"Here we are headed back to court again to argue against a complaint about paid petition-gatherers that we didn't even hire," sighs an exasperated Kathy McKee, founder and chairman of Protect Arizona Now (PAN).  [The petition gatherers were hired, in fact, by Arno Political Consultants, a California firm retained by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)].  The lawsuit filed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has its second hearing on Wednesday, August 25, at  2 p.m. 

 States McKee, "While Secretary of State Jan Brewer and the Maricopa County Supervisors are named as the defendants, it's a blessing and a curse that I am named as PAN's Chairman 'The Real Party in Interest,' otherwise Arizonans would be in similar shape to what Californians faced when then-Governor Gray Davis refused to appeal a federal judge's invalidation of their Proposition 187.  A lot of people have bought into the lie that Prop 187 was appealed over and over again, all the way up to the Supreme Court, and then was declared unconstitutional.  That wasn't what happened at all.  The case was struck down by one U.S. District Judge, Mariana Praeizer, and new Governor Gray Davis killed Prop 187 by sending it to a mediation process that was not subject to legal review."

Fortunately, here, PAN is The Real Party in Interest, so while the Secretary of State represented by the Attorney General's office and the County Supervisors have indicated they are not going to defend the complaint against its merits (or in this instance, lack of merits), at least PAN has an avenue to fight for its initiative, the 192,000 people who signed it, and the 75-80% of the people in this state who support Protect Arizona NOW.  Unfortunately, we need lots more money to see this case through to the Supreme Court and keep it on the ballot, especially going up against two large out-of-state law firms, a local law firm, and government attorneys who won't even challenge the question of this union's standing to bring this case."

McKee views the SEIU suit as one more attempt to deflect attention from the issues that PAN addresses: voting by non-citizens, and taxpayer-funded welfare for persons ineligible to receive these benefits.  Adds McKee, "PAN's Proposition 200 just seeks enforcement of existing law, a goal supported by 3/4 of Arizonans.  The public is demanding that public officials with their own personal political agendas start fulfilling their oaths of office NOW, and that includes enforcing our laws.  Of course, we might not even be in court if FAIR had been as interested in the welfare of our initiative as they seemed to be in their hostile takeover attempts of PAN, self-serving news releases, fundraising, grand-standing, and photo op's. They wouldn't even get us the petitions they kept reporting they had donated to us until it was too late for us to check them.  Indeed, we had to spend all day at the document storage facility just putting the petitions in order by county, as required by law, before we could even turn them into the Secretary of State. "

Concludes McKee, Nevertheless, the suit is an unanticipated cost of energy and funds that makes the coming campaign more difficult and delays response to inquiries about how initiatives can be organized in other states. As the opposition knows too well, every lawsuit is a threat and a major drain on finances and other resources.  "I'm not a worrier.  PAN will do what it can.  If the people of Arizona want to see this initiative on the ballot AND their votes counted, they're going to have to make this a higher priority than it's been for them the past 12 months.  If they want to see ads stating our truths and refuting our opposition's smear campaigns and disinformation, they're going to have to pay for it.  It's that simple."