Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

I talked to a guy the other day that claims to be a regular reader of this blog, and he asked me a question that led me to ask him, “Didn’t you read that on my blog?”

“Well, I only read if you are talking about CD 8…”

Sheesh…

Okay…I suppose I must pander to you people. No appreciation for my art.

-sigh-

Okay, here is some stuff. Patty Amadeus Gelenberg Weiss announced her congressional bid on Monday over at Palo Verde High School. Message: I went to Palo Verde High School.

I did not attend the speech, I read it on her website. It reads well, and given that she was an anchorwoman for nearly 30 years, it is safe to assume that it was well delivered.

Something I have found interesting is that she would lay out a problem and say: “That’s the problem, what’s the solution?” Nice, since it gave her an opporitunity to lay out actual solutions to the problems that she believes our nation faces. To me though, such a “work horse not show horse” sort of slogan only points out her lack of experience actually working on solutions to these problems.

I’m sure that somebody will write in saying how her “solutions” were so much boilerplate and “We want specifics…” A couple of pieces of reality: every campaign eventually comes up with position papers full of specifics just for people that want them. Although these can be helpful to show a bit about how a candidate feels about issues, they often are not implimented after victory because of changing circumstances and political reality. This happens to an even greater extent when you are elected as a freshman (freshperson?) in a body of 435 people. This is why I prefer to look at a candidate with a record, so I can see what she has done in the past.

One person told me that KGUN reported that Weiss said that she wanted to fix the state’s health care system. If this is what Weiss said, it would indicate that she’s not well informed about the responsibilities of the US Congress. However, according to the transcript, it isn’t what she said:

Let’s look at health care. My husband is a doctor. He provides care every day and he sees how patients struggle to get the care they need. There was a time when Americans could count on employers to provide health coverage. Those days are gone. Fewer than half of Arizonans are insured through their employers – one of the lowest levels in the nation. Even if you have health insurance, you are affected. When you pay your doctor or hospital bill, you’re also paying for those who can’t.

That is the problem. What is the solution?

We must separate health insurance from employment and make sure every citizen has access to health care. Removing the burden of health coverage from businesses like General Motors will help American companies compete in the global economy, where no other industrialized nation ties health insurance to the workplace.

So, in other words, she was using Arizona as an example rather than saying she would fix Arizona. The fact that she mentioned GM, which has only a small manufacturing presence here, indicates that she knows she’s talking about a national issue.

So it wasn’t Weiss that was misinformed, it was the TV reporter. It shouldn’t suprise us given the sorts of people the local stations have hired lately. Remember when they had journalism degrees rather than communication degrees? -sigh- Makes me miss Weiss as a reporter more…

Rep. Steve Huffman announced that he will make a bid in the Republican primary. Huffman is farily conservative, he’s one of the guys who voted for these silly credits in the ELL bill (which I hope Gabrielle Giffords brings up if he’s the nominee), and has mounted an ongoing attack on TUSD’s desegregation funding. Even given this, Huffman is not a favorite among the far right; he actually is interested in making friends with Democrats and his veins don’t pop out of his neck when he discusses social issues. Also, he married into a family of Democrats. Hispanic ones, even. That ought to make Randy Graf happy.

This means that Huffman will not be running against Toni Hellon for the State Senate, but it does mean he will be running against her ex-husband, Mike Hellon, who announced that he will make a go of it last week. I swear, Northwest side Republican politics are so incestious.

R-CUBED QUIZ - If he wins, Huffman would be the second Arizona Congressman from Oro Valley. Who was the first?

By the way, Graf’s supporters are angry with Hellon’s characterization of their candidate. Hellon said that any vote for Graf is a vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker. Almost makes me want to re-register and vote in the Republican primary.

Anyhow, this statement generated a letter to the editor:

Mike Hellon’s regurgitating the myth that Randy Graf can’t win the general election is pure bunk.

His assertion tells you two things: Hellon will say anything to win, which gives us a preview of the low, base tactics he’ll use during his campaign, and the propaganda campaign is based on the fact that facing Graf is a losing prospect and everyone running against him is afraid to run against him on the issues.

Can we all just get along, and leave the smears at home?

Jade Stokes
Tucson

First thing the guy says is “regurgitating,” then wants everyone to get along. I found the name interesting. If this is the same Jade Stokes I think it is, he has no buisiness decrying “smears” or any other “base tactics.” This is a guy who has bragged that he will work for any candidate that will pay him. In the 2002 race, he worked for Democrat Elaine Richardson then Republican Al Piña. When Piña dropped out, he jumped to another Republican campaign, Lori Lustig’s. When Lustig lost her primary after running a bewildering commercial, he worked for the Pima County Republicans and Republican nominee Ross Hieb. He could often be seen at then-candidate Raúl Grijalva’s appearances, sereptitiously making recordings. Shortly before that election, he came to a speech by Pres. Bill Clinton, complete with a a news camera and press credentials. We wondered why KVOA sent two cameras. He was a stringer, but it turns out that he wasn’t supposed to be there. Believe me, KVOA was really happy when we informed them that the guy was using their credentials for political purposes.

By the way, notice that none of Stokes’s candidates managed to win the primary.

Alex Rodriguez has a website up now.

Enough for today.

R-Cubed Quiz Answer: After he remarried, Mo Udall moved to Oro Valley, so that’s where he lived towards the end of his congressional career. This also means that Rep. Mark Udall attended Canyon del Oro High School.