State Treasurer Dean Martin said he didn't mean to be so provocative when he put a countdown timer on his campaign Web site.
It would be one thing if it were a countdown to Jan. 1. Quite aside from the new year, that's the date he will be free to announce for governor without having to resign his current gig.
But the countdown takes you to Wednesday.
Some significant events happened Dec. 16 - Jane Austen was born, the Battle of the Bulge was launched, Colin Powell was nominated as the first African-American secretary of state. Perhaps the one that has most resonance in today's political climate: In 1773, the Boston Tea Party was launched.
For fans of action movies, a countdown usually means there are only moments to dismantle some ticking thing before everything goes to smithereens.
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On Tuesday, Martin will brief lawmakers about the state's fairly desperate cash flow situation. He's been juggling different lines of credit, but the state is rapidly maxing out its credit options and it's facing a looming school payment in February.
At any rate, Martin won't give any clues.
"You know, anticipation is what the holidays are all about. You'll have to wait," he said, adding he was just trying to have a little fun in the midst of a bunch of depressing news.
Well, we're going to check back Wednesday. Will it be a YouTube of Martin in a Santa hat, crooning his namesake's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" Or will he be waving an IOU and holding a lump of coal for lawmakers?
Sen. John McCain is in trouble with a D.C.-based nonprofit watchdog group.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed an ethics complaint with the Senate, accusing McCain of using National Republican Senatorial Committee funds for robocalls to tell voters in Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska and North Dakota to pressure their Democratic senators to "fight a Washington, D.C., government takeover of your health care."
The complaint says McCain was engaged in grass-roots lobbying, despite a ban on senators using private donations to support official Senate activities.
"It's a b.s. complaint," said McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan, saying the recorded message did not violate any ethics rules.
The campaign committee simply, er, provided information to Americans about the ongoing health-care debate, the office maintains.
Jesse Kelly has a lot on his plate, between running the family construction business and running for Congress in District 8 on a platform of lowering taxes, downsizing government and privatizing Social Security. The Republican is challenging incumbent Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.
But there are some things decidedly absent from that plate these days.
He may be thin and he may be only 28, but high cholesterol runs in his family. So after a recent cholesterol count, he's under orders (from the wife, not the doc) to ratchet back on the pizza and cheeseburgers. Instead of a plate of nachos at night, he reports, rather sadly, he's eating oranges.
Notebook was implored not to call his new, healthier choices "a diet." And while eating gurus also like to eschew the term "diet" in favor of "it's a lifestyle change," he said that's even worse.
Neither sounds red-meat-eating enough for a guy who's got the likes of state Sen. Russell Pearce and Sheriff Joe Arpaio giving him a fundraiser Friday night.
At any rate, he jokes his new food environment "is much tougher than the political race."
The courts still have to determine whether a law will stick that will require City Council members to win their wards in the general election.
But if it were in place, Democrat Nina Trasoff would have been at Monday's swearing-in, and not new Councilman Steve Kozachik.
Although Kozachik won with an 1,800-vote margin citywide and flat dominated the East Side wards, he was walloped in his Ward Six home district, where Trasoff took 59 percent of the vote to his 40 percent.
The other two winners won their home stomping grounds.
This is not the first time the ward has had politicians representing it that it didn't pick. It had eight years of Republican Fred Ronstadt, even though in 1997 and 2001 the ward didn't choose him.
Rhonda Bodfield
Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at rbodfield@azstarnet.com or 573-4243.
