Governor Ducey And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

The Governor And His Allies Are Scared, And They Should Be

The #RedforEd movement in Arizona is picking up steam and gaining national traction as teachers demand higher wages as they make the lowest salaries in the country. Now, Governor Ducey has to defend authorizing substantial pay raises for his staff while leaving teachers at the bottom of the pile.

• KTAR: “Arizona educators, supporters protest Gov. Doug Ducey’s KTAR visit”
• KTVK: Teachers Protest Governor Ducey
• Fox 10: “Arizona teachers demand better pay, benefits during protest outside Phoenix radio station”
• Arizona Republic Headline: “Arizona educators stage #RedForEd protest outside Gov. Doug Ducey event”
• AZ Family: “Hundreds protest low teacher pay at Phoenix radio station”
• Arizona Republic: “”Schools and students are losing amazing teachers because they cannot keep up,” said Schafer, adding that he lives with three other teachers “to get by.”
• Arizona Republic Headline: “As Doug Ducey faces anger from teachers, supporters spend $1 million on education ads.”
• Arizona Republic, Diaz Column: “But the #RedforEd movement may rattle the governor’s confidence a bit. It would be a mistake not to see it as a serious threat to his re-election bid.”
• Arizona Republic, Roberts Column: “Actually, I agree with them. It doesn’t do anyone – especially a certain governor — any good if all we do is bad mouth what is happening in Arizona classrooms. We also have to properly fund Arizona’s classrooms.”
• 12 News Headline: “Verify: Ducey makes another false claim about superintendents and teacher raises.”

His fumbling response to #RedforEd, and fears of how it will affect his re-election, would be enough to ruin any politician’s week, but it gets worse. As students around the country called for more reforms to prevent gun violence, Governor Ducey tweeted about the Arizona Cardinals instead of meeting with concerned students.

• Arizona Republic, Montini Column Headline: Gov. Doug Ducey disses student protesters … lesson learned
• Deadspin Headline: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Tweets About The Cardinals While Students Camp Outside His Office To Discuss Gun Violence
• Phoenix New Times:  “On Thursday, in an announcement where the words “gun control” were notably absent, Governor Doug Ducey said that he’ll roll out a plan to address school safety.”
• Arizona Republic: “VIDEO: Students yell “Shame on Ducey” as they try to meet with the Governor today at the capitol”
• Arizona Capitol Times Reporter: “Students say they didn’t get to meet with @dougducey today, but say they will ‘remember in November.’”

And to cap it off, the Governor was slammed for his support of dark money and getting defrauded by Theranos and rushing their failed products to market.

• Arizona Republic, Roberts Column: Tempe voters say HELL NO to dark money. You listening, Gov. Ducey?
• Arizona Republic, Roberts Column: Why is Gov. Doug Ducey silent on Theranos’ ‘massive fraud’?

Whew. That’s one helluva terrible horrible no good very bad week. The good news for Governor Ducey is that it could always be worse, right?