Crossposted on DemocraticDiva.com
Arizona LD18, which encompasses Ahwatukee and parts of Chandler and Tempe, is where I used to live for over a decade and is believed to be a somewhat competitive district. Democrat Rae Waters got elected to the House there in 2008 and Democrats continue to express optimism that they’ll be able to turn the district in the near future. The Republicans who get elected there have tended to be very right wing but smart enough to avoid “legitimate rape” gaffes and occasionally vote against their caucus on something high profile, such as this year’s Medicaid vote. Guys like Bob Robson and Jeff Dial are not actual centrists (as their total voting records amply demonstrate) but they feign it well enough to pass muster since pleasantness is so often mistaken for moderation here.
LD18 has an open House seat due to John McComish retiring from the Senate and Rep. Dial running for his seat. Rep. Robson will be running for reelection along with a new candidate named Jill Norgaard. Norgaard is a proud Tea Party patriot who shared her radical (and often incoherent) views with a thing called Liberty Storm Radio for nearly an hour this past June. Lot of crackpottery in there about school vouchers and taking health care away from a large percentage of Arizona’s residents. Give it a listen for yourself.
And then there’s her Center for Arizona Policy Questionnaire, in which she responded to this question:
4.Prohibiting abortion except when it is necessary to prevent the death of the mother.
with this:
Question 4: Prohibit abortion, no exceptions
Let’s be clear here, the CAP survey doesn’t even require candidates to elaborate on their support or opposition to their positions with a comment. Norgaard chose to make that additional statement. If she is asked about this at a forum or endorsement interview there’s a good chance that she will backtrack on it but her Democratic opponent Mitzi Epstein and allies should not let Norgaard get away with it. This isn’t a gaffe. She didn’t “misspeak”.
A good rule of thumb with anti-choicers is to assume that the most extreme thing they’ve said or done with regard to the issue is their true position. For example, when Jeff Flake was running for Senate he told the AZ Republic ed board that he was for rape and incest exceptions and they bought it without looking at his voting record in Congress, where he voted for no exceptions on abortion bills right along with Todd Akin. With Norgaard, you have her saying “no exceptions”, not even for the woman’s life, to a written survey where she had plenty of time to consider her answer. I have a feeling if someone got her talking about the subject we would hear some pretty disturbing opinions about her fellow women from Jill.
Garden variety anti-choice is bad enough, but it’s not even possible to emphasize how dangerous anti-choicers, like Jill Norgaard, who don’t even believe in exceptions for women’s lives are. There are a lot of them out there and they are keen on getting into elected and other positions of authority so they can play God with women’s lives and health. Begone, Jill Norgaard.