PREAMBLE

The United States of America is unique among nations, born not of a place, nor of a single race, nationality, or religion, but of an idea: freedom, equality, and opportunity for all people. The Arizona Democratic Party remains faithful to that concept. We take pride in our Democratic heritage as the party of patriotic values, the party of inclusiveness, the party of diversity, the party of compassion, the party of quality education, the party of economic opportunities, the party of social justice, the party of religious tolerance and the party of responsible leadership.

We dedicate ourselves to the application of common sense, common decency, and common purpose in the cause of the common good. Our goals will be achieved through community service, increased voter awareness, vigilant oversight of governmental activities, and the recruitment, preparation, and election of qualified Democratic candidates at the local, state, and national level.

With this platform we set out our basic principles and ask the voters of Arizona to join with us in retaking control of the governments of Arizona and the United States in the name of the people.

ELECTIONS AND CAMPAIGN REFORM

CLEAN ELECTIONS – We support the continued funding and implementation of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission and urge all Democratic State office candidates to utilize the Clean Election financing provisions of Arizona State law.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM – Arizona Democrats support continued pioneering reform of political campaigns. Building on voter initiated Clean Elections financing, candidates should additionally be provided debate opportunities over publicly financed electronic, print and bulk mail media. We believe political campaigns should be contests of ideas, not of fund-raising ability. We support vote-by-mail ballots and Information Guides sent to all registered voters, to insure the largest possible informed vote.

ELECTION INTEGRITY – Fair and accurate elections are the cornerstone of Democracy. We believe that when electronic voting equipment is utilized that it must create a paper record of each voter’s selections and allow for a complete audit of election results. We support limited hand counting to verify electronic counts and ensure fair elections.

VOTER PARTICIPATION – We support efforts designed to increase voter participation at all levels of government and oppose any roadblocks to such participation such as unnecessary requirements for identification.

FOREIGN POLICY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

FOREIGN POLICY – It is our belief that the foreign policy of the United States should be implemented in a manner consistent with international law in conjunction with the international community, rather than the unilateral decisions presented by the current federal administration.

NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS – We uphold the sovereignty rights of Native Americans and their right of self-governance. We urge the state and federal governments to assist in providing economic development to Tribal Governments while preserving their cultural and religious freedoms and improving quality of life for Tribal members.

IMMIGRATION – The United States is founded on principals that should be supportive of immigrants. We favor a fair and equitable immigration policy that contains provisions to allow immigrant workers to secure economic opportunities. We favor a policy that provides a clear road to citizenship for those law abiding, productive individuals who seek to become citizens of our country. We urge non-discrimination in all matters dealing with immigration and immigrant rights.

DREAM ACT – We support legislation that would provide immigration relief to undocumented young people who have spent their formative years in the United States, who have graduated from high school here, and who can demonstrate good moral character. The DREAM Act repeals a law that prevents these promising young people from attending college in the United States.

HOMELAND SECURITY

SECURE BORDERS – We support efforts to ensure the security of the borders of the United States while simultaneously preserving the historical openness of our society. We urge the government to do everything possible to eliminate the deaths in the desert of individuals attempting to enter the United States.

FIRST RESPONDERS – We support efforts to ensure full funding of personnel, training and equipment needs of First Responders and their organizations. Due to current tax cuts for the wealthy, funs for First Responders have been reduced and homeland security needs are not being met. We believe additional funding should be allocated for our first defenders, the securing of our vulnerable infrastructure, and improving our domestic intelligence.

MILITARY FORCES, BASE CLOSING AND VETERANS

SERVICE PERSONNEL – The Arizona Democratic Party strongly stands behind the men and women of our Armed Forces. We support efforts to increase their pay, reduce their exposure to risk and insure that their deployment occurs in matters directly in support of our National interests.

BASE CLOSINGS – We fully support the Governor’s efforts to ensure that the military bases in Arizona remain open and fully productive and protect them from encroaching development.

VETERANS BENEFITS – We support full funding of the pension and health care benefits for veterans and their dependents and oppose cutting any State or Federal Services to Veterans.

CIVIL AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

DIVERSITY – We are a nation of diversity, and this diversity has contributed greatly to our strength. We should celebrate this source of strength, by encouraging its growth, not its demise. Rather than challenge equal rights — as our present administration does — we should promote it for all Americans. We oppose any laws or constitutional amendments which restrict the civil rights of any person because of their religion, race, color, national origin, beliefs or sexual orientation.

EDUCATION – We believe it is the right of every American to have access to affordable education through college. We support fully funding public education through an even distribution of assets throughout each school district. We support maintaining tuition at all Arizona colleges and Universities as inexpensive as practical and paying of teachers at all levels a fair and equitable wage. We urge the further development of technical schools and the state to financially support them.

WOMEN’S, CHILDREN’S AND FAMILY RIGHTS – We support a woman’s right to equal access to employment and educational opportunities.

We support efforts to end violent acts against women and to fund shelters, hotlines and other efforts to improve the lot of women and their families.

We support expanded funding of pre-school, all day kindergarten and after-school programs.

We support efforts to reduce the incidents of child abuse through education and prevention programs in our school systems and recognize the right of every child to live in a safe, nurturing, and healthy environment.

We recognize that the best way to enhance family and child welfare is to insure a strong viable economy with fair and equitable pay and benefits.

We support a woman’s right to reproductive choice.

HEALTH CARE, PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AND MENTAL HEALTH – A healthy Arizona benefits us all and strengthens our economy. Illness becomes more serious and more expensive due to lack of early treatment, and the loss of productivity costs all of Arizona.

All citizens deserve equal access to affordable, cost effective, patient centered quality health care. It is the position of the Arizona State Democratic Party that health care coverage exclusively provided through employer based insurance is exclusionary and non-universal. All citizens should have health care provisions at least equal to those provided by the Federal government to the President and members of Congress.

Citizens should have access to low cost drugs and medicines and should not be restricted from securing such items from legitimate sources outside of the United States. Arizona should continue develop such innovative health related items as the Copper Rx the original senior citizen drug discount card.

Comprehensive health care must include appropriate treatment for mental, behavioral, developmental disabilities and substance abuse. Medical decisions should be made by patients and their doctors and nurses, not by accountants, bureaucrats, or insurance companies.

One in five Americans suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. It is our position that people suffering from such disorders should have insurance parity with other physical illnesses and that police agencies need crisis intervention training to prevent needless killings of individuals suffering from such illnesses.

WORKERS RIGHTS, ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – We recognize the value of every individual and support a workers right to a safe, fair and equitable work place and the right to compensation which provides for a minimum living wage. We affirm our belief that workers rights are human rights. We support an educational process that insures workers access to opportunities of self-improvement.

We support the right of workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining and oppose efforts to intimidate or prevent workers from coming together.

We support a strong commitment to economic development in all of Arizona but in particularly in the rural areas of the state. Rural Areas must be empowered to attract clean and good paying jobs to grow their economies so as to address their high rates of unemployment.

We also oppose efforts to take away overtime pay from hardworking Americans who rely on that pay to provide for their families.

Democrats promote economic development to existing traditional businesses and new companies by supporting them with a well educated labor force, sensible regulations that do not hurt our environment and encourage building viable communities in which businesses can thrive. We encourage good work and safety environments coupled with fair employment practices which protect workers rights.

We call on the Arizona State Legislature to implement a Living Wage Law that includes wages and insurance benefit requirements in State government service contracts that automatically adjust annually to any cost of living increase.

Arizona Democrats recognize the documented dangers of second hand smoke. We believe that clean and healthy workplaces are critical to strong economic growth and personal advancement. As such we believe that all workers as well as the customers are entitled to a smoke-free environment.

CHURCH AND STATE – The Arizona State Democratic Party opposes any laws, rules, regulations or Presidential orders that weaken the long established procedures separating church and state in America.

PRESERVATION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES – The hallmark of our great democracy is freedom and the liberties given its citizens. It is imperative in times such as these with terrorist activity prevalent that the United States be ever vigilant to these threats but do so within the historical granting of civil liberties to its citizens. We believe that any erosion of civil liberties under the guise of national security should be done sparingly and not in secret to insure no further erosion of civil liberties.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES – We believe in the rights of all Americans to live, learn and work, regardless of disability, and we will work at the state and federal levels to protect and advance those rights. The Arizona Democratic Party fights to maintain existing safeguards for civil rights protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to increase federal contributions for special education under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, to increase state and federal funding for prescription drugs, and to protect funding levels and beneficiary claims rights in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

RESPONSIBLE GUN OWNERSHIP – We believe in and uphold the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. We also support the continuation of the assault weapons ban and closing additional loopholes that enable legal weapons to be modified into assault weapons and that allow purchases of weapons without background checks. We support efforts to educate the public and children in particular in the safe use and handling of firearms and we support efforts to provide gun safety locks for all privately owned weapons.

PREDATORY LENDING PRACTICES – Many in the lending industry are targeting low-income and minorities through predatory lending practices. We support strong anti-predatory lending legislation and vigorous enforcement of violators of those regulations.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES – Preservation of the environment is essential for sustaining and enhancing our quality of life. Our economy is dependent upon responsible use and conservation of our natural resources. We support the adoption and vigorous enforcement of effective Federal and State laws and regulations to protect our air, water, forests, deserts, wildlife habitats and urban environment from contamination. We oppose the current federal administrations dilution of the environmental protection laws and regulations. We support our Governor’s efforts to secure our energy delivery infrastructure.

OIL DEPENDENCY – We believe America needs to decrease its dependency on oil and especially foreign oil by increasing its use of renewable energy resources and implementation of meaningful conservation methods. We call on the federal government as one of its highest priorities to implement and fund programs to achieve these goals.

TRANSPORTATION – We believe that funding for public transportation as a means of eliminating dependency on foreign oil and as a means to improve the environment should be a top priority of the state and federal governments.

WORLD POPULATION – We recognize the finite resources of our planet and support efforts toward family planning.

AGRICULTURE – We recognize the importance of farmers and ranchers to our economy and our way of life. We support efforts to enhance family farming opportunities and to restrict the ubiquitous expansion of “factory farms”. We favor truth in labeling to reflect origin and genetic modification or processing methods of the food which we consume. We call on the farm and rancher community to insure the preservation of our environment through wise use of the land and water resources.

PUBLIC LANDS AND RECREATIONAL AREAS – We believe the State and National public lands are held in trust for all citizens. Therefore, we oppose the uncompensated or below market value compensation for exploitation of assets in these areas. We further oppose the extension of user fees in recreational areas.

JUDICIAL INTEGRITY AND PRISON ISSUES

JUDICIAL SELECTION PROCESS – We support the current Arizona constitutional provisions stipulating Gubernatorial appointment of judges and associated judicial retention elections in selected Superior, Appellate and Supreme Court jurisdictions. We support provisions of the Arizona State Constitution which guarantee a trial before a qualified impartial judicial officer.

PRISON OVERCROWDING AND UNDER-FUNDING – The combined crises of prison overcrowding and budget cuts have forced the State of Arizona to closely examine its spending in the Department of Corrections. We call on the legislature to fully fund the requests of the executive to improve working conditions for Corrections Officers and living conditions for prisoners within the State of Arizona prison and jail system. Further, we call on the legislature to make a full and through review of mandatory sentencing laws to insure that they are reflective of both the associated crimes and the economic and social impact of incarceration. We call on the legislature to restore judicial discretion in sentencing.

PENSION AND SOCIAL SECURITY PROTECTION

PENSION PROTECTION – We call on the federal government to continue to protect the pension funds in private corporations to insure that pension funds are available to all retirees.

SOCIAL SECURITY – We call on the federal government to insure that the treasury meets its obligations to current and all future retirees and beneficiaries in the federal Social Security System and to resist efforts to privatize any aspect of the Social Security System.

GOVERNMENTAL FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

TAX POLICY – We strive for an effective, balanced and fair revenue system that reliably meets the State’s needs and that does not place excessive burdens on any specific group. We believe that Arizona state government should be returned to the majority rule principle for revenue measures. We favor repeal of the 1992 Proposition 108, which requires 2/3 approval in both legislative houses to enact tax measures.

We believe the federal government has a responsibility and duty to see that all companies doing business in the United States pay its fair share in taxes. We believe that the federal government should eliminate the use by American corporations of off-shore tax havens designed to eliminate paying of fair and just taxes to the United States.

We encourage a tax policy that would in-turn encourage employers to remain in and expand operations in the United States and to stop the out-migration of jobs.