Sen. Jack Harper, LD-4 (left), and challenger John Zerby participated in a Republican primary debate last Thursday in Sun City. Zerby came across as knowing very little about the legislature and as liberal as a Democrat on most issues. He is endorsed by the LD-4 AZ Education Association and the Firefighter’s Union. He refuses to take a pledge against raising taxes, unlike Harper. He has missed 1/3 of the Wickenburg Town Council meetings while serving on that board the past 3 1/2 years. Harper never missed a roll call vote his first 3 1/2 years in the legislature (and has only missed one vote ever).
One of the first questions was whether the candidates supported tax incentives for businesses to locate within the district. Harper responded and said that broad-based tax cuts across the board are the best for business and the economy. He said the state property tax should be repealed. Zerby disagreed, and said the state property tax shouldn’t be repealed, since it funds “necessary services.” Harper told him he had his facts wrong; the state property tax goes into the general fund.
Zerby said the government should create economic incentives for alternative energy companies to relocate here. Isn’t that something Janet Napolitano is pushing for? Sounded like Zerby was aiming to get a cabinet position in her Democrat administration.
Zerby said it’s fine to borrow money and issue bonds for more funding for public schools. He thinks education is a more important issue than illegal immigration, saying that Arizona ranks 49th in the nation in terms of education. He neglected to mention that this “fact” has been widely refuted – there are numerous other states that share that “49th” ranking, and one of the criteria for that ranking is how much money is being thrown at the schools. In other words, Arizona is penalized and ranked lower for being more efficient with its money.
Harper responded and said if we took care of our illegal immigration problem first, we wouldn’t have money problems because there wouldn’t be so many illegal immigrants and their children in the public schools. He noted how the employer sanctions law is successfully driving them out of the state.
Zerby said that teachers are the most underpaid profession. This is a little problematic, considering most teachers in Arizona start around $40,000 and they get summers off. Although their pay may be a little low, it’s a bit of a stretch to say it’s the most underpaid profession. They wouldn’t be so underpaid if there wasn’t a public school monopoly. One former teacher of mine told me that instead of teaching at the college level, he taught at a preparatory private high school because the pay was better. If allowed to compete on the same ground as public schools, the private sector would be able to pay teachers better.
Not surprisingly, Zerby said he is opposed to school vouchers. Harper supports school vouchers and would like to see the Blaine Amendment taken out of our Constitution so private schools may fully compete with public schools.
One question from the audience was how do the candidates plan to balance the state budget? Harper said that government agencies such as the Governor’s Strategic Office of Budgeting and the Department of Commerce should be downsized. There are hundreds of people working there year round, even though the legislature isn’t even in session half the year. Commerce also has too many employees, a waste of state money. It exists to hand out pork to friends of the governor. It’s a job training tax on labor. It doesn’t help bring jobs to Arizona, it just helps people working for the Governor get into office. In addition, Harper said he would see that government employees stopped taking trips at taxpayer expense. He has never taken a trip at public expense, unlike many in the Governor’s Office and at the legislature.
When asked what he would do about those who do not have health insurance, Zerby said we should adopt the healthcare plan that Democrat Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson had put in place. Harper noted that Richardson’s plan includes paying for illegal immigrants’ healthcare, something Harper opposes. Zerby said it is “the state’s duty to provide healthcare to its citizens.” Is Zerby working on Hillarycare? Zerby denied that illegal immigrants are clogging our hospitals.
The candidates were asked if they would vote to shut down the Maricopa County healthcare district, a wasteful boondoggle that is bleeding funds. Zerby said he wouldn’t shut it down, because he couldn’t ensure that its patients would receive healthcare elsewhere. Harper said he would shut down the district, although the hospital would continue to function; the legislature does not have authority to shut down the actual hospital.
Another question from the audience was whether the candidates would do something about Valley Fever. Harper said the state shouldn’t use the taxpayers to pad the pockets of pharmaceutical companies, instead let them compete in the free market to come up with vaccines. Zerby disagreed and said the state should be involved in creating a vaccine.
Asked about gay marriage, again the candidates were on different sides of the fence. Harper supports an amendment defining marriage, and said that judges are not supposed to make public policy, throwing out the will of the people. Zerby disagreed, saying he opposes the marriage amendment and that it’s divorce which ruins the sanctity of marriage.
When asked if he thought legislators should get a payraise, Zerby said he didn’t know how much legislators made! Now that’s a guy who’s done his homework for the job.
For his closing statement, Harper summarized some of his accomplishments and principles. He helped refer the marriage amendment to the ballot. He is a fiscal conservative and believes in the sanctity of life. He will hold government spending to population growth. He accused Zerby of being beholden to the labor unions and said that his campaign is a vendetta against him. One of Zerby’s union bosses sent Harper a threatening email about a Senate vote, and since Harper didn’t vote the way he wanted, he rounded up Zerby to run against him. This vendetta will result in taxing senior citizens more.
Zerby responded and admitted he works for the firefighters labor union and denied that they have been involved in intimidation tactics.
Based on watching the debate, it would not come as a surprise to anyone if it turned out Zerby had switched his voter registration from Democrat to Republican just to run against Harper in the primary. He was clearly out of place in a Republican primary.
