The People in Legislative District One (most of the area surrounding and including Prescott) are examples of the old adage “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me for letting you get away with it the first time.”
What did the people do when one of their state representatives, David Stringer, commented in June at the Yavapai Men’s Forum that “there were not enough white kids to go around” in our public schools?
Did they tell him it was time to go and resign from public life?
No, they reelected him on November 6 with a 35,000 vote margin over his Democratic opponent.
At the time Governor Ducey called on him to resign in June, saying “I don’t think there is any place for that kind of commentary in the public square. He has basically disqualified himself from leading at the state level.”
How did Representative Stringer reward the trust of the people in LD 1? By saying, at a forum with students at Arizona State University, African Americans, in contrast to immigrants from Europe, “don’t blend in.”
Newly elected state Senator Victoria Steele called for Stringer’s immediate resignation. “Diversity is what makes us strong and beautiful. How could you look at someone and say, ‘this person is less than me or less deserving’? This type of behavior should ever be tolerated by our leaders. Rep. Stringer’s behavior and his vulgar comments have brought dishonor to the to the entire Arizona Legislature. I do not want to serve with him when I start next month. He should be removed from his position as a lawmaker. I am calling for his immediate resignation. Should he refuse or hesitate to resign he should be publicly removed from office,” Steele said.
Steele is host of the Steele Report on KVOI radio 1030 AM, broadcast on Saturday mornings at 9 am.
Part of being a public servant is having the character, temperament, and moral compass to represent the people that are being served. With these two comments over a span of five months, Stringer has shown he lacks the character, temperament, and moral compass to represent the people in LD 1.
One can hope (actually expect) that the people in LD 1, most of whom do not share Stringer’s hostility to non white people, will heed the calls of other public figures like incoming Democratic State Senator Victoria Steele, Democratic State Representative Cesar Chavez, Minority House Leader Reginald Bolding, and Republican Governor Doug Ducey and tell Mr. Stringer it is time to go. It would be shameful if they did not.
UPDATE ON DECEMBER 4, 2018: The Prescott City Council in a 6 to 1 vote called for Representative Stringer to resign. Let us see if the other towns in his district call for the same action and if Mr. Stringer heeds their call.
An older, white, educated (supposedly), fairly affluent, California retiree demographic in the Prescott area. But the Prescott city council will condemn him, and call for his resignatjon. Ironically, Gosar is not much different. Too many blindly voted for two incompetents.
Thank you for your thoughts
In the General Election 2018, Rep. Noel Campbell got 70,130 votes, and Rep. David Stringer got 67,023 to be re-elected. The two Democrats running in LD 1 got only about half those votes.
https://results.arizona.vote/#/legislative/4/0