In the Facebook Comments Race, Ciscomani is a BIG Loser        

Source: Congressman Ciscomani official Facebook page, with constituent comments

Republican Representative Juan Ciscomani has a Facebook page. He posts to it regularly, more frequently now that the November election is looming over the horizon (and he has an energetic Democratic opponent, JoAnna Mendoza). Ciscomani’s postings are almost entirely “good news” photo ops of his meetings with constituent groups, photos of him looking grave and absorbed in House of Representative committee hearings, and short videos where he talks about the progress of bills he is sponsoring.

There are no pictures of his district Town Hall meetings, naturally, since he never holds any!

            Facebook gives folks the chance to comment on posts. While allowing comments means acknowledging the free speech rights of all commenters, one might imagine that admirers of the congressman would chime in to say many good things about him. In Juan’s case, though, not so much. Not so much at all.

            We’ve been noticing that he attracts lots of negative comments to his posts. We finally decided to count and categorize the responses. On April 21 he pointed with pride to the progress of a military construction and veterans’ affairs bill. No apparent controversy there, but who among his commenters loved him? Almost no one.

            We read the comments (there were 112 in all, not counting the “brush fire wars” that broke out as some writers fought with each other in ways that weren’t germane to the post). One comment, a post of a short video, apparently of the eye of a hurricane, was beyond our comprehension to fit into the pro or con lists. But of the other 111, Ciscomani lost, 101 to 10!

The Facebook post became a vehicle for his many detractors, whose comments ranged from sober, issues-based responses to the angry, and quite derogatory (Not Safe for Work, in some cases).

A major theme, naturally, was Ciscomani’s long-standing refusal to hold Town Hall meetings with constituents in favor of curated appearances with groups where he doesn’t get questioned. “Any chance you might think about having a Townhall for constituents in southern Arizona instead of just meeting with the wealthy business owners and wealthy corporations that are funding your elections?” one person asked.

The very subject of the post, the congressman’s enthusiasm for veterans’ needs, came under attack: “When you vote to cut our veteran’s benefits significantly you can’t claim to be supporting them by giving back tidbits. It’s like taking away a person’s meal and giving them packets of sugar to eat and then telling everyone… hey look what I did.”

The most frequent criticism of this representative who almost invariably votes the Trump Administration line was:

• “All you do is vote how Johnson and Trump order you to vote. A monkey could do that.”
• “What about Trump? Start impeachment proceedings and I’d bet you could get Democrats in Congress to join you and pass all kinds of valuable legislation. Otherwise, you, Senor Ciscomani are just rowing upstream with your bare hands without a paddle.”
• “So when is Congress going to start reigning in Trump? How do you stand on Trump’s incredibly reckless and costly war of choice in Iran?”

Someone expressed an opinion without words, using the “iconic” Pinocchio nosed Juan Lies illustration from our very own Unseat Ciscomani Team:

           

            The most often expressed opinion was that Juan needs to be voted out of office in November: “CAN’T WAIT TO VOTE YOU OUT”. “Better Start Looking for a new job”. “How about helping real people. Your days are numbered.”

            Someone else summed up the crowd’s nearly unanimous sentiment: “Vote Blue!”