Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I received a press release from a Republican candidate for Congress who announced last week. As you know, Blog for Arizona is a resource for Democratic candidates. But when I saw the wingnuts over at Seeing Red AZ immediately attack this candidate, I decided to take a closer look.
The announcement was for Paulina Morris, a Republican candidate for Congressional District 3. From her press release, Ms. Morris is a first generation Cuban-American who made "her way west from the tough streets of Chicago to attend the University of Arizona, the Political Science major graduated cum laude. Paulina earned her juris doctorate from the University of Arizona. In 1998 Paulina attended graduate school at Arizona State University and earned an MBA and Master of Health Services Administration. Paulina most recently served as Deputy Director and General Counsel for the Arizona Department of Administration. She also served on the Governor's transition team and was one of Arizona's co-chairs of Hispanics for John McCain for President 2008."
Ms. Morris is married to her husband Jason and has two sons. Ms. Morris was elected to serve on the Maricopa County Special Health District Board of Directors from 2004-2008. She describes herself as a conservative (well, of course).
A quick Google search turned up this recent article in Latino Perspectives Magazine Paulina Vazquez Morris for U.S. Congress – Latino Perspectives Magazine – February 2010:
Paulina Vazquez Morris has announced she is considering a run to seek the Republican nomination for Rep. John Shadegg’s congressional seat. Shadegg (R-AZ) announced last month he would serve out his current term, but wouldn’t seek reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. “I’m humbled by the people encouraging me to run for the Congressional District 3 seat and am seriously considering the race,” states Vazquez Morris.
* * *
Paulina is no stranger to public service. She served as a legislative and legal intern in the United States House of Representatives and the Arizona State Senate. She has also served as a legal extern to the Federal District Court of Arizona.
She joined the Brewer administration as part of the transition team and was recently promoted to deputy director and general counsel at the Arizona Department of Administration. She has served as an elected board member to the Maricopa County Special Health District, and was twice elected by the board as its chair. She has also served as an assistant director and administrative counsel to the Arizona Department of Economic Security and as board counsel to the Arizona Board of Regents.
In the private sector she has worked for Banner Health, Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation and the national law firm of Kutak Rock.
She holds a B.A. and a J.D. from the University of Arizona and dual master’s degree in business and health administration from ASU.
Given her credentials and experience, it would make sense for the talented, capable and well-poised Vazquez Morris to make immigration, health care and education her top priorities, matters which Arizonans have consistently ranked as top issues affecting our state.
Ms. Morris sounds like a credible contender, right? Well, this is where Republican primary politics gets weird and the slugs on the far-right crawl out from under their rocks. AZ CD 3: Pro-abort Paulina Vasquez Morris makes it official « Seeing Red AZ:
Paulina Vasquez Morris, with boxing gloves aloft, recently launched her campaign by maliciously attacking her opponents in the Republican primary. In the most unusual of ploys, she accused them of “breaking promises to voters to further their own political aspirations by running for various other offices.”
To prove her point, Morris, a staunch advocate on behalf of abortion, distributed campaign material from other candidates in the CD3 race which shows some had opened exploratory campaigns for various other offices prior to this seat becoming available. Opening an exploratory campaign is a widely used and acceptable means of dipping a toe into the political waters. It does not a campaign announcement make.
Morris has made her bent clear by appointing Deborah Carstens, of the pro-abortion WISH List National Board of Directors as her campaign co-chairman. Lisa Graham Keegan, a former McCain aide, shares the chairmanship duties with Carstens.
On the supposedly Republican national WISH list home page are these telling words: “We’re working hard to make sure these outstanding women leaders have the resources they need to battle the right-wing extremists hoping to eliminate them!”
Paulina Vasquez Morris can hand out brochures from other’s campaigns in her transparent and vain attempt to sully them, but her association with the abortion movement proves her disconnect from the conservative-leaning congressional district she seeks to represent.
Let’s see if she includes that fact on her own brochures.
Now I don't know anything more about Paulina Vasquez Morris than what has been written about her above. But a pro-choice Hispanic woman makes for an interesting choice in the CD 3 GOP primary. There was a time, not that long ago, when there were Republican women who were pro-choice and even supported the Equal Rights Act. It would be refreshing to see this nearly extinct species return once again to the wilds of the Republican Party.
While I can’t see the purpose of voting for a candidate for US House that doesn’t have a posted position on Iraq I wouldn’t count her out. Splitting the Republican primary voter pie in in CD-3 is likely to produce some interesting results.
I think it is interesting that Paulina has chosen to rip off the logo of a local Conservative female in the LD11 GOP primary with the same last name (who has branded herself with that logo since she filed last October). In a year like this you can guarantee that the gop winners will likely be stauncher conservatives than in years past, meaning she would have almost no chance with people like Vernon Parker in that race who took an unprecedented 60% of the vote in the race for PV Mayor and Ben Quayle who has raised more than half a million in contributions. With LD11 being in CD3, you can almost guarantee that she is hoping to piggy back on the Tea Party’s conservative darling. Pretty ballsy if you ask me. Has anyone heard from or tried to contact the ‘other’ Morris about that?
Personally, I don’t care how conservative or not she is. I think we are all like minded here. But, I think plagiarism should be beneath any Congressional Candidate and is not only dirty politics… But down right illegal. I wonder what the artist who designed the original logo would think?
Let’s see – Morris is intelligent, attractive, accomplished, Hispanic, and moderate (by the standards of the AZGOP, anyway).
In almost any other state, she’d be a formidable candidate, and one with a high long-term ceiling.
In Arizona, she probably won’t do better than third or fourth in the CD3 primary, behind Waring, Quayle, and perhaps Gorman (not sure what order they’ll finish in).
This woman must be a raving liberal if Lisa Graham Keegan is her co-chair. Or not, as the case may be.
Keegan, once a darling of AZ conservatives, is now being used as a stand-in for McCain as a symbol of the old, lefty branch of the Republican party.
We live in interesting times.