Voters in the new Arizona Legislative District (LD) Nine, an area that includes a significant portion of Western Mesa, really have a choice of whom they would like to elect as their State Senator on the November 8, 2022, elections.
The Republicans have nominated extremely dangerous Trump Republican Robert Scantlebury, a candidate that, if he gets elected, the residents of LD Nine can say probably say goodbye to:
- A woman’s right to choose.
- Full access to the ballot box.
- Any chance of fully funding the K-12 Education system.
- School teachers that believe in teaching factual history and utilizing literature choices that Mr. Scantlebury would probably ban.
The Democrats have chosen Nurse Practitioner Eva Burch as their nominee. A voice of reason and reality, Ms. Burch, if elected, would pursue policies in the State Senate that would lift people up and move the state forward. These policies include:
- Supporting a woman’s right to choose.
- Making it easier to vote.
- Fully funding public education.
- Supporting school teachers.
- Combatting climate change and addressing the water shortage.
- Championing reasonable gun safety measures.
- Access to affordable and quality health care.
- Making housing affordable.
She is the light to Mr. Scantlebury’s darkness and Mesa’s version of the Handmaid’s Tale.
Ms. Burch graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy for the Arizona State Senate in the new LD Nine.
The questions and her responses are below.
- Please advise whether at least three important issues in the Legislative Race in LD Nine and why they should choose you over your opponent. Please explain.
“The first issue that I think is a high priority to Arizonans in general and to voters in my district is education. We should be increasing funding for public education and should not be funneling state funds into private and parochial schools. Publicly funded education institutions should be open to the public and anyone. Schools should not be able to turn students away or discriminate based on religion, race, sexual orientation, economic advantage, or any other variable while receiving public funds. Our teachers should be well-paid and highly qualified, and we should have adequate supplies, technology, and support staff. Those positions are universally popular and it is common sense. Budget prioritization. My opponent supports voucher expansion programs that take money away from our public institutions and hurt a system that’s already struggling to meet the basic needs of the overwhelming majority of Arizona, children who attend public schools. Arizona voters have already weighed in on this issue. And we have to stop electing leaders who consistently fight the will of the people who they promised to represent.
A second issue that we are focusing on is voter rights. When I am talking to my neighbors at the doors here in the district, I hear time and again, that people want to maintain the right to vote by mail and are concerned about legislation that will jeopardize that option and their vote. My opponent is an election denier who believes that Trump won the 2020 election. He wants to write legislation that’s rooted in that point of view, which would make it more difficult for eligible and law-abiding voters to cast their ballots. My campaign supports a secure and transparent elections process that maintains election security while also making sure that voting is simple and accessible to the people of Arizona without undue hardships.
The third issue where I think we could probably draw the most significant contrast between me and my opponent is abortion. I am qualified to speak to this issue and my opponent is not, I am a nurse practitioner and I work in the reproductive healthcare environment. These politicians who are proposing universal abortion bans are out of touch. They’re on the wrong side of the issue from a medical perspective. It’s unethical. Pregnancy is not a health-neutral event. It carries significant risks, and there’s no point in a pregnancy where a patient is safe from a complication that might call for the termination of the pregnancy. So again, taking that option away from patients and medical providers is unethical from a more personal and social perspective. Abortion occurs under a myriad of circumstances, and it’s not appropriate for governments to be sifting through them, to decide which are acceptable and which are not. It is a blatant and intrusive invasion of privacy, a privacy right that is guaranteed to us in the Arizona constitution.”
Has anyone brought up inflation, rising gas, or food prices?
“Yes, I know that inflation is impacting Arizonans in real-time right now. That is a high concern and a high priority for a lot of our people. There are solutions that we can draw up in the state legislature. One thing that we can do to address these problems is to address price gouging because corporations are still recording record profits in these times. We know that there is price gouging that’s happening and that is contributing to the inflation that we’re experiencing. I also think that it’s really important for us to not separate the education issue because they are linked. We have all these big companies who come here and want to set up shop and that’s great. It’s important for us to have a robust economy, but we need to make sure that we have a well-educated pool of candidates for them to choose from because otherwise they are hiring from out of state and that’s bringing people into the state, which is also contributing to inflation and to the rising cost of items. So, there are several things that we can do in the legislature to improve that situation and I’m committed to that issue.”
Have voters talked to you about funding the police?
“That is not an issue that people are bringing up to me. Obviously, the funding of public services is a part of what we do in the legislature and it’s a part of our budget negotiations each year. I know it’s an issue that is important to people, but it’s not an issue that I’ve had people bringing up to me at the doors.”
- Please describe your campaign strategy to reach out to voters in the new LD Nine, including Independents and Disaffected Republicans.
“We have a very well-organized campaign with several full-time employees including field organizers who are knocking on hundreds of doors every week. I, myself am knocking on doors several times a week, specifically talking to Independents and Republicans who are feeling underrepresented in this race. In the current political climate and Arizona in general, our strategy involves a strong field plan to knock on thousands of doors and meet the voters where they are as well as mailers and a digital media campaign, just to make sure that our message is getting into the community and that people know who I am and what my commitment is to the people of the district.
I think it’s important to me that the people of this district know that I’m available to them and I’m dedicated to being a true representative in the community. I’m not loyal to a political party or to any special interest group. It’s my responsibility to represent this district. If I’m elected, that means I need to be able to listen to questions and concerns of people who I agree with and people who I disagree with on various issues and try to come up with some common sense, collaborative solutions that reflect the values of my community. That’s what I’m committed to doing in this race. I want to listen to people who I represent and bring their concerns to the table in the legislature. That’s what I want from my leaders. And that’s the kind of leader that I aspire to be.”
- Is there anything not covered in the first couple of questions that you would like the reader to know about you and your candidacy? Please explain.
“Water and gun violence are two issues that I’m hearing a lot about. I think that there are ways that we can address these issues in the legislature that will benefit all Arizonans, particularly with regard to water. In relationship to the unchecked pumping of groundwater, our, um, river stream basins need to be protected. I’m very committed to that and to trying to come up with multi-pronged solutions to address the water crisis.
I want to make sure that we have common sense gun legislation that isn’t punishing law-abiding gun owners but also protects the population. That seems to be consistently popular with people on both sides of the aisle when I’m knocking on doors. It is the community that helps me to shape a lot of those perspectives because again, it is my commitment to representing the values of the community, but I’m finding that it’s pretty consistent throughout.”
Please click on the below social media sites to find out more about Eva Burch and her candidacy for the Arizona State Senate Seat in the new LD Nine.
Facebook- Eva for Arizona