I was at Arizona Best Fest to take pictures and spoke with Mr. Clark and the other activists about the recall.
Mr. Clark is upset with the way the Governor is running the state. As I was speaking with him, he said in regard to the anti-union bills currently in the State Senate, "Something came out on Google that the legislature is giving in and is going to placate her, supposedly on Wednesday or Thursday. She is going to meet with the committee. She has already broken the open meeting law. They didn't tell people. They were supposed to have the Democrats in there and other people from the public. They closed it.
"They are going to meet and apparently give her what she wants. And that is to get rid of the civil service protections for state jobs where she can just fire anyone she wants. In the old days, when a mayor was elected, all of the garbage men were fired. The new garbage men came in. They paid their bribe to keep their jobs. That is what she is going to bring back.
"And in return, she is going to help them get that horrible ban on collective bargaining law passed. Now they are going to say it is against the law. Police officers can't do it. Firemen can't do it. So they're saying she has not taken a stance. She has already had Scott Walker here in Arizona."
About the recent bill proposing allowing guns on college campuses, one volunteer stated "They really don't listen to people. That's the main thing I learned. There were the police departments, three heads of police with a combined 110 years of service on the campuses, written letters from Michael Crow and the presidents of NAU and U of A, representatives from the student bodies of all three major universities, gun violence victims, Republicans who were supporting gun laws, and people who were pro-second amendment but against what they were doing. The bill's supporters had one NRA representative and one other community representative. What do you think they voted? They let it pass. They disregarded thirty community members who were against it."
Mr. Clark replied that "She's already using the Obama picture. She has stars in her eyes. She might be thinking Vice-President, President, and she has big plans. I think by doing this, by putting a spotlight on it, I hope when people see us out here, they won't just say it's just Clark and his big mouth. We have people who are passionate who are going to go out there and recruit."
Another volunteer quipped, "Do we want a governor who is for the people or do we want a governor who trying to promote herself."
Mr. Clark replied, "By doing nothing, it is helping her. This is a big showdown. What if we don't do anything? They are watching around the country. Scott Walker and his goons will say "They're not going to resist."
"This is at least going to be symbolic. In Arizona, they've always felt like this is their personal fiefdom, meaning that the people who control our legislature have been able to shut us down. The way they shut us down is they gerrymander the districts. They weren't too happy about redistricting because finally, it looks like a Democrat has a good chance of winning in the new Congressional District 9. But they came out pretty good on the State Legislature.
"There is one way around their gerrymandering...recalls. And they can ask "Leonard, the people voted for her so why are you doing this?" But actually, a recall is a vote, okay? If enough Arizona citizens say we want this recall, guess what is going to happen? We'll have the vote. And that is what we are doing and we get around that gerrymandering."
Mr. Clark worked on a previous recall against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He stated that it was back "when people were really terrified. It got attention and it showed the world that we're not terrified of him."
The recall is generally regarded by many to be a very long shot. They will need to collect around 424,000 valid signatures by June 2nd.
Mr. Clark said that people have said to him that "they've tried it before and there isn't enough money. But what has happened in the last year is the Arab Spring on Facebook. We each get on there, a hundred people, not just you and me getting a hundred signatures. Go out and recruit ten more people on Facebook. And we'll have our own personal recall network."
By the time I left for the day, they had filled out pages of petitions as people noticed their signs and walked up to sign the recall. The recall volunteers plan to be at the Capitol all day Sunday as Arizona Best Fest continues.
For more information about the recall, you can visit http://www.recallbrewer.com to get Leonard Clark's contact information.
To view more photos of Arizona Fest, you can visit http://sandangel.smugmug.com/Category/02-11-2012-Arizona-Fest
