November 22, 2006 - It's one thing to lose an election. It's another to not have the foggiest notion why. Here's some of the most clueless folks in Arizona:

The Center for Arizona Policy

This often canny conservative organization totally over-reached with the gubernatorial candidacy of its founder, Len Munsil, and its efforts to ban same-sex marriage constitutionally and add a provision about civil unions. There was no way Munsil was going to take out a popular Democrat governor with the pittance provided by a "clean" election campaign. He had a good organization that barely beat buffoon Don Goldwater in the primary.

The Prop. 107 ploy was designed to jack up voter turnout among conservative Christians. The problem was it also jacked up the turnout on the other side who were smart enough to run against it by claiming it had consequences for those other than gays. That worked when the pro 107 campaign did nothing to counter their often erroneous claims. (Example: Gay or straight, a "domestic partners" list won't get you any hospital visitations in jurisdictions not recognizing it. You still need a medical power of attorney.)

Proponents claim they had no money. Then why put it on the ballot if you couldn't back it up? Time to fire that consultant.

The Tobacco Lobby

It spent millions losing Prop. 206 in an attempt to beat 201. It would have been smarter and more credible just running against it and Prop. 203, the 80-cent-a-pack tax hike to provide middle class babysitting. Groups besides bar owners would've helped but their overpaid, out-of-town consultants had no clue who or where they were.

The Arizona and Pima County GOP

The much-vaunted GOP get-out-the-vote effort consisted of little more than robocalls to Republican voters from John McCain. Candidates, even incumbents with problems, had unanswered phone calls to state HQ and voter lists lacking data. Their mailers were competent, but mailing universes were questionable and late.

The GOP's loss of CD8 and LD26 were caused partly by an ineffective ground game, which is hard to do when you have few precinct committee people. Candidates like Al Melvin waited for that "sleeping giant" of conservative voters while their inept consultants ignored delivering to media - like this paper - the damaging fact that Senator-elect Charlene Pesquiera never voted before 2006. What did the GOP and candidate hired guns know and when did they know it and, why did they wait to use it?

Mark Osterloh

After his Mickey Mouse idea to make voting a lottery was overwhelmingly crushed, he says he's encouraged it did so well and can't wait to try again. Now that's clueless. Please remember this is the guy who designed and paid for the "clean elections" process.

Political Commentators

Ranging from the Arizona Daily Star's Ernesto Portillo, who thinks the Minutemen lost big because Randy Graf and J.D. Hayworth went down yet ignores four hardball anti-illegals ballot measures that passed big, to all of us, including me, for not catching Pesquiera's lack of responsibility. Media cluelessness was over abundant.

The Tucson Weekly

The Weekly is having an identity crisis or it wouldn't have published a cover story devoted to asking about itself.

In the Golden Days of Editor Dan Huff when everybody read the Skinny to see who was targeted, there were no favorites. Nobody worried about being liked or offending industry colleagues. Dan was to the left of the current crew but he didn't play apologist for phony liberal Democrats. The TW has since drifted into just another establishment liberal rag, slobbering over petulant airheads like Congresswoman-elect Gabby Giffords.

Claiming to be an alternative newspaper (which the TW defines itself as) means more than running a couple of lefty columnists, using dirty words and taking ads from hookers. You have to know to what you're the alternative.

Huff loved that great old-time progressive and alternative media originator Sam Smith. Sam understood the difference between liberals and progressives, and noted that a paper calling itself "alternative journalism" is really just an alternative advertising device. TW, go for hard targets others don't besides obvious conservatives. Quit going along with establishment crap like road sales taxes. And most important of all: Try scaring somebody again.

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EMIL FRANZI

EMAIL FRANZI

BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY!

About Emil Franzi

Emil Franzi is the owner and host of "Inside Track" on KVOI - 690AM and KAPR - 930AM in Douglas. The program airs on Saturdays from 12 pm till 5 pm.

Franzi currently writes a weekly column for the EXPLORER (formerly the NORTHWEST EXPLORER). He filled the TUCSON WEEKLY with close to a million relevant words from 1993 to 2004 and was an OpEd regular with the Az Daily Star from 1994 to 1998. His writing has also appeared in PHOENIX Magazine, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, and the late CITY MAGAZINE in Tucson.

But then, Franzi is an iconoclast.

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