Group seeks to recall Gov. Jan Brewer

Recall fever is in the air.

Just 24 hours after immigration activists filed paperwork to recall Arizona Sen. President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, a new group of dissatisifed residents are taking aim at Gov. Jan Brewer.

In paperwork filed with the Secretary of State's office late Friday, the Committee to Recall Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says it is seeking to remove her from the chief executive's position because of her "gross mismanagement of Arizona's finances."

Specifically, the group cites budget cuts to programs "vital to the health, welfare and education of Arizonans," including reductions to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (the state's Medicaid program) and the state's decision to eliminate Medicaid coverage for certain organ transplants.

Arizona stopped funding some heart, liver and other transplants Oct. 1, saying it would save $800,000 in the current fiscal year and $1.4 million in fiscal 2012. In addition, Brewer's proposed fiscal 2012 budget includes the elimination of Medicaid coverage for 280,000 recipients, mostly childless adults.

Arizona is one of six states that currently covers that population. The governor's office has said that the move would save $541.5 million in Fiscal 2012 and more than $1 billion in Fiscal 2013.

"Arizonans are a people of conscience and we will no longer tolerate the type of heavy-handed governing and unwillingness to consider alternative bipartisan solutions to the state's fiscal challenges that do not compromise the health, welfare and education of the people of this great state," the petition states.

Calls and emails to the committee's applicants were not immediately returned. Matthew Benson, Brewer's spokesman, declined to comment.

The group, which has launched a website --- http://recallgovernorbrewer... -- faces a steep road in its recall effort. Brewer, a Republican, easily bested Democratic opponent Terry Goddard to win a full, four-year term in November.

To succeed, the recall petition would need to collect 432,021 valid signatures by May 28. That represents 25 percent of the people who voted in last fall's gubernatorial election.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/Blog/Poli ... der/116095