Where Is The Republic Whining About These Republican Congressional Candidates Not Debating?

The editorial pages of The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican has always been the mouthpiece of the Arizona Republican Party and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Never forget it.

The Republic has used lots of ink and pixels recently giving Secretary of State Katie Hobbs shit for not wanting to give the MAGA/QAnon Big Lie election denier and conspiracy theorist “Krazy Kari” Lake any credibility by debating her, which we all know would never be a “debate” in any true sense of the word. “Krazy Kari” Lake made a shitshow of her “debate” with her primary opponents in the GQP primary. She intends to do the same with any “debate” with Katie Hobbs. Why give this abusive woman an opportunity to abuse the moderator, her opponent, the debate process, and the voters with her “Trump in a dress” act?

But you have not seen one word – not one word – from the pundits of The Republic about the Republican candidates for Congress who have declined debating their Democratic opponents. The self-serving hypocrisy is self-evident. The Arizona Republic fka The Arizona Republican is the mouthpiece of the Arizona Republican Party after all.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s hand-picked candidate in CD 6, Juan Ciscomani, did not even respond to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission invitation to debate. Where is Laurie Roberts clutching her pearls and being sanctimonious with her “bad move” moralizing. Where is right-wing polemicist Phil Boas calling Juan Ciscomani a “coward” and rhetorically questioning why is he even running for office?

You already know the answer: IOKIYAR.

The Democratic candidate in CD 6 did show up: former state senator Kirsten Engel.

Arizona Horizon PBS summarizes:

Arizona’s re-drawn 6th Congressional District stretches from the state’s southeastern border to as far north as Alpine and as far west as eastern sections of Tucson. Incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick is retiring, which makes the the 6th District Arizona’s only open-seat Congressional Election.

We invited the two candidates in the race to join us for our debate. The Republican candidate did not respond to our invitation. The Democratic candidate did: she is Kirsten Engel, and she joined us to discuss the issues.

Her background

Congressional District Six Candidate Kirsten Engel is a professor at the University of Arizona College of Law where she teaches environmental law and legislative analysis to graduate and undergraduate students. Prior to her teaching career, Ms. Engel practiced environmental law with state and federal agencies. She is a mom, an environmental attorney, and a former State Legislator who has spent the past five years fighting to restore funding to public schools, protect Arizona’s natural resources, and make our communities safer. She’s ready to take that fight to Washington to find common-sense solutions to the challenges faced in Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District.

She stressed the importance for access to healthcare. “We know as a result of what happened with the Supreme Court repealing Roe v. Wade that now women do not have that fundamental right, that they have enjoyed for 50 years, over their own healthcare decisions,” she said.

Healthcare is an

issue she says is prominent in her district. Water is also an issue that she wants to address, including the “mega-drought” and economic opportunity.

She says that, in regards to healthcare, people need to make those decisions themselves. This includes reproductive health choices.

“We have a territorial law that potentially criminalizes doctors and for providing this basic healthcare. It is very uncertain landscape,” she said.

The same occurred in CD 2 where incumbent Democrat Tom O’Halleran is running for reelection. His Republican opponent, Eli Crane, declined the Citizens Clean Elections Commission invitation to debate. Again, where is Laurie Roberts clutching her pearls and being sanctimonious with her “bad move” moralizing. Where is right-wing polemicist Phil Boas calling Eli Crane a “coward” and rhetorically questioning why is he even running for office?

You already know the answer: IOKIYAR.

Congressman Tom O’Halleran did show up.

Arizona Horizon PBS summarizes:

Tom O’Halleran (D) of Congressional District 2 joins us today to talk about his campaign and what he can do for his district.

O’Halleran believes that in order for our economy to grow, we must expand the middle class and create good-paying jobs. He wants to protect Social Security from those who seek to privatize it or want to turn Medicare into a voucher system. He supports immigration reform that secures our border, keeps families together, and meets the needs of demands of our economy. He supports veteran issues and education issues.

O’Halleran is facing Republican Eli Crane, who had declined the invitation at this time. [WTF does that mean?]

His biggest concern

“If you live in Arizona, you have to worry about water even in rural sections of the state. It’s a serious issue right now,” O’Halleran explained. During his time in Congress, O’Halleran has created statewide conservation plans and statewide drop management plans.

What can be done

“Out of fairness for everybody, all seven basin states have to do what Arizona is doing; conserving as much water as they can, recognizing that this is a problem,” O’Halleran explained. He mentioned that California is currently not conserving water to the levels they should be.

“By 2040, we’ll lose about 10% of our water. They don’t put any water into the Colorado River, and we do,” O’Halleran said.

Reconsidering growth

The possibility to reconsider Arizona population growth was discussed, considering that it has expanded immensely.

“We always need to reconsider how we’re going to grow; this is why I did a drop management plan, a conservation plan, a statewide water plan. That should be an ongoing creative process of what we’re going to do to look into the future and not deal with crisis time after time,” he explained.

He has been discussing these water issues for about 20 years, with many initiatives being taken to bring these issues to light.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has schedued additional Congressional debates

CD 5 with incumbent Republican Rep. Andy Biggs and his Democratic opponent Javier Ramos, on September 21 at 5:00 p.m.

CD 7 with incumbent Democrat Raúl Grijalva and his Republican opponent Luis Pozzolo, on September 26 at 5:00 p.m.

CD 3 with incumbent Democrat Ruben Gaego and his Republican opponent Jeff Zink, on September 29 at 5:00 p.m.

CD 1 with incumbent Republican David Schweikert and his Democratic opponent Jevin Hodge, on October 4 at 5:00 p.m.

CD 4 with incumbent Democrat Greg Stanton and his Republican opponent Kelly Cooper, on October 19 at 5:00 p.m.

We shall see how many of these candidates actually show up for their debates. I do not find these “debates” with moderator Ted Simons particularly illuminating or helpful in any event. Can’t we do better than this?

Note: Incumbent Republicans Debbie Lesko (CD 8), and Paul Gosar (CD 9) face Democratic write-in candidates in the general election, and therefore do not have to debate.