Tuesday evening a few Republican candidates spoke before the Catalina Village Council meeting. Pete Hershberger and Al Melvin squared off over the legislative district 26 senate seat. Ann Day and Joe Higgins talked about the Pima County Supervisor District 1 primary.

     Catalina is an unincorporated community north of Tucson. The area is an eclectic mix of manufactured and custom built homes. Despite recent growth the community has a rural feel. There were only about 35 people at the meeting, many of them with campaigns. There were probably not even a majority of Republicans among the crowd but it was a great opportunity to see the style and approach of each campaign. Speeches were about 10 minutes each followed by questions from the audience with both candidates at the podium.

     Al Melvin was up first and served a full platter of sizzling red meat to the granola chewing crowd. He brought up the platform and traditional Republican values and Hershberger’s record in relation to said platform. His comparison piece was handed out during his speech. He focused on his 5 points to make Arizona great: Secure Borders, Improve Education, Pro-growth Tax Structure, Nuclear Power, and Desalinization.

     Next up was Pete Hershberger. He firmly countered several of Melvin’s attacks and spoke about his experience, his record of winning house races, and his work for children. He also dragged up the favorite line from the previous Republican senator of the area, “I am a good fit for the district.” Some of Pete comments did not make much sense though. He attacked school vouchers on the grounds that they would lead to overcrowding. Sure schools may receive less money but only if the kid leaves for somewhere else. If you think alternatives to the public schools cause overcrowding you need to check what has happened to TUSD. They are having to close schools because of lack of enrollment and small class size.

     Hershberger draped himself in the Goldwater name. He failed to mention his D- grade from the Goldwater Institute. He did say that Melvin was relying on ratings from extremist groups that want guns in the schools. I was not able to find a single item in the 2007 Goldwater ratings about guns, or any other social issue for that matter. Their ratings are mostly based on private property and government regulation matters. Are we to believe that the Goldwater Institute is an extremist group just because Hershberger’s scored a D- on their report?

     There were a few questions but the candidates mostly stayed on the same issues. They were direct in their assertions but basically civil to each other.

     Next up were the supervisor candidates. Joe Higgins spoke first. He introduced himself and spelled out his call to action based on lack of leadership and bloated property taxes and budgets. He did not directly go after Day but was clearly stating the case for a change.

     Ann Day was the final speaker. Despite her crackly voice and reading from her notes style she was quite spunky. She attacked some of Higgins’ assertions and talked about all the great work she did when she first came to office 7 years ago. Few if any stories were recent. Her message of environmentalism was a perfect fit with the crowd and she event stated that (paraphrased) the “Sustainability is not just a buzz work but a state of being.” Sure is easy to drive a Prius when the taxpayers of Pima County give one to you free of charge.

     During the question and answer Higgins was careful not to attack the even more feisty Day but he continued with his theme of a need for new leadership for the district.

     The election was not moved one direction or another with so small a crowd but it was interesting to see the candidates speak in public. Hershberger will be running a more active campaign than Hellon did 2 years ago. Will it be enough to close the 2,500 vote gap the Melvin had over Hellon? We should know in the first week of September. Day also came out swinging but many of her points were from the past or simply not correct. Higgins is not basing his strategy on directly attacking Day.

     We do not know if Day will face Higgins again. The legislative 26 meetings are pretty booked up with legislative appearances from now to the primary. Melvin and Hershberger may appear again at the Clean Elections debate on July 2nd at Nanini Library. Based on Hershberger’s performance on Tuesday we expect that he will show up on the 2nd. If you want to see right vs. left don’t miss it.

     Speaking of Higgins, I spotted his newest vehicle wrap right on Oracle Road just above Magee. Talk about multiple impressions.

Here is a guest editorial from Frank Antenori, legislative candidate for House of Representatives from LD 30*.

Gimmicks, Gambling and Down Right Thievery

Frank Antenori

Republican Candidate LD 30 State House

With the slowdown of the economy and the rising costs of gasoline and food, Arizonans are looking for ways to cut back on personal spending. They’re dining out less, running only essential errands and some will even forego the traditional summer vacation and opt for the less expensive “stay-cation” just to stick to their household budget.

But while most of us are tightening our fiscal belts to make ends meet, your State Legislators and Governor are scheming for ways to continue their exorbitant, out of control spending at your expense.

As of right now, a tentative budget agreement has them proposing to spend over $11 Billion, with only $9.1 Billion in state revenue. That means they’re spending more money than we have, almost $2 Billion more. How can they spend more money than what is in the general fund you ask?

I’ll tell you. With unconstitutional bonding gimmicks, expanding state sponsored gambling, and by expropriating the money from separately funded state agencies.

To make up for the 21% in overspending, the Legislature will use $1 Billion in unconstitutional borrowing and “other financial maneuvers” that will result in $83 million a year in debt payments. If that’s not enough, they “hope” more Arizonans will gamble away their money on the state lottery or get caught speeding to make up the shortfall.

To top it all off, they plan on “sweeping” funds from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the State Parks Department and other independently funded state agencies. The funding for these departments is not generated by tax revenue, does not come from the general fund and is not appropriated by the legislature. These departments get their funding from Arizona sportsmen and outdoor recreationists via the purchase of hunting, fishing, boating and off highway vehicle licenses and camping fees.

The money is supposed to be used for game species habitat protection, State Park facilities maintenance, boat launch construction, and State Lake improvements. Instead of balancing the budget with the money available in the general fund, they’re stealing it from Arizona’s outdoorsmen.

It is time to put an end to this by electing leaders that will stand up for the one constituency that gets little notice, the taxpayer. Leaders that will adhere to fiscal conservative principles by eliminating non-essential government programs, holding state agencies accountable for wasteful spending and sticking to our State’s Constitution to Balance the Budget.

Taxpayers deserve State Representatives that will work hard to prevent State Government from raiding other accounts and raising your taxes. Let’s put Arizona back on a sound fiscal foundation by electing principled, fiscal conservatives this November.

Frank Antenori is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces veteran that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, a published author and a candidate for the Arizona State Legislature in District 30.

*Publication of this editorial is not meant as an endorsement of the author but rather an opportunity for candidates to directly reach our audience.