Moderate Democrat Jennifer Pawlik has positively distinguished herself as a member of the Arizona State Legislature as a pragmatic problem solver.
In her close to four years, the Chandler educator has continuously promoted legislation to move Arizona forward and lift people up, including:
- Fully funding public education.
- Working to solve the water crisis and protecting the environment.
- Protecting the right to vote and access to the ballot box.
- A woman’s right to choose.
- Equal rights for everyone.
- Expanding healthcare for children and pregnant women.
- Common sense gun control.
She has also fought against measures designed to:
- Make women and members of the LGBTQ Community second-class citizens.
- Expand unaccountable voucher scholarships so the wealthy can have an indirect tax cut and radical extremists can fund their own fringe schools.
- Suppress the right to vote.
- Make schools unsafe with the allowance for firearms on campus.
- Ban books in public schools.
Representative Pawlik is running for a term as a House member in the new Legislative District 13, an area that includes all or parts of Chandler, Gilbert, and Sun Lakes.
Pledging to be the voice for the LD 13 community and an earpiece to listen to their concerns, Representative Pawlik vows to continue working on the same issues in the State Legislature that she has in the last two sessions.
She graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy in the new LD 13.
The questions and her responses are below.
- Please tell the voters at least three reasons they should vote for you over your opponent.
“As the incumbent, I know the legislative process, and I have developed relationships with stakeholders at the capitol and in the community. I am ready to get to work immediately. In addition to that, I’ve served with integrity over the last four years. I have excellent attendance and I have a hundred percent voting record.
Prior to running for the legislature, I was a teacher and I have insight into what is happening at our schools and the struggles the teachers and the students face. But even though I have that insight, I continue to check back with educators that are currently in the field because I know things have changed in the six years I’ve been out of the classroom.”
- Please advise what are at least the three main issues in this legislative race.
“I continue to believe that the main issue is education. The teacher shortage is a big deal and but we need to focus on recruiting and retaining teachers. We need to make sure that they are high-quality teachers that are certified. They need to be paid for their experience and education levels. We also need to address the learning loss. NAEP scores were released last week, and they showed significant drops in both reading and math. So in education, there’s so much work to be done.
The second issue is certainly water. I’m really glad that we came to a bipartisan solution in the last session. However, I think that we need to continue the conversation, and we need to look at short-term solutions because we are in dire straits right now. We need to consider conservation. We need to really consider rural management, just like we have the active management areas in Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima Counties. We need to consider that for the outlying areas too.
A third issue is voting rights. We must ensure that we continue to have the right to vote. I have talked to a lot of seniors who are really concerned that the vote by mail is going to go away. They’re very concerned because they have mobility issues and they can’t stand in line at a polling place. They really like voting by mail. I think we ought to be making it as easy as possible for those who are qualified to vote.
A final issue that I’m hearing at doors a lot is abortion rights and reproductive healthcare. People don’t want the government in their personal business. I’m hearing that across the district from diverse people who are planning to vote this fall.”
Your position on funding the police?
“We need to fund the police. If there’s going to be any police reform, then there has to be funding for it. I don’t think that we should expect the police to be everything. It would be really super if there were mental health coordinators that work with the police departments. If a situation requires a mental health practitioner, then we send the mental health practitioner Additionally, there are staffing shortages, just like we see in the field of education. It’s going to cost money to properly staff and train our police departments.”
On Comprehensive Immigration Reform?
“I am for secure borders. I think that we have to have a pathway to citizenship. Dreamers who graduate from an Arizona high school should be able to access in-state tuition. With the refugee population, in particular, one thing that I’ve learned in conversation is that we don’t recognize higher degrees and certificates from their countries. So, they’re working at an hourly position, and then they’re struggling with housing and feeding their families.”
- How will your campaign reach out to voters, including Independents and Disaffected Republicans?
“We’re known for having a really strong ground game, and we are at doors seven days a week. With regards to attracting Independents and disaffected Republicans, I think they realize that I am a moderate Democrat. I listen to their concerns. I invite them to check out my website. I invite them to check out social media sites where they can view the videos that I’ve done over the last couple of years. Comments I’ve made on the House floor are publicly available.”
- Is there anything not covered in the first three questions that you would like the reader to know about you and your candidacy?
“It’s a big deal to show up. If I’m invited to something in the district, I try to be there. I have had elected Republican officials comment that everywhere they go, I am there. It’s part of the job, to represent my community, to be in my community, and to have conversations with leaders and constituents in the community. I have a pulse on where the people in this area are and then I can vote accordingly.
With the budget talks, I was one of the people working behind the scenes in the House. I can work across the aisle with reasonable people to improve bills that benefit people across our state.
One more item with regards to education, we have to reform or repeal the AEL (the Aggregate Expenditure Limit.) Otherwise, district and charter schools will be unable to use the funding that we negotiated this spring. I hope the governor calls us into a special session so we can deal with it this fall. Voters are angry with the expansion of private school vouchers, yet the legislature keeps overturning their will. People feel betrayed.”
Please click on the below social media sites to find out more about Jennifer Pawlik and her candidacy for one of the House seats in the new LD 13.
https://www.facebook.com/Rep.JenniferPawlik
https://jenniferpawlik.com
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.