Why I thanked Governor Ducey this morning

[Mike 03]

No, I'm no fan of Ducey's, but something interesting happened yesterday.

1. Trump announced a trip to Arizona next week to visit our Honeywell plant.
2. Ducey immediately counters that announcement with an extension of our stay-at-home orders to May 15.

It's true he announced a "voluntary reopening" plan for retail and food outlets.

Still, a hell of a lot of things remain closed.

If you want to see, go to this article and look at the picture of Ducey standing in front of a slide showing all the businesses that will remain closed:

https://ktar.com/story/3106082/ducey-announces-voluntary-reopening-plan-for-retail-food-industry/

Then here are some clips from a second article outlining comments he made yesterday:

The Republican leader said social distancing guidelines and closures appeared to have successfully slowed the spread of COVID-19, helping the state avoid a spike in cases, overwhelmed hospitals and preventable deaths.

But he said available data did not support a full reopening of the state's economy Friday, which would've happened had he not taken action before the stay-at-home order's Thursday expiration.

"These have been hard-fought gains," Ducey said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "We've earned where we are today, and we are not going to undo this."

Ducey issued the statewide stay-at-home order, arguably the most aggressive step his administration has taken to fight the new coronavirus pandemic, on March 30. It generally permits residents to leave their homes only for food, medicine, exercise and other "essential activities." He previously had identified businesses deemed ''essential'' that could continue operating.

On Monday, Ducey will ease some restrictions to allow certain stores previously deemed non-essential to begin offering delivery, window, walk-up, drive-thru, curbside or appointment-based service.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ducey-extends-stay-at-home-order-through-may-15-but-eases-some-restrictions-on-businesses/ar-BB13o8NP

We can argue over which business are "essential" but IMO he's going about as far as an Arizona governor can go, and IMO yesterday's actions constituted a firm and pre-emptive repudiation of Trump and a warning to him that, when he visits, he won't be coercing out state into a premature restart.

My letter was short, but I thanked him for sticking to his guns, wrote that I was fairly sure his actions over the past month have saved lives, and said I was relieved because I thought Trump planned to bully Arizona into a quick reopening of our state.

As those articles linked above point out, he's under a ton of pressure to open up Arizona. So I thought he should get some support for opposing those forces.

When I'm sizing up Ducey, there's something I always remember: Governor Ducey was the last person John McCain supposedly spoke to before he gave his famous thumbs down on the Senate vote to kill the Affordable Care Act. And that night, when reporters asked McCain how he planned to vote, he said, "I want to speak to the governor of my state."

So as bad as it can get in Arizona (with McSally, Kelli Ward, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar), I'm pleasantly surprised with how Ducey's handling things. I have issues with the quality of our COVID-19 tests, but that's a topic for another post.

[sweetloukillbot]

1. He's been wishy-washy in his responses...

But he hasn't caved to the re-open now crazies, and has actually erred on the side of caution.
And while Arizona is probably not nearly as good looking as the numbers show, the curve has definitely flattened here to the point that I'm not living in mortal panic.
Still not going out if I don't have to, and praying my wife's company doesn't reverse their work from home policy, though.

[vsrazdem]

2. I agree. I am not a fan at all, but he has handled this better than I expected, other than the

initial plan of leaving beauty salons, barber shops and tattoo parlors open. He at least walked that back. I was worried that he would announce reopening yesterday, but appears he is listening to the medical professionals.

[Kali]

3. AZ has always had "maverick" type republicans

I don't know that he fits that category, but at least he seems to retain a bit of the old time "normal" republican traits - a touch of common sense so thanks for thanking him. I might do the same.