Unite for Education candidate forum summary

Unite for Education held an excellent candidate forum on Friday night.  All of the candidates for AZ house, AZ senate and CD5 were in attendance.  Each candidate made a 3 minute statement and was available for informal question and answer.

The forum was an excellent opportunity to hear from all of the candidates in one place.

Overall it reinforced my existing choices:

LaCinda Lewis (AZ house) - Articulate, passionate about education and wants to significantly improve the communication between state and local government.  Our current legislators have been the opposite of local control, so this is a breath of fresh air!

Jimmy Lindblom (AZ senate) - Jimmy spoke from the heart about the importance of education and its necessity to unlock doors for all.  He also has a strong business background.

Christine Jones (CD5) - Very well spoken, understands importance of education on a personal level (husband is a teacher), strong business background and understands the need to work together in order to get things done.  I don't agree with all of her positions but I have confidence in her ability to be a successful leader in Washington.

Single shot LaCinda Lewis and Scott Anderson

LaCinda Lewis (AZ House) and Scott Anderson (Gilbert Town Council) are both running in races for multiple seats.  This means that you can vote for another candidate as well.  However, both races determine winners based on overall votes.  This means that it is probably the better choice to ONLY vote for LaCinda and Scott.

Andy Biggs - Dog Catcher

There have been plenty of stories in the news recently detailing concerns regarding Andy's track record of vindictiveness, punitive nature, and lack of leadership.  No need for me to re-hash those stories here.

What I will do is speak from personal experience.  I have met Andy in person on two occasions; once as a Republican PC and once in his legislative office to discuss education.  On both occasions, I found Andy to appear self centered and more interested in talking than listening.  I had the impression that he had already made up his mind and wasn't really interested in others opinions.

We need people in congress that will place action for the good of our country over personal ideology.

I wouldn't vote for Andy Biggs for dog catcher!
#neverbiggs

Arizona Free Enterprise Club - Dog Catcher

Received this in the mail today from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.  Nice of them to remind me who NOT to vote for!!

Warren Petersen - I wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher

Growing up at my house we had an expression – I wouldn’t vote for him or her for dog catcher.  It was intended as an expression of derision for politicians that we didn’t like.  In my series of blogs for the upcoming election, I will give out the dog catcher award for those candidates that I do not support.

So, first up – Warren Petersen – I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher

Warren Petersen has had several opportunities to support district and charter public school education.  He did not support or endorse bond or override elections within his district.  He did not endorse proposition 123 and a roadmap for education funding.  He did not oppose cuts to charter or district school funding.  Warren Petersen has demonstrated a lack of support for all forms of public education.

Legislators only have a certain amount of time and opportunity for impact.  The bills that they choose to sponsor or co-sponsor are a good representation of their priorities.  Among the bills sponsored by Warren Petersen are:

-          5 regarding decreased control of firearms

-          3 restricting photo radar usage

-          1 eliminating the requirement for immunizations as part of foster care licensure

-          1 expanding empowerment scholarships

-          1 expanding tax credits for private school attendance (STOs)

-          1 requiring high school students to pass a civics exams prior to graduation

-          1 allowing non-resident full time students to purchase resident hunting licenses

-          1 restricting the ability of cities and towns to regulate plastic bags (auxiliary containers)

Are these the priorities of the citizens that he was elected to represent?  Are they the most important issues that our legislators need to be addressing?  They are certainly not my priorities.

Repeat after me – I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher!

Blog introduction

As a lifelong republican and a past PC, I have always considered myself a moderate until I moved to Gilbert.  I have discovered that my views are well aligned with most community members but not with many of our local and state elected officials.

I believe that our current state representatives, state senator, and several town council members are more concerned with pleasing a small ultraconservative audience than representing the broad viewpoints of the Gilbert community.  Our state legislators appears to be more concerned with allowing any gun, anywhere, at any time, restricting the ability of cities to govern and initiating lawsuits over every action of the Federal government than actually governing Gilbert and Arizona.

Fortunately, in this election season, we have several new candidates running for office.  I believe this provides the voters of Gilbert with a unique opportunity to elect leaders who will focus on good governance over ideology.

I am starting this blog to share my views and endorsements and to engage in a dialogue with the citizens of Gilbert.

If you are interested, please comment and check back regularly as I provide my opinion on several of the local races and candidates.

Blake