Arizona State Senator Nancy Barto has revealed what she is highly interested in for the 2014 legislative session. And it isnt Dina Shacknais Parental Disclosure idea. Its the Medicaid Expansion Plan for Arizona that would add 300,000 Arizonans to the Medicaid plan.
State legislators often signal what their priorities will be for the next legislative session during the session break off season.
This demonstrates the issue as one of her priorities in April 2013, during the 2013 session:
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/04/16/az-senate-revives-vetoed-medical-care-pricing-bill/
And this demonstrates that the Medicaid Expansion remains one of her top priorities even in the off season between legislative sessions.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Nancy_K._Barto
Nancy K. Barto is one of the 36 Republican members of the state legislature who signed onto a lawsuit in September 2013 against Arizona Governor Jan Brewer with the conservative Goldwater Institute over the Arizona Medicaid Expansion.
[2] Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act in June 2012, Brewer, a Republican who had long fought for its repeal, ultimately broke ranks with her party on the issue of Medicaid.
[3] She first publicly embraced Arizona's participation in the federally controlled Medicaid expansion during her 2013 State of the State address. In addition to conceding the futility of continued opposition to Obamacare in the wake of the Supreme Court decision and Obama's re-election victory, Brewer discussed the considerable popular support for expanding patient eligibility: residents had already voted twice to make the state government provide free care for everyone up to the federal poverty line.
It is my opinion that Arizona State Senator Barto is signaling that Dina Shacknais idea for a parental disclosure bill will NOT be one of her top priorities in the 2014 session. And the Arizona legislative session starts Jan 31, 2014.
If Senator Barto is going to go full on supporting Dina Shacknais idea for the parental disclosure bill in 2014, this would be the time when we would begin to hear Senator Barto (and other supportive legislators) talking publicly about it. This is the time to muster bi-partisan support. And, well, the silence is deafening, thus far.
JMO, but much bigger societal issues seem to be on Senator Bartos agenda right now, which is where her legislative attention is focused. Its my opinion that Dinas publicized idea that names Senator Barto as a sponsor for Dinas vague parental disclosure ideas in the AZ 2014 legislative session, is not really even on Senator Bartos radar, right?
Legislators talk up the issues that they will support in the next session, during the "between session" period. That is how they work to get their issues passed. They make the rounds gathering other legislators support for their proposed bills-- preferably, bipartisan support, which makes passage easier. They shop the ideas for the bills to the media, to gauge public support.
And we have not heard one single public word from Senator Barto about Dinas proposed idea for a bitter ex-spouse stalking bill. Surprise bills dont usually do well during a short legislative sessionthey die pretty quickly without a big contingent of supporters already in place before they are introduced. (That isnt a big secret in state legislative politics, lol!)
I wonder why we havent heard anything public from Senator Barto, or her office, about Dinas idea for a bill? Hmmmm....
IMO, because Dinas idea isnt on her agenda as a top priority for 2014. I think Dina Shacknai "name dropped" Senator Barto too soon in the Phoenix magazine article, before Senator Barto was clearly on board with Dina's ideas for a bill. JMO. I guess we will see what happens with Dina's ideas for a bill in the 2014 AZ legislative session, right? IMO, Dina's idea for the bill is already dead in the water for 2014.