Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (4599)	9/5/2003 3:31:04 PM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10965

With people like this ,Kerry won't have a chance Mario Diaz, a longtime political adviser and close aide to Gov. Janet Napolitano, is resigning a week after she admonished him for using his office to help coordinate a political training camp geared toward Latinos and other minorities. Diaz, the highest ranking Hispanic in the governor's administration, said he's leaving to run Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in Arizona. He said his departure has nothing to do with Camp Napolitano. The governor also reprimanded Diaz earlier this year for trying to pressure a state official to resign because he wouldn't change the name of Squaw Peak in Phoenix to Piestewa Peak. Diaz said Thursday that he had been contemplating leaving the Napolitano administration for two months. He said Kerry's staff approached him during a campaign swing through the state. "It was the right time to go," said Diaz, deputy chief of staff in charge of boards and commissions. "This had nothing to do with Camp Napolitano, which isn't a political function. It was supposed to be a program to empower Latinos, but we made it a program to empower everyone. How this has been distorted to be a political function is beyond me." Diaz said he could not pass up the opportunity to work with Kerry. Unique opportunity "I love the candidate. He stands for everything I stand for," Diaz said. "For a kid from East LA who came here with $25 in his pocket, to have the opportunity to direct a campaign for a presidential candidate, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." State law says that "improper political activity" and "misuse or unauthorized use of state property" are potential causes for discipline or dismissal for lower-level state employees. A Department of Commerce employee, Lydia Aranda, was chastised in July after she used her state computer to drum up support for Camp Napolitano. Earlier this week, The Arizona Republic requested records of staff e-mails regarding the role of Diaz and other state officials in promoting the camp. Phone records and dozens of e-mails obtained by The Republic show that Diaz and another Napolitano staff member, former lawmaker Earl Wilcox, used their offices to schedule and find a location for the workshops and that they congratulated Aranda for her work promoting the event. The e-mails also show Diaz and Wilcox kept Napolitano abreast of their work. Napolitano would not elaborate on how she admonished Diaz but said that the camp has been canceled and that she has instituted a new e-mail policy outlining do's and don'ts for top staff members. Napolitano said she was not informed on a daily or weekly basis about the workshops, which she did not consider overtly political. "What we are talking about is not running a political campaign from the Ninth Floor," Napolitano said. "It's nothing related to a candidate. This was an education program. In retrospect, it would be better not to run it out of the Ninth Floor." About Diaz's departure, she added, "Mario had been discussing moving onto a presidential campaign for some time. That time is now." In one July 9 e-mail to the event's private organizers, Wilcox said Napolitano requested changes to the event's promotional materials. Napolitano said her suggestion was to make the training a nonpartisan event, unlike in other states where similar seminars were geared toward Democrats. A June 30 e-mail said Wilcox suggested the three-day political event be hosted on the second floor of the Capitol executive tower. Top Republicans said Thursday that the e-mails showed a disturbing pattern by Napolitano's administration of injecting partisan politics into public service. Suspicions confirmed Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, said Diaz's involvement in Camp Napolitano confirms his "worst suspicions" about the administration's actions involving the camp. "Now, we've got people in the Governor's Office planning and directing this event. It seems they may have misrepresented that the Governor's Office knew nothing about it. It looks like they are cutting (Diaz) loose before the ship goes down," he said. But several Latino lawmakers jumped to the defense of the governor, Diaz and the goals of Camp Napolitano. "I never saw this as something to promote the governor's agenda," said Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. "We saw this as a nonpartisan way to encourage Latinos to get involved." Others pointed out that Aranda, the commerce employee disciplined for promoting the event, is a Republican. The weekend political camp was postponed because it was scheduled during the height of the gas crisis in late August, but Diaz said it has been canceled. Doug Cole, a top aide to former Republican Gov. Fife Symington, said the Diaz situation is just routine political shuffling by an administration. "Any actions of a political appointee will be construed as political," Cole said. "It's typical that campaign staff brought into a governor's office usually last a year. Mario Diaz is a very bright political mind, and he has served Governor Napolitano well." Diaz gained notoriety during the Piestewa Peak debate in April when he told geographic names board Chairman Tim Norton to resign after he refused to hear Napolitano's request to rename Squaw Peak after fallen Army soldier Lori Piestewa. The Hopi was the first known Native American woman killed in combat fighting for the United States. Diaz also called on Norton's boss at the Phoenix Police Department to press for Norton's resignation from the board. Diaz has been with Napolitano since her political career started in 1993 when President Clinton appointed her U.S. attorney for Arizona. Diaz ran her campaign for attorney general in 1998 and her gubernatorial campaign in 2002. azcentral.com