Doug Ducey likes to praise Texas, often. He wants their state tax income rate (none) and their health care policies (no ACA exchanges, no Medicaid expansion). Ducey most assuredly wants the reproductive rights climate that currently exists in Texas, where the Fifth Circuit Court upheld spurious TRAP laws passed last year (and famously filibustered by State Senator Wendy Davis) which will close all but seven clinics in the entire state. Rural areas, including all of West Texas, will be without a single abortion provider.
Arizona LD18, which encompasses Ahwatukee and parts of Chandler and Tempe, is where I used to live for over a decade and is believed to be a somewhat competitive district. Democrat Rae Waters got elected to the House there in 2008 and Democrats continue to express optimism that they’ll be able to turn the district in the near future. The Republicans who get elected there have tended to be very right wing but smart enough to avoid “legitimate rape” gaffes and occasionally vote against their caucus on something high profile, such as this year’s Medicaid vote. Guys like Bob Robson and Jeff Dial are not actual centrists (as their total voting records amply demonstrate) but they feign it well enough to pass muster since pleasantness is so often mistaken for moderation here.
One of the (many) problems in a red state as economically polarized as Arizona is that the wealthier people are, the more insulated they are from the terrible right wing laws and policies that get passed. They have no fear of being stopped on the street by law enforcement because of how they look. Their children attend private schools or what good public schools remain. The indignities and deprivations visited upon vulnerable members of the population due to cuts to safety net programs are abstractions to them. They live mostly segregated lives in exclusive communities where they only interact with poor people when they’re being served by them. And these affluent Arizonans wield nearly all the political clout because they are the people who fund lobbyists and campaigns, including those of some of the most noxious right wingers.
The Koch Brothers support Doug Ducey for Arizona governor.
After seven months of mud-slinging in a six-way primary race that looked like a remake of Lord of the Flies, multi-millionaire ice cream mogul Doug Ducey has won the Arizona Republican Party’s nomination for governor.
Ducey’s sugary sweet interview with AZCentral this morning made it sound as if he’s already been elected governor, but there’s another election in November, and Democrats statewide are pulling out all the stops to get their candidate, Fred DuVal, elected.
Unfortunately for Tea Partiers in the great state of Maricopa, polls show that: 1) the match-up between Ducey and DuVal is a dead heat and 2) Ducey’s anti-Medicaid-expansion, anti-Obamacare, anti-abortion, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-gay-marriage, anti-common-core, pro-Koch-Brothers platform is not aligned with Arizona voters’ issues.
Don’t let Ducey’s charming aw-shucks, Leave-It-to-Beaver persona fool you. He runs with a tough crowd of right-wing ideologues. You can tell a lot about a person’s true character by looking at the company he keeps. Consequently, the company Ducey keeps weighs heavily in my Top 10 Reasons Why Doug Ducey Is Too Extreme for Arizona…
Recently the AZBlueMeanie posted a story about CD2 Candidate Martha McSally’s non-answers to Cathi Herrod’s Center for Arizona Policy candidate survey. Herrod is a right-wing operative in Arizona, so it’s odd that Tea Party Darling McSally didn’t answer CAP’s survey. (Remember SB1062? That was Cathi’s baby.)
One Congressional candidate who DID answer Herrod’s questions is progressive CD4 Candidate Mikel Weisser. Wow. Weisser offers a collection of no-holds-barred answers to CAP’s anti-science religiosity and their support for discrimination, the subjugation of women, and the prison industrial complex. Below are his answers.
Weisser is running against CAP stooge and incumbent Republican Paul Gosar. Gosar’s answers to this survey here. His answer to #8 sums up his stance on civil rights and equality for women: “All men are equal. Special categories are unnecessary.” (Emphasis added.)
Mikel Weisser’s Answers to Center for Arizona Policy Survey Questions 1. Repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Greedy corporations, irresponsible think tanks and heartless doctors have attacked American patients for too long. Attacks on the ACA have to be stopped.
2. Providing federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortions.
Planned parenthood is our most important women’s health organization and its opponents create havoc and misery. Groups like CAP must stop trying to control vaginas.
