On Saturday, January 10th, Precinct Committee Members of the Pima County Democratic Party met for their bi-annual reorganizational meeting to elect the Party’s new Officers and State Committee members.
Topping the agenda was the election of a new chairman. Dr. Randy Friese’s campaign manager Cheryl Cage was chosen to replace outgoing Chairman Don Jorgensen, who has served in the the post since 2013.
“I am honored to have the confidence of so many dedicated, hard working Democrats. As Chair, my focus will be to expand and strengthen our grassroots efforts, recruit candidates for all levels of public office and ensure we have the financial means to put these plans into action,” said Cage. “The Pima County Democratic Party is a strong and vibrant organization and I thank Don Jorgensen for his tremendous leadership over the past two years.”
“I am delighted that Pima County Dems have elected Cheryl Cage as our new Chair. I look forward to working with her to reelect our Mayor and Council members this year and continuing to speak out on issues that matter to Southern Arizonans,” said former Chair Don Jorgensen.
The Pima County Democratic Party is in disarray. Friese beat out former Representative Ethan Orr only due to the same type of disarray in the Republican Party. In that case, failed former State Senator Frank Antenori and his partner Christine Bauserman of the Alliance of Principled Conservatives, which is anything but principled, defied the basic principle of not eating your own and targeted Orr for ousting.
Nowhere was the chaos in both parties was evident than in the CD2 race between Congressman Ron Barber (D) and Martha McSally (R). McSally narrowly beat Barber by 161 votes in a right-leaning district. The margin would have been closer had the Pima County Elections Department not improperly tossed out 131 votes for Barber.
Just this past election cycle, two prominent Latina legislators endorsed the Republican candidate for governor, due to the marginalization of women and pro-life Hispanics by the Arizona Democratic Party machine.
As the establishment in both parties become more obvious in their contempt for the grassroots, their numbers continue to shrink as independent ranks grow.