jan Brewer with millionaire Buz Mills, who has spent over $1.2 million on TV ads in second place , 8 points behind Brewer with 18% support.
Former Arizona Board of Regents president John Munger of Tucson improved his support with Republican voters and came in third with 14% support, up from 10% in March.
Arizona Treasurer Dean Martin has dropped from third to fourth place with 12% support, down from 21% in March.
Brewer became governor when former Governor Janet Napolitano resigned in January 2009 and went to Washington to serve as President Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security.
After taking the oath of office, Brewer was confronted with a state budget out of balance with increased spending and reduced revenue.
Brewer showed she had the guts to govern and immediately went to work to craft a solution which required very large and unpopular reductions in state spending.
Jan Brewer accepted reality, budget cuts alone would not be enough to balance the budget, and she announced that nothing was off the table, including the need to increase revenue to the state in order to provide a minimum of essential governmental services and a balanced budget. Some Republican members of the legislature didn't want to accept reality however, they would not under any circumstances vote to increase any tax regardless of how serious the budget situation was for Arizona.
Republicans by nature are for less government and less taxes and that has been the position of Jan Brewer throughout her long career in public service.
When Napolitano went to Washington she left Brewer with the tab for years of a growing state budget and no way to pay for it without large tax increases. Brewer is not one to pass the buck however and sponsored a plan that was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as, "a budget breakthrough for state government and an alternative to the California tax and spend model."
The plan was to repeal the hated tax on business property, provide one of the largest corporate tax cuts in the nation from 6.97% to 4.86%, and cut all individual income tax rates by 6.6%. Those cuts would have stimulated economic growth in Arizona and in the long run would have increased revenue to the state. To handle the immediate problem of inadequate income to balance the budget, in addition to massive cuts, the governor and Republican legislative leadership agreed to refer a temporary one cent sales tax increase to the voters.
The Arizona House of Representatives approved the plan but when the legislation got to the Arizona Senate, it ran into serious trouble. Two extremist and irresponsible Republican Senators, Pamela Gorman and Ron Gould, broke ranks with the GOP and voted with the Democrats against the sales tax referral, which killed the Republican budget agreement.
Gorman resigned as the Republican Senate Whip and later resigned from the Arizona Senate to run full time for the congressional seat held by retiring Congressman John Shadegg.
Ron Gould is still making noise in the Senate but has been removed from any leadership position.
Brewer stuck to her guns and eventually the Arizona Legislature accepted reality and referred the temporary sales tax increase to the voters to decide.
While Brewer was displaying extraordinary political courage by putting the people of Arizona before herself and fighting for the unpopular but necessary sales tax increase, other Republicans were taking advantage of the situation and putting themselves first in an attempt to advance their own political careers.
No one wants a tax increase, not you, not me, and certainly not Jan Brewer, but the state budget must be balanced and the people will tolerate only a certain amount of cuts in state services. Brewer has had to make the tough decisions on what to cut and by how much and how to enhance state revenue without taking too much from the taxpayers. She decided to ask the voters for a penny increase in the sales tax temporarily to help fund; education, health and, public safety.
Mills, Munger and Martin, have decided to show no leadership and attacked Brewer for having the courage to lead, telling the people the truth, and doing what is necessary to solve Arizona's budget crisis. The 3M candidates, Mills, Munger, and Martin have showed that they are Missing what Brewer has, the guts to govern and make the tough decisions a governor must make.
On this one issue alone, Brewer has proven that she is the only candidate worth supporting for governor and head and shoulders above the 3M candidates who attack her for providing the leadership Arizona needs.
Mills, Munger, and Martin have decided on a campaign strategy of telling the loudest and most radical what they want to hear, stick their heads in the sand and offer no leadership or real solution to the current budget crisis.
Their do nothing strategy doesn't seem to be working.
Bob Haran,
American Conservative Republican
