# Arizona GOP "squawks" up the wrong tree **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 18, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506 "2003-04-18T05:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/1 "2003-04-18T05:46:04Z")
The background: > [@](#): > > [PHOENIX –](http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Apr/04172003/utah/48729.asp) A proposal to rename an Arizona mountain after an American Indian killed in Iraq has led to a surprisingly nasty fight between the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers. > Gov. Janet Napolitano says she wants to honor Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, a Hopi from northeastern Arizona who was the first military servicewoman to die in the war. The plan would also settle complaints about Phoenix’s Squaw Peak, a name many Indians find offensive. > But Napolitano has run into opposition from the board that oversees official state names and criticism from conservative lawmakers who say she’s using Piestewa’s death for political leverage. It’s actions like these that make the GOP look tone deaf on racial issues at best, and racist at worse. Now, when I read about efforts to rename geographic places with “squaw” in the name, I thought it was polical correctness. I laughed when one locality was ordered to change a name and came up with Politically Correct Lake. But why should anyone be fighting a change like this? It’s not just about a debatable claim on where the word “squaw” came from. It’s about honoring someone who served her country. One of the objections cited was this: > [@](#): > > … the chairman of the Arizona Geographic and Historic Names Board threatened to block Napolitano’s plan. He cited a requirement that people must be dead five years before their names can be used on geographic features. IIRC, this was also used to prevent Barry Goldwater’s name from going on a mountain. Fine. Fair is fair. But it seems to me a compromise could be reached. Pass a resolution saying the mountain will be named for Piestewa after the appropriate time has passed. Everyone wins. What precisely is the GOP fighting for here? What is at stake? Why can’t the Republican Party understand that by making a stand like this, it reaffirms the worst impression possible? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/2 "2003-04-18T13:38:22Z")
Um, maybe I’m missing something here, but what did Pfc. Piestawa actually do besides get killed, so that she deserves having an entire mountain named after her? Did she lead her platoon out of an ambush? Did she take out a whole bunch of Iraqi foxholes? Did she have a long and distinguished military career? No, no, and no. She was there. She got killed. So did others. So why her? [channeling the Guv] “Hey, she’s young, she’s female, she’s Native American, she represents ‘women in combat’, and she died in the service of her country. It’s a no-brainer–let’s put her name on a mountain and thereby automatically please a goodly percentage of our constituency…” So, um, yeah, I’d have to agree with the Arizona GOP–sounds to me like the Guv is grandstanding for political effect. She just barely won election in 2002, 47% to 44%, so I can see where she’d think that on behalf of her party in 2004, she has to scramble for any points she can get. I’m such a cynic. 😃 And I also have to agree with the Arizona Geographic and Historic Names Board. There’s a reason they have rules prohibiting naming stuff after people as soon as they die, and it’s precisely because of this sort of thing: politicians wanting to make hay out of the death of somebody. It’s also probably due to folks just generally getting all worked up when somebody famous and important dies, so the Board makes you wait five years to be sure the person is really famous enough, and important enough, and still universally lamented enough, to be worthy of having a mountain named after him. I’ll bet that in five years, nobody except Google and people in Tuba City will remember who Pfc. Lori Piestawa was. ---
**Author:** ![AZCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@AZCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZCowboy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/3 "2003-04-18T13:48:03Z")
> [@](#): > > _ **Duck Duck Goose** wrote:_ > Um, maybe I’m missing something here, but what did Pfc. Piestawa actually do besides get killed, so that she deserves having an entire mountain named after her? She sacrificed her life for our country. > [@](#): > > _ **Duck Duck Goose** wrote:_ > I’ll bet that in five years, nobody except Google and people in Tuba City will remember who Pfc. Lori Piestawa was. And if the Arizona GOP gets its way, I suspect you are right. Perhaps if she was a cute blond girl, she would have received more media attention. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/4 "2003-04-18T13:55:55Z")
“And if the Arizona GOP gets its way, I suspect you are right. Perhaps if she was a cute blond girl, she would have received more media attention.” Can you point me to a mountain named after a cute blonde girl? There are rules in place and the board is following them, true BS to try and make political hay out of it. ---
**Author:** ![dee52269](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@dee52269](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dee52269)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/5 "2003-04-18T14:01:38Z")
I personally believe any name would be better than Squaw Peak. Perhaps it could be named Big Dumb Racist Redneck Peak instead. I’m sure that wouldn’t offend anyone. Right? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/6 "2003-04-18T14:03:07Z")
Or put another way, if you think this is a good idea how do you feel about Reagan on a stamp? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/7 "2003-04-18T14:10:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CarnalK \* > \*\*Or put another way, if you think this is a good idea how do you feel about Reagan on a stamp? \*\* Pretty good if that meant he had been dead for 5 years. Preferably with a stake thru his heart, burned, and ashes scattered. Of course, if brain dead qualifies … ---
**Author:** ![cameraboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@cameraboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cameraboy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/8 "2003-04-18T14:15:04Z")
Who cares if it is for political grandstanding? So what? If it gets the gov. votes, then obviously it was something that people wanted anyway. You don’t mean to imply that politicians don’t really believe in the things they say and/or do, do you? (sarcasm). Changing the name from Squaw Peak. or whatever, is a positive thing, no matter what the real political motivation. So Republicans want to block it so that the Dem. Governor can’t use it to gain votes? Which is the larger evil here, exploiting the death of a person to please your constituents, or keeping “squaw” in the name of a mountain just to prevent your opponent from getting votes? Both motivations suck, but one results in removing an offensive name from a landmark and pleasing a lot of people. The other results in more negative feelings about politics in general, and the mountain keeps an offensive name. ---
**Author:** ![horowitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@horowitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horowitz)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/9 "2003-04-18T14:49:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*Pretty good if that meant he had been dead for 5 years. Preferably with a stake thru his heart, burned, and ashes scattered. Of course, if brain dead qualifies … \*\* You know what I can’t get enough of, the Kennedy assassination. I just love to watch that film and laugh my ass off and reflect on the end of Camelot. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/10 "2003-04-18T14:57:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*Pretty good if that meant he had been dead for 5 years. Preferably with a stake thru his heart, burned, and ashes scattered. Of course, if brain dead qualifies … \*\* Yikes! I never understood the vitriol against Reagan, I mean it’s like getting pissed at the Queen. They’re just figureheads, folks. 😉 I’m afraid **cameraboy** you are presenting a false choice. I’m sure there are plenty of names the gov could choose. Also, that it would garner him some votes does not mean “that’s what the people want”. I’m sure if he put any effort into it he could find a name that fits the rules and still crassly schmuzes some section of the electorate. ---
**Author:** ![cameraboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@cameraboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cameraboy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/11 "2003-04-18T15:20:02Z")
Ok, good point there. I guess I’m just not bothered by the name that they want to change Squaw Peak to. It really doesn’t bother me that the gov. wants to name the peak after a Native American woman who died in Iraq. So is there a move now to pick a different name? Would that upset people who were excited about naming the peak after Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa? If it garners the Gov. some votes, it’s at least what SOME people want, namely the people who would be won over by that sort of thing. I just figure, why not name the peak after Piestewa? So there’s some schmuzing. Big deal. Just ignore the schmuzing and vote for someone else, if the schmuzing is that offensive. I find the move to block the schmuzing more distasteful than the schmuzing. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/12 "2003-04-18T15:58:02Z")
> [@](#): > > You know what I can’t get enough of, the Kennedy assassination. I just love to watch that film and laugh my ass off and reflect on the end of Camelot. Back… and to the left. Back… and to the left. Why name it “Mount Soldier’s Sacrifice”? A little clunky, but it’d do. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/13 "2003-04-18T16:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by horowitz \* > \*\*You know what I can’t get enough of, the Kennedy assassination. I just love to watch that film and laugh my ass off and reflect on the end of Camelot. \*\* _When Oswald shot Kennedy, he was insane But still we watch the re-runs again and again We all sit glued while the killer takes aim “Hey Mom, there goes a piece of the President’s brain!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/14 "2003-04-18T16:44:03Z")
I’m not disputing **Duck Duck Goose** ’s observations, but Pvt. Piestewa has already become something of an icon in Indian Country. See: [http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/18/benson](http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/18/benson) [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0418fri2-replace18.html](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0418fri2-replace18.html) [http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/17/letters](http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/17/letters) [http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/11/piestewa](http://www.indianz.com/News/show.asp?ID=2003/04/11/piestewa) [http://www.thenavajotimes.com/tribalnws.html](http://www.thenavajotimes.com/tribalnws.html) It is my observation that American Indians are _very_ serious about the exemplary and sometimes unique services they have provided the US armed forces in virtually every American conflict. (I just learned today that there were Choctaw Code Talkers serving in France in the _First_ World War.) The Hopi tribe won’t soon forget Piestewa. Whether or not that justifies changing the name of a mountain because people think it’s offensive [even after Cecil disabused them](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000317.html) isn’t a question I feel I can answer. ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/15 "2003-04-18T17:09:10Z")
I have one simple question… When has a government official named a major geographical feature after another person for any reason other than to score political points? Its not like this is even close to the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/16 "2003-04-18T19:01:53Z")
As some may recognize, we have few mountains out here in the Midlands—for that matter we have few big hills—and thus can’t name one after anybody. Instead we name streets. Almost before the smoke had dissipated in 1918 we named the DesMoines to Ames road the “Merle Hay Road” after a local boy who managed to get himself killed in a minor trench raid the first night American troops were on the front line in WWI. All he did was get killed. If we can name a major landmark after this kid, thus preserving in some way the memory his and others’ sacrifice, why can’t the State of Arizona do the same, or at least be honest why not? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/17 "2003-04-18T20:09:00Z")
Yeah, but **AZ** , 126 other GIs sacrificed their lives for our country, too. Why not one of them? > **[Newsday | Long Island's & NYC's News Source](https://www.newsday.com)** > > Breaking News, data & opinions in business, sports, entertainment, travel, lifestyle, plus much more. Newsday.com is the leading news source for Long Island & NYC. > [@](#): > > The Associated Press > > April 18, 2003, 2:08 PM EDT > > The names of dead coalition servicemembers released Friday, by relatives or military officials. > > Overall, the U.S. military said Friday that 127 U.S. servicemembers have died and two are missing. The British government said 31 British soldiers have died. > > [list of names and causes of death] So,why her and why not any of them? What makes Lori special? Answer–she’s young and female, and ethnic, and a Mom, and came from a state whose governor’s political party can use the public relations boost it would get by naming a mountain after a young, female, mother-of-two ethnic GI who sacrificed her life for her country. Here’s a good question: Do you honestly think they’d be proposing this if she’d died, say, by drowning in a canal, or when her truck rolled into a ravine, or in a helicopter accident, or by “illness”, or by a “non-combat weapon discharge”? No, it’s the magic word “combat” that bumped her up to the head of the Mountain-naming list. If ya wanna name a mountain after a GI who died in combat, you ought to name it after someone who deserves being memorialized for posterity for conspicuous bravery or sacrifice or long years of service or something, “46 years a staff sergeant and he died with his boots on”, that sort of thing. Now, me, I’d vote for “Jessica Lynch Mountain”, even if she ain’t dead yet. 😃 And I’ll tell ya, it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with her being “pretty”, but with her having endured being captured and tortured. Whereas Pfc. Piestawa–I’m sorry, I know this sounds harsh–was only “killed”. ---
**Author:** ![AZCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@AZCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZCowboy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/18 "2003-04-18T20:52:38Z")
Tortured? Since you’re so good at it, cite? I mean, come on, Lynch didn’t have to give the ultimate sacrifice. And the elevated attention she has received, versus the other soldiers of her unit that actually died, is nothing short of racism. Why Piestawa? Because she was from Arizona. Because she is native American. And because the peak was originally named with a term referencing a female native American - a term that has derogatory connotations. So why Piestawa? Because it is appropriate. I’m all for waiting five years to fit within the “rules”, but I cannot think of any more appropriate name for the Phoenix landmark - mountain and freeway. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/19 "2003-04-19T18:31:43Z")
> [@](#): > > **Tortured? Since you’re so good at it, cite?** Okay. I first read “Iraqi guy tells Kerry Sanders she was being tortured” on [CNN.com](http://CNN.com), the day the story broke, but they are no longer featuring it on their website. However, this website has it as I remember it, along with some other stuff. [http://www.ejil.org/forum/messages/1009.html](http://www.ejil.org/forum/messages/1009.html) > [@](#): > > Tip from Iraqi led to hospital room > Jessica was being tortured. > > That was the urgent word from an Iraqi man who alerted U.S. troops where to find Pfc. Jessica Lynch - and her injuries seem to bear out the allegation. > > Lynch, who was flown to a military hospital in Germany yesterday, had her legs broken, one arm broken and at least one bullet wound, officials said. > > \< snip \> > > One tip came when an English-speaking Iraqi man approached NBC reporter Kerry Sanders to tell him about the soldier being held captive. > > “Please make sure the people in charge know that she’s being tortured,” he told Sanders. > > \< snip \> > > Her broken bones are a sure sign of torture, said Amy Waters Yarsinske, an ex-Navy intelligence officer and an expert on POW treatment. > > “It’s awfully hard to break both legs and an arm in a truck accident,” Yarsinske said. > > Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s thugs are known to use steel bars to bash their prisoners’ limbs, she said. > > “In the first gulf action, they tried breaking their [captured U.S. airmen’s] legs with steel bars,” Yarsinske said. > > Another clue that Lynch and other POWs were being tortured came Friday, when Marines raided a hospital near Nassiriya where other members of Lynch’s unit were videotaped and later shown on Iraqi TV. Marines found at least one shredded woman’s uniform spattered with blood and the name patch torn off. In addition to Lynch, two other female soldiers went missing after the ambush. > > In one hospital room, Marines discovered a car battery next to a bed - a possible electrical shock torture chamber. > > During the last Persian Gulf War, Iraqis attached wires to one American POW’s jaw and shocked him, Yarsinske said. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/13/LV45214.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/13/LV45214.DTL) > [@](#): > > Standing back and hoping – a fatherly reaction to daughters at war > > Sunday, April 13, 2003 > > \< snip \> > > We are now hearing from terrorism experts that her broken legs were almost certainly the result of torture. The Iraqis, it is said, sometimes use steel bars to break the bones of captives. [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/486azzta.asp](http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/486azzta.asp) > [@](#): > > New York Times (April 3): “Senior military officials provided only a few details about the intelligence that led to Private [Jessica] Lynch’s rescue, but family members said they were told that she was located because an Iraqi doctor handed a note to a Marine indicating that she was at a hospital, listed the room number and added that she was being tortured.” MSNBC has rewritten an online news item to take out all mention of both Kerry Sanders and the word “torture”. Here’s what it says on the GoogleNews main page, dateline April 2. > [@](#): > > Soldier rescued, but 11 bodies found \<[http://www.msnbc.com/news/889604.asp?0cv=NB10](http://www.msnbc.com/news/889604.asp?0cv=NB10)\> > MSNBC - Apr 2, 2003 > > … In addition, NBC’s Kerry Sanders reported from the town where Pfc. Jessica Lynch was found that he received word she had been tortured. … Here’s the next one, dated April 3. > [@](#): > > Sources: 9 bodies are US soldiers \<[http://msnbc.com/news/889604.asp?0sl=-32](http://msnbc.com/news/889604.asp?0sl=-32)\> > MSNBC - Apr 3, 2003 > > … NBC’s Kerry Sanders was told by a Nasiriyah resident that Lynch was tortured during her captivity, but Brooks said he had no information of torture and … Both of these links lead to the same MSNBC article, dated April 19, and now rewritten to omit all mention of Kerry Sanders and the word “torture”. So I may perhaps be forgiven for not receiving the memo that said that we are no longer mentioning torture in connection with Jessica Lynch. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506/20 "2003-04-19T18:40:28Z")
First off, remember that there’s been controversy over the name Squaw Peak for quite some time – they’ve been trying to get it changed but no consensus has emerged on a new name. Given current political pressure, the name of that mountain is very likely to be changed sometime soon, and this strikes me as being seen as a good opportunity to do so. It’s likely not going to remain Squaw Peak for five more years, and there’s no possibility of an interim name (The Peak soon to be named Piestewa Peak?) > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose_ > So, um, yeah, I’d have to agree with the Arizona GOP–sounds to me like the Guv is grandstanding for political effect. She just barely won election in 2002, 47% to 44%, so I can see where she’d think that on behalf of her party in 2004, she has to scramble for any points she can get. I’m such a cynic. 😃 The state [leans significantly GOP](http://www.sosaz.com/election/2002/Info/ElectionInformation.htm) anyway (Arizona voter registrations as of the 2002 general election were 41.52% GOP, 35.87% Dem, 21.97% Other and 0.64% Green), and given current pro-GOP sentiments, I wonder if Gov. Napolitano could do much for her party for the 2004 elections. My suspicion is that the governor’s larger goal is to make herself look good for future political advancement. In her first 100 days in office, she has already made [three trips](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0415tue1-15.html) to Washington, D.C., has asked for a [D.C. office](http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special12/articles/0224napolitano24.html), and for what it’s worth, the major state paper has speculated on her [future ambitions](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0415100days15.html). While certainly she wants to aid her own party, it might be that she’s trying to get this name change for even more personal political ambitions. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arizona-gop-squawks-up-the-wrong-tree/169506.md?page=2)