The PC Democratic Club welcomed Paul Johnson (left) and Larry Thomas (right) to their February meeting. They are seen here with PC Democratic Club President Vicki Barber. (Photo by Gillian Driscoll)
Gillian Driscoll
At their February meeting, the Pebblecreek Democratic Club welcomed speakers to inform members about two important issues that they hope will gain enough signatures to be on the ballot at the November General Election.
Members heard speeches from Larry Thomas about the proposed Arizona Abortion Access Act and from Paul Johnson on the Open Primaries proposal.
Larry Thomas explained the importance of the proposed Arizona Abortion Access Act. He has been working with the Legislative District fundraising committee on this issue. The proposed Act which will restore abortion rights in Arizona, is backed by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Currently there are 1000 volunteers in 50 hubs around the state collecting signatures to get this proposal on the November ballot. At this time they have collected 250,000 signatures. The goal is to gather 750,000 signatures to protect the proposal if a significant number of signatures are declared invalid. The ballot proposal petition must be turned in by July 3, 2024. Mr. Thomas stressed how important it is to get this proposal on the ballot so all Arizonans have an opportunity to vote on it.
Paul Johnson presented the proposal for open primaries in Arizona. Mr. Johnson was the youngest Mayor of Phoenix at the age of 24. He is now CEO of Redirect Health. He initiated the work on the banning of dark money from Arizona elections and is hoping the next step allowing open primaries will make the system better and more fair. A further step after establishing open primaries, allowing everyone to vote in all primaries, will be to introduce rank choice voting, a system designed to apportion votes more equitably between candidates. At present 70% of U.S. cities have open primaries and Mr. Johnson stressed his belief that it would be beneficial to extend this to the state in the future.
PebbleCreek Democratic members appreciated the information brought to them by these two speakers. It is vital to understand ballot proposals that will make life better for all Arizonans and to support them in order to get them out to voters in November.
The PebbleCreek Democratic Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month. The meeting in March will be on March 6. The meeting takes place in the ballroom of the Tuscany Falls Ballroom. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. and the meeting starts at 7 p.m. The meetings are open and all are welcome.
For more information, visit the club website at pcdemclub.org.