Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page F4

4F 13,2016 THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC TWEETS OF THE WEEK Mark Kelly A lbert Einstein: Great hair, brilliant physicist, (now) totally right about gravitational waves. avid Leibowitz tomach is bothering me a bit. I blame Wall treet billionaires. jon gabriel CNN should get big ratings with the smol- ering sexual chemistry of David Gergen and Gloria Borger. Karina Bland XFile's Scully shuts down critics who say she's not aging well.

You go, beautiful. azcentral Lydia Guzman LydiaGuzman So is FINALLY complying with this part of the court's order: putting ody cams of the Deputies. It was never his idea. THEY SAID IT smarter than critics believe he understood the political mood better than we undits did but I think of any national politician met over the decades who was so ill informed on the Kristof The New York Times voter should watch, and the Clinton campaign should widely distribute, the recent three-minute Web ad starring Bill linton talking about the real things Hillary Clinton has done to lift lives and make their tomorrows better than today. why he calls her correctly a change maker who matters and a human being who Brent Budowsky The Hill New Hampshire by 22 points to an avowed socialist was bad enough for Hillary linton.

But then came the news first reported by WaPo that the State Department had opened a inquiry regarding the a ctivities of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. bad went to way, way Cilizza Washington Post AP Albert Einstein AP Mark Kelly Community Colleges: going to need a long-term funding fix. Viewpoints COMING SUNDAY Acollection of voices, tweets and posts from the week. OF THE MOMENT REACH US PHIL BOAS, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, PHIL.BOAS@ARIZONAREPUBLIC.COM OPINIONS.AZCENTRAL.COM THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Founded in 1890 AGannett newspaper MI-AI PARRISH, Publisher and President REPUBLIC EDITORIAL BOARD Mi-Ai Parrish, Joanna Allhands, Steve Benson, Phil Boas, Nicole Carroll, Elvia Abe Kwok, Robert Robb and Linda Valdez ST OF CARE A elderly man with chronic back ain was having a flareup. I was a bad one.

He needed to see a doctor, but he wasn't able to drive himself anywhere. Frust rated and immobilized, the Mesa man called 911. Had this happened in other cities, the operator would have dispatched a fire crew to examine him, which would have likely called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. It probably would have taken hours and racked up thousands of ollars in charges before he could get any pain relief. ut that's not how it ended up, thanks i part to Mesa's new nurse triage pro- ram.

After determining his problem wasn't life-threatening, the dispatcher transferred him to a registered nurse ho asked additional questions about his condition. She then dispatched a paramedic and nurse practitioner to his house, which administered a pain-relieving injection and called his primary-care physician to set up a follow-up appointment. The triage program is the latest com- City could change what happens when you dial 911 MESA'S TRIAGE PROGRAM HELPS LOWER JOANNA A LLHANDS DIGITAL EDITOR Why did the Open and Honest Coali- ion form? The existing system discriminates against the 1.2 million voters who choose not affiliate with a party, the largest group in Arizona. All taxpayers pay for primary elections, but independents are barred as candidates from those ballots and forced to choose a party ballot which they have already chosen to reject. Arizona had a 30 year record low voter turnout in 2014 because voters given the freedom of choice.

Over $15 million in was spent in 2014, principally on negative campaigns, which also hurts voter turnout. We must require disclosure of dark money and change the architecture of A election system. You have two initiatives. One goes after How would that ork? pen and Honest Disclosure is a 4- page constitutional amendment that gives every Arizonan the right to know he identity of any donor who spends more than $10,000 to influence a candi- date election in Arizona. It is very simple a nd allows numerous ways to disclose the identity of the original source of the donation.

It contains real penalties if the pender fails to disclose properly. Why our state leaders willing to tackle dark money themselves? Sadly, some like the status quo. Open and Honest Disclosure establishes a to a beachhead in a sea of dark money to protect our democracy from corruption. Like the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, we expect an ongoing discussion and further actions to shine more light on dark money.

The other initiative would create open primaries. How would that hange how primaries operate? Our current system discriminates against candidates and voters who have hosen not to be a member of a political arty. President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton warned against the faction and the self-interest of parties. ur proposal will let everyone compete on an equal playing field. Arizona has a imilar election system today that elects many of our mayors and city council members.

Why are you bringing these initia- ives to the ballot at the same time? Partisanship is baked into our Democratic system of government, but dark oney is partisanship on steroids part isan interests encourage candidates to adopt extremist views and special interests fund dark money campaigns that enc ourage ideology and self-interest over service. We must change the architec- ture of Arizona politics or the American xperiment in representative democracy will fail. Why do you believe Arizonans will ote for these initiatives? America is still great, but our two-party system fueled by dark money contributions is broken. These proposals will protect our government from corruption and treat all voters and candidates equally what has made America and Arizona a great place to live, work and raise afamily. If we reform our election system where are we headed? The American experiment, as we know it, will end.

Public confidence in our political system is at an all-time low. nfortunately, this is just the beginning of massive amounts of undisclosed money being poured into the American politic al system. As people lose faith, more ill register as independents. Candidates who scream the loudest and incite the angriest mob will be elected by fewer itizens. The result will be a loss of faith in the republic.

INTO THE MIND OF PAUL JOHNSON, CO-CHAIR, OPEN AND HONEST COALITION PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES.