A new grassroots patriotic organization has sprung up in the Phoenix area, America Pack. Led by founder Valerie Grosso-Turley, it seeks to get involved at the local level in a way many conservative groups fail to — boots on the ground, not just sitting around listening to speakers.
At a meeting Friday night in Scottsdale, Grosso-Turley urged the crowd, which was composed substantially of precinct committee members, to get involved at the school board, city council, and precinct committeeman level. She cited the Biden administration weaponizing the FBI to squelch dissent by parents. She said this is because parents speaking up is having results, “They wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t matter.”
Seth Leibsohn, a talk show host on 960 The Patriot, spoke about the election audit, saying “there are a few things being done about it and not hardly enough.” He likes the Arizonans for Voter ID Act that is in the process of collecting signatures to be placed on the ballot. It would require photo ID even for mail-in ballots and eliminate ballot harvesting. However, Leibsohn said he isn’t too thrilled about mail-in voting at all, maybe we should go further and just “vote at your church on election day.”
Leibsohn discussed how the left changes their terms all the time. “The trick of the progressives is to say it’s not political.” But then they will make something political such as by saying masks are patriotic. “They say your speech is violent, while they take violent action and call it free speech.” He cited flag burning and the “mostly peaceful protesters” burning down inner cities.
The organizers shared some information about the status of public safety, as police departments around the Valley are being decimated. Over the last 10 years, the number of Phoenix police officers has declined from 3,300 to 2,700 — even though Phoenix was the fastest growing city in the country the last 10 years. There are currently 831 patrol officers, with 200 positions unfilled, and those numbers are about to drop even more, by a few hundred. The decrease has made the police more reactive instead of preventative.
The Phoenix City Council recently created a new board called the Office of Accountability and Transparency, which is going to start making policy recommendations that will adversely affect policing with restrictions. One man complained, “If I handcuff myself before I handcuff the bad guy, what do you expect?”
America Pack has six action subgroups. One addresses school board issues, a second deals with legislative issues, a third is aimed at the executive branch and legal issues, a fourth addresses city councils, a fifth covers events, and a fifth addresses election integrity.
Election integrity is a high priority, with even more subgroups. There is one dealing with the Maricopa County ballot audit, one for poll watching, a third for legislative action, and a fourth for media outreach. When asked what the committee is currently doing, Roger Strassburg, who heads up the election integrity committee, told The Arizona Sun Times, “It must be a high priority to make sure that all elections are fully and readily available to build back how people feel about the integrity of the elections in our state.” The committee is examining the audit report and educating people about what they find, and monitoring the Arizona Legislature to see if it is addressing everything that should be dealt with.
America Pack is expanding, with additional meetings in the East and West Valley starting next month. When Grosso-Turley asked for a show of hands for who was a new precinct committee person or who just applied to be one, about 20 people raised their hands. Many of its members have never been involved in politics before, but are deciding to now because they believe the future of the country is at stake.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Woman Voting” by WyoFile WyoFile. CC BY 2.0.
