Other transcripts

Transcripts

September 27, 2002

Host: Michael Grant
Topics:
The "Journalists' Roundtable"
In-Studio Guests:
Paul Giblin , Scottsdale Tribune;
Doug McEachern, The Arizona Republic;
Barrett Marson, The East Valley Tribune

>> Michael: It's Friday, September 27th, 2002.

>>> Michael: In the headlines this week, President Bush came to Arizona today to raise money and stump for Republican candidates.

>>> Michael: Airlines are asking for more financial help from the federal government to deal with the costs associated with September 11th.

>>> Michael: Petitions to stop the new cardinals football stadium will soon be submitted in Glendale.

>>> Michael: Good evening, I'm Michael Grant, and this is the journalists' roundtable. Joining me to talk about these and other stories are Paul Giblin with the "Scottsdale Tribune"; Doug McEachern from "The Arizona Republic"; and Barrett Marson with "The East Valley Tribune." President Bush spent time in Arizona today stopping in Flagstaff and Phoenix on a political trip. Doug, what does the president's trip mean to the GOP?

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Well, it means a lot for a couple of people here in Arizona. But didn't he look great in the bomber jacket?

>> Michael: He did. It turns out with the weather, the inclement weather up in Flagstaff, it was fairly well chosen.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Nice touch up in Flag. It means a lot for Matt Salmon, of course. Matt is -- his campaign is dribbling dry and he certainly needs the money, and he certainly stands to make a 2 lot -- gain a lot contributionwise from this trip. The other one that certainly benefitted is Rick Rimsey up in Flagstaff and in the new district, CD-1, running for congress, who also spent a ton of money in the primary to clear the field, but is still a big unknown factor up there. He'll make a lot of money from this, too.

>> Michael: Barrett, as Doug pointed out, the timing on this thing, particularly for the Salmon campaign is pretty good, still fairly early and the -- the coffers have been dry.

>> Barrett Marson: The event is over. You can still hear the ka-chings going on. He had $30,000 in the bank after the primary. This is going to help him fight Janet with his own ads. Janet has been out there. She's got ads running now. This will help him counter those. Just add to his coffers now.

>> Michael: Meanwhile back in Flagstaff, the president talking about forest management techniques and looking forward to working with congressman Rick Rimsey in Congressional District 1. This week, sort of an interesting development on the other side of that race, George Cordova, the Democratic nominee for the seat and the Democratic National Committee expressing not a lot of enthusiasm for the candidacy.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: The national Democrats are slow to react. They didn't expect Cordova to be the nominee here. They saw one of two likely 3 candidates, Steve Udall or Fred Duval, and neither of those made the cut. So Cordova is a bit of an unknown. It's taking a little bit of gearing up. I'm sure it's a vital seat. It's still clearly very much up for grabs, despite the fact that Cordova is more of an unknown than the other two had been. So I anticipate that once they get rolling, they'll put more resources in it pretty quickly.

>> Michael: Although Democrats hold an advantage in that CD, it's been a target for both sides, and it's a conservative district, Barrett. It's clearly winnable by a Republican, clearly winnable by the Democrat.

>> Barrett Marson: That is certainly the thought going in when this district was drawn up, one that would be rural and two that it be competitive, and it certainly is. The Democrats are very conservative. So the right Republican can win despite the fact that the Democrats have the advantage.

>> Michael: Meanwhile, back in Phoenix, President Bush's speaking, seemed comfortable, conversational?

>> Doug Mac Eachern: It's a relative thing to say that George Bush is a good speaker, but listening to the speech delivered today, he tried to inject, as he always does, his down-home Texas vernacular, but he seems to have a better projection than he did, certainly on the campaign trail when it was first running. He seems much more comfortable in making his presentations and 4 all of the issues that he's dealt with, that he dealt with in the speech today are issues that he's touched on plenty of times.

>> Michael: One of the things that fascinates me about a presidential trip anyplace is how the Whitehouse staff localizes the speech. It truly is amazing, bringing in the forest management techniques, talking about Senator Kyl being on the judiciary committee and his judicial nominee has been having trouble in the senate. It really is -- it's a masterful operation to watch.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: He touched all of the local bases he had to. He mentioned not only Kyl, but John McCain very favorably several times, and he mentioned Jane Hull in a favorable way.

>> Michael: He worked with her as Arizona Governor and Texas Governor.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: And of course, he mentioned the heck out of Matt Salmon.

>> Michael: The man of the hour.

>>> Michael: Well, speaking of Matt Salmon, gubernatorial debate on radio this week, Barrett, was pretty sharp conflicts and contrasts between the candidates?

>> Barrett Marson: Listening to that debate, you at least got the impression that each of the candidates knew what they were talking about and seemed fairly competent and assured of themselves, which hasn't always been the case in gubernatorial debates here. But you know, we saw some good fireworks between Matt and Janet, really some defendable lines that they are drawing and over the next about two months or month and a half, I think it's going to be pretty exciting, especially the more debates we get into.

>> Michael: I think you saw, obviously, the strategies of both campaigns. Janet Napolitano trying to tie Matt Salmon to Jane Hull, Fife Symington to Ev Mecham. Matt Salmon painting Napolitano as a big spending liberal.

>> Barrett Marson: After the debate the big news came out that Janet talked about the failed Republican policy of the last decade or so. But afterwards is when they really nailed her on what were those policies, and it was the tax cuts, the income tax cuts and such.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: You know, the dynamics are getting to be fascinating. There was a lively debate as Barrett said. You've got -- you've got some great zingers in there. Dick Mahoney is wonderful, interjecting his perspective into this. Barry Hess had great lines, which is rare for a Libertarian.

>> Michael: All of them were at the top of their form.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Yeah, they were. And the interesting thing is, one of the issues that Janet certainly is justifiably, I think, attacking now is his list of clients from his consulting business. I think something well worth pursuing. There is a flip side to that and Matt alluded to it. He didn't attack it head on, and I think it's something he's going to be working on in coming races and that is you were a private attorney once, too, and you represented Anita Hill. Who paid the bills there? Those are questions that I'm sure are going to be asked sometime.

>> Paul Giblin: Interesting in the last poll though, Dick Mahoney, who you mentioned, didn't do well. He is polling 3%. I believe some people thought he had more of a force. It doesn't seem like that's happening so far. Any thoughts on that?

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Well, the polls show Dick surprisingly low.

>> Michael: I was expecting high single digit numbers maybe, maybe something in the vicinity of 8% or so.

>> Barrett Marson: The thing is, he has the money. He got $700,000 and change. He's got every corner -- street corner has a Dick Mahoney sign and he's got his nice, beautiful mug on there. One would think his numbers would be higher from face recognition.

>> Paul Giblin: Is there any possibility that the debates -- with more debates he'll get higher numbers?

>> Doug Mac Eachern: I think so. There has been issues that have lifted Matt and Janet to the surface. Apart from the campaign, there is the convict thing that Janet -- a lot of issues that Janet has had her face in, and Matt as well. And certainly, you know, the president's presence here doesn't hurt him. I think Mahoney will have more of an effect later on in the campaign.

>> Michael: Ironically enough, the president's appearance here 7 does help indirectly Janet Napolitano?

>> Barrett Marson: They'll get more money. The more money Matt raises, the more money Janet gets and Mahoney, the more money he gets. They are rooting for him to raise that money.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: The clean elections -- the rules have changed in the general election, and it's a convoluted strained system that I fully admit I haven't entirely grasped. And she'll be telling them, get all of the money you want because I want to get some, too.

>> Michael: She wished them luck. They hope to raise a lot of money. Well, moving to the gaming propositions, Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross coming out against Prop 201 this week.

>> Paul Giblin: There is concern from mothers that if gaming were to move to the racetracks, that would open the doors for other businessmen who aren't affiliated with the Indian tribes to say, fairness is fairness, if the tracks can do it, why can't I do it in my big downtown Scottsdale resort. If one resort gets it, the next will get it and the next will get it, and it could change the complexion of the tourism industry in the state and the complexion of the entire state. That's their concern.

>> Michael: I thought it was an interesting continuation for the theme of the City of Scottsdale, too, because they very peacefully co-existed with the Pimas there in relation to the gaming issue when the Pimas ran the proposition a few years back. Scottsdale said sure, that's fine.

>> Paul Giblin: It's a small amount, and they are able to attract a different market as far as tourism. Gaming gets its market, and Scottsdale's market is old west character and luxury accommodations, that sort of thing. They are distinct. If gambling were to go to the tracks and spread from there, it could change everything.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: This is one of the first examples of issues apart from the advertising that you've seen that are underneath these three propositions, these three ballot initiatives. There's -- I think -- up until now, voters -- these have been defined by Prop 200 promising 18,000 scholarships and the tracks promising to reduce the deficit of the state, but there are others who, like you say, Paul, they are out there.

>> Paul Giblin: You raise a good point because most of these things are unknown. The people we were asking this week don't know the answers. Very likely they will have to go through the court, and you know how that is, predicting how that will happen.

>> Michael: What did we find out about Joe Arizona?

>> Barrett Marson: We know he lives in Arizona, but that's the only thing we know about him right now, whether it's the Grand Canyon or state park in Utah, those commercials, we're still not quite sure what he's depicting in his commercials. It only helps lead to the confusion in the general gaming proposition anyway.

>> Paul Giblin: I'm wondering if Joe Arizona is related to Joe Isuzu, the liar.

>> Michael: Senator Verkamp ran into trouble in Scottsdale this week, Paul?

>> Paul Giblin: Well, one of those components of the tourism industry is there is a lot of bars out there. He was traveling with a companion who was pulled over for DUI. He wanted to express his thoughts to the police rather forcefully and got arrested. He is on his way out of office because he is not running.

>> Barrett Marson: Did he ask the officer, do you know who I am?

>> Paul Giblin: No.

>> Michael: We finally finalized a few trailing election results from the primary this week, Barrett. What happened in the senate race in District 11? Representative Leff will move up. She defeated Senator Gerrard by 1160 votes. A very tight race. It was a dirty race, a little bit. There was a lot of attack ads in that race. But the -- Leff did come out victorious in that one.

>> Michael: And the Libertarian also had a recount?

>> Barrett Marson: Libertarian Barry Hess came out.

>> Michael: It does occur to me, Doug, that the recount process, obviously, is written into the statute? It's what, 50 votes for the legislature, and 300 or so for -- 200 for statewide office demanding an automatic recount. But with today's ballots, you wonder if an automatic recount really makes a whole lot of sense at this point in time. It's not like the old days when maybe somebody counted it up wrong and said, oh, I'm sorry, that was a yes block there, not a no block, that kind of thing.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Well, yeah, with the election result that really comes so quickly or electronically tabulated, clearly people don't go through ballots hand by hand when they are counting them, at least not the first time. So, yeah, I honestly was very surprised that it took as long as it did to finally come to the conclusion about Leff.

>> Paul Giblin: Part of the issue, in most places you mark the ballot with a black magic marker and machines read that automatically, but people who don't put a big black line, the machines sometimes don't read those. Those are the ones they are counting.

>> Barrett Marson: Use your number two pencil.

>> Michael: In the year since the September 11th attacks on America, the American airline industry has been hit with extra costs associated with increased security. What are the airlines asking the government to do about it?

>> Paul Giblin: They are asking for a lot. It looks like the airlines are coming out of last year's problems not so fast. The airlines are asking for more funding to help with security. They contend this is a federal issue, not a privatized issue, which security has been in the past. So they are asking for more money for security. They want the government to help out with war insurance, with thought there could be another war coming up, it could bankrupt a couple of airlines, maybe some close to us here in Arizona.

>> Michael: I was going to say that the speculation continues about America West. How solid do you think speculation is?

>> Paul Giblin: Hard to judge. Their stock did poorly. All airline stocks did poorly. War would hurt them and drive up fuel prices, which is a major component for airlines. So all of the stocks are coming down, came down today, Dow Jones fell 300, so we're seeing the industry take another dive.

>> Michael: Obviously, the federal government stepped forward with just a ton of bucks last year, Paul, for airline industry relief. You wonder if we're getting into a vicious cycle here?

>> Paul Giblin: You wonder that initially, but when you look at the economy, by and large, we really have adapted to airlines. People, executives fly back and forth all over the place. In our community where we have so much high tech, a lot of that high tech is manufactured here but used elsewhere, and that's done by airlines because of the short order times. So airlines really are a greater part of the global economy than you might think than it was even 20 years ago before deregulation.

>> Michael: Barrett, City of Tempe teaming with Cave Creek and carefree in the dispute over the new flight paths into and out of Sky Harbor Airport?

>> Barrett Marson: Right. A unified voice is better than two separate voices, and it combines two separate court cases, and you've got to figure a judge will like that any time he can cut his workload in half. So Tempe is pretty confident that these will be combined, though the FAA opposes this. They would rather see the divide and conquer rule stand there.

>> Michael: They also maintain that there are substantially different issues in the two cases, which would make some sense. I mean, obviously Tempe is right at the end of the runway, Carefree and Cave Creek are a little remote.

>> Barrett Marson: And I think there is a potential for eventually down the road where Tempe's wishes may clash with what Carefree and Cave Creek would like, because you're right. Cave Creek and Carefree want to limit the amount of flights over there. Tempe wants to limit the amount of flights period out of Sky Harbor, so, eventually, I think, there will be some clashing, but right now, they are willing to at least show some unified front there.

>> Michael: Another transportation related development, Doug. What happened with Ford's Crown Victoria?

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Well, a good thing happened actually. The issue is settled without spending four or five years in court. At least it is to this point -- it's like they are working toward a really, I think, fair resolution of the problem. Fair in the respect that it addresses the issues that are affecting the cops on the street. They spent 90 days looking into what the problems are. They haven't -- they don't know for a fact what -- what's causing squad cars in Arizona to explode on impact, but they think they've identified some of the problems. They are going to fix it. They're going to put a special luggage pack in the trunk that the cops can put their gear in, and they think that can help the issue.

>> Michael: How confident are they in some of the solutions? Because I know, for example, some of the things that they have looked at, both sides from time to time, have indicated that they are not quite sure it would actually solve the problem.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: They've only been looking at this since late June. That's when the blue ribbon panel got together and when the technical group started looking into it. So 90 days is not a lot of time to really resolve this issue with any kind of certainty. So they are going to continue looking into it until the end of the year. That's when they're going to issue their final report, but as for right now, Ford is going to spend, I think, an estimated $50 million to fix all of the problems. They are not admitting that there is anything wrong with the car, which is what you would expect. This is a very touchy legal area right there, of course, but they're going to take steps to fix cars, and I think hopefully they'll make them safer for the police.

>> Barrett Marson: The bad publicity has scared away Tempe, for instance. They are probably going to switch to the Malibu. They'll retrofit current cars, but they are not going to buy any more Crown Vics.

>> Michael: Finally in this segment, how much money is the coast guard going to spend with General Dynamics?

>> Paul Giblin: A big chunk of change. $611 million. Most of the that money will be spent here in Scottsdale in the south Scottsdale plant. Obviously our headlines for the past year, year and a half talked about layoffs and business drying up and going away, like the airlines. General Dynamics might do hiring because of this work. It's government work, it's good work, of course, but you would like to see private sector business picking up as well, but heck, $611 million, government or not, that's good work.

>> Michael: Pardon the expression, "any port in the storm".

>> Paul Giblin: That's right.

>> Michael: Opponents of the proposed Cardinal stadium are preparing to turn in petitions to stop it. Barrett, there is a presidential visit twist to this story?

>> Barrett Marson: I'm not quite sure how much publicity Tim Weaver thought he was going to get, but he didn't want that publicity to clash with the president's visit here, so he delayed it until Monday so he can have all of the page 1 space, I guess.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: That's what we think. We balance Tim Weaver, Libertarians in Glendale and President Bush and the rest of the state.

>> Barrett Marson: Well, anyway, I'm sure it'll get the exact same amount of news space, but he claims he has the amount of signatures needed for a referendum in Glendale on the stadium. It will end up in court because Glendale says it's not referrible and Tim Weaver believes it is, and so we'll find out, but Glendale is pretty confident that what they've done is an administrative act and not subject to the referendum.

>> Paul Giblin: Glendale has the strangest city government I've ever seen in the entire Valley. There is no public discussion. There is no justifying votes. Their meetings are a joke. It's incredible what Glendale has done with this and the hockey arena.

>> Barrett Marson: They didn't have one public city council meeting where they discussed the stadium.

>> Paul Giblin: What they do is they have a vote with no discussion. They end the meeting as quickly as they can and shake hands and get autographed jerseys put on their back. It's a joke of a government.

>> Michael: What's your point?

>> Paul Giblin: My point is, there is a very good chance that this could be overturned. Why not? I mean, we don't have to go on about the TSA and how they don't make friends --

>> Michael: Maybe so, but I'm just looking at it as an outsider. I haven't seen the frothing public resentment in Glendale that I've seen in a variety of other places.

>> Barrett Marson: Not only that, it's easy to get signatures, even if this does qualify. But you're right. Glendale is not Mesa. Glendale wants the stadium. If they were to hold an election in March of 2003, it would probably pass. Meanwhile, John F. Long is preventing the TSA from doing anything anyway.

>> Paul Giblin: This could ferment with John F. Long delaying it. So if this thing ferments for another year while John F. Long keeps it in the courts, who knows. They might read the documents and find out how much this thing is actually going to cost them.

>> Michael: City of Tempe has got religion. They would like a statewide smoking ban?

>> Barrett Marson: It's not religion. They've seen the tax receipts, and they would like to see -- all of a sudden they are big believers here.

>> Michael: Is there a level playing field?

>> Barrett Marson: They want it so level. They don't want any -- the bars are down 16%, 20% in revenues since the implementation of the smoking ban, and Dr. Fairbanks moved onto Chandler and dabbling in Scottsdale. But Tempe is realizing we need to move the process on a little bit.

>> Paul Giblin: It makes sense if you have a smoking ban you do it statewide or by metro area for the very reason you mentioned there.

>> Michael: Doug, it was a tribal water rights bill that got filed this week.

>> Doug Mac Eachern: Well, it was an issue that seems to have gotten -- come in under the radar screen, but Senator Kyl and McCain have jointly introduced some legislation that would settle a great deal of the water debate here in Arizona. The tribes, particularly the Gila River tribe, would do extraordinarily well, which gives you some indication of how desperate Arizona in general is to keep water from going to California. But one other aspect of this legislation is that it would give $700 million of the Central Arizona Project which is even by federal standards, a good chunk of change.

>> Michael: It's a fairly significant development on a variety of fronts, not the least of which is stability on a going forward basis.

>> Barrett Marson: Not only that, cities can go to the Gilas and start buying or leasing that water. A side note, speaking of the stadium, this is going to bring Mesa and Gila River closer together after the two of them were opponents in the stadium contest. So that'll be another side benefit, but this is important to Mesa. It's important to much of the valley, to get that water and get that -- knowing where their water is going to come from for next 30 years as we continue to grow.

>> Michael: Okay, panelists thanks for the input.

>>> To see a transcript of tonight's show or share your views or contact us, visit the Channel 8 Web site at www.kaet.asu.edu. Click on "Horizon" on the left side of the screen and follow those links.

>>> Join us Monday on "Horizon" for a look at proposition 202, the gaming initiative, sponsored by 17 tribes in our state. Also on Monday, Indian gaming measures expected to increase Native American turnout. We'll talk about what impact that might have on the elections.

>>> Tuesday, a look at two propositions, first a debate on Proposition 301 which would continue the State's lottery for another 10 years, then we'll tell you more about Proposition 303, which would increase tobacco taxes to pay for health services.

>>> Wednesday, an update on the problem with Arizona's clean election system.

>>> And Thursday another ballot measure, Proposition 304, which would give lawmakers a pay raise.

>>> All of that and more next week on "Horizon."

>>> Thanks for joining us on a Friday. Have a great weekend. I'm Michael Grant. Good night.