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The Democratic state committee met Saturday at the University of Arizona. In a rushed session, caused by a strict 5 p.m. deadline to clear out, the party was able to pass some changes to bylaws, and party chair Robert Branscomb acknowledged a petition to take a vote on his potential ouster.

The special meeting to consider the petition should take place by June 28 under the party’s bylaws, but first Branscomb is asking for verification of the signatures provided by Steven Jackson, who is chair of the Legislative District 8 Democrats, in Phoenix’s East Valley.

When the meeting occurs, at least two thirds of the state committee’s approximately 700 members would have to vote to remove in order for Branscomb to be ousted.

Jackson cites the lack of fundraising by the party, Branscomb’s attempted ouster of the party’s first vice chair, Kim Khoury, and other factors in pushing for the vote. An email from Branscomb, criticizing the party’s U.S. senators and exposing internal conflict, ignited the debate over his performance in April.

“There’s been no reflection, there’s been no change. There’s been no difference. He hasn’t started fundraising,� Jackson said Wednesday.

Kaycee Campbell, vice president of the Maricopa County Young Democrats, is among some who have accused Branscomb’s opponents of racism. Branscomb is black.

“The unfair, unjust, racist, anti-Black actions taken to remove all dually elected Chair is an egregious abuse of power,� she said in an email.

The party also got an update on its financial position, and it’s not great. The party had around $1.5 million to start the year and is down by several hundred thousand, on a trajectory to run out of money by the end of the year.

Before the clock ran out on the meeting, the members did manage to pass a few bylaw changes. in Democratic primaries. The party accepted preliminary language and is working to finalize it at a future meeting.

“There are some people who without reservation accept that sort of money,� said Eric Robbins, chair of the Pima County Democratic Party and the state’s council of party chairs. With this, he said, “Democrats can opt to take a pledge to get dark money out of our primaries.�

RTA NDAs

The firing of Executive Director Farhad Moghimi naturally stole the headlines at the June 5 meeting of the Pima Association of Governments and Regional Transportation Authority board.

But before that was taken, a former PAG employee, of the organization’s practices under Moghimi that the board may consider changing as soon as at it’s Monday meeting.

During a call to the audience, Lawson told the board that she worked for 11 years at PAG before retiring in April, 2023. When called in to human resources to fill out the separation agreement, she was asked to sign a document that would allow her to receive “thousands of dollars� in unpaid time off.

But it also restricted her rights to criticize PAG or the RTA publicly, or to serve on any citizens committee associated with the group. Part of the separation agreement reads:

“Following the separation date below the employee is expected to act in a way that would not be detrimental to the organization or its interests in any way. Furthermore, the employee shall refrain from conduct such as but not limited to conduct that would damage the reputation of the organization, any employee of the organization or be detrimental to the interests of the organization.�

Lawson said she didn’t sign it.

“I gave up thousands of dollars from accrued PTO so I could retain my First Amendment rights to speak freely about important issues facing this community.�

Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz, who pushed for Moghimi’s firing, said he’s asked for the issue to be on the agenda at Monday’s PAG/RTA meeting. He doesn’t know how many former employees signed away their rights to criticize PAG and RTA in order to get payouts of accrued money.

Mexican mayor loses US visa

U.S. officials have revoked the tourist visa belonging to the mayor of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexican news media reported this week.

Mayor Oscar Castro was attempting to enter the United States from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora Tuesday when U.S. border officials seized his visa and those of his family members in the car, . He is the latest in a series of Mexican elected officials to have their visas revoked.

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have also revoked the visas of , as well as . in May that U.S. officials have assembled a list of elected officials who may be linked to the drug trade.

In Castro’s case, the officials said that the revocation occurred because of an ongoing investigation, La Jornada reported, citing sources close to the mayor.