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From the political notebook:

' If the Georgian conflict was a test of potential presidential leadership, John McCain certainly won round one.

From the beginning of the military engagements, McCain seemed knowledgeable and was consistent in condemning Russia for its aggression.

Obama, on the other hand, was far more even-handed in his early statements, asking for restraint by both Russia and Georgia. As events progressed, he toughened his rhetoric regarding Russia.

Obama also suffered from being on vacation when the conflict erupted. That's unfair. He's not president and there was nothing he could actually do about the conflict. Nevertheless, the impression was left that McCain was on the job and on his game, while Obama was trying to catch up.

I'm not sure that is where the domestic political fallout of the conflict will rest, however. McCain believes that vital U.S. interests are at stake in the Caucasus. And he advocates an aggressively confrontational approach to U.S. relations with Russia.

As the campaign progresses, I'm not sure the American electorate will agree with either.

' The Arizona Constitution requires that a certain number of signatures be gathered for an initiative to be placed on the ballot. For a statutory change, 10 percent of registered voters is required. A measure to amend the state Constitution needs 15 percent.

State law sets out a process to determine whether these constitutional thresholds have been met. A random sample of the signatures is checked for validity. If the random sample projects that the initiative has 105 percent or more of the required signatures, the measure is put on the ballot. If the random sample projects that the initiative has less than 95 percent of the required number of signatures, then the measure doesn't go on the ballot.

If the random sample projects between 95 percent and 105 percent, the county recorders are supposed to check every signature.

This election, this constitutional requirement and statutory process are being widely ignored.
Basically, the county recorders are saying that they don't have time to check every signature before the ballots go to print.

The ballots go to print awfully early. In Maricopa County, the part of the ballot that includes the propositions actually is printed before the state primary election.

Nevertheless, the county recorders have a valid point. Checking hundreds of thousands of signatures is more time-consuming than the current timeline permits.

In 1983, the state Supreme Court put on the ballot an initiative that fell within the 95 percent to 105 percent range, after county recorders said that they didn't have time to check every signature. In such circumstances, the court ruled, there has to be a presumption of having met the requirement.

Based upon that precedent, two ballot measures have already been certified that fell below the 105 percent mark, one setting new requirements for new home guarantees and the other forbidding a real estate transfer tax. The real estate tax prohibition even fell below 100 percent, so the best evidence is that it didn't meet the constitutional requirement. Nevertheless, it's on the ballot.

An initiative to protect choice in health care providers appears likely to squeak onto the ballot in the same manner.

The advocates of the transportation tax initiative are suing to get their measure on the ballot. They don't hope to prove that they actually met the constitutional requirement. They just hope to prove that they got within 95 percent of it.

The latest state land reform initiative is likely to be right behind them.

Currently, initiative petitions have to be filed in early July. If that doesn't give enough time to make sure that the constitutional requirement has been met, the filing deadline should be moved up, to say March.

That would also provide a more reasonable time period for the courts to handle all the legal wrangling that seems to accompany these things these days.

' As long as we're fiddling with the election schedule, let me reiterate my plea to move the state primary to June.

Arizona's late primary penalizes the party with contested races. In this election cycle, that will hurt the ability of Republicans to effectively challenge Harry Mitchell for his congressional seat and for the Democrats to effectively challenge County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

The handicap of a contested primary will be particularly acute in 2010, when term limits will mean open seats for governor, secretary of state, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction.

The state shouldn't have a policy of discouraging contested primaries, but the current schedule constitutes such.

Legislators, however, will never move the primary to June because they perceive it would disadvantage them, allowing their opponents to campaign against them while they have to be in session.

So, this will require well-heeled and well-meaning partisans from both parties to come together to work for an initiative to improve political competition in the state.

Jim Pederson and Jim Click, maybe you guys should have lunch sometime.

(column for 8.17.08)

Some impressions from Game Two of the preseason.

'QB Kurt Warner picked up where he left off last season. After struggling a little early, I thought he looked sharp later. He had no problem finding one of his favorite targets, receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

'Nine Cardinals caught passes. WR Anquan Boldin was not among them. The Cardinals tried to go deep to him on the first play but the pass was broken up by rookie corner Brandon Flowers.

'I thought the two young defensive ends, Calais Campbell and Kenny Iwebema, struggled at times in replacing starter Darnell Dockett, who missed the game with a pectoral strain. The Chiefs appeared to run right at them, but as coaches say, I'll have to review the tape. "You know what happened? " coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "We obviously didn't game plan so some of our calls calls we didn't have in that would have accounted for when they motioned across and ran to the weakside. I thought we did a pretty good job; it just looked like we missed some tackles."

'OLB Travis LaBoy played a solid game, leading the team with seven tackles, including two sacks. Joe Tafoya also had a sack.

'Chiefs first-round pick Glenn Dorsey made his preseason debut but didn't make much of an impact. When I watched him, he was matched up against Reggie Wells, who handled him.Dorsey was credited with one tackle.

'After the game, Whisenhunt talked about how the team has worked hard in camp on running draw plays. The Cardinals didn't get much out of those plays last year, but have looked better this year. Fifteen of Edgerrin James'  20 yards came on a draw play on second-and-16. That set up a third-and-2, which the Cardinals converted.

'Well, I'm the last one in the press box, so I better get out of here before they lock the gates. Check in this week as the Cardinals wrap things up in Flagstaff.