LD 14: 'Stevens and Gowan are not deserving of re-election'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The generally GOP-friendly, conservative leaning Sierra Vista Herald surprised me today with a scathing rebuke to Reps. David Stevens and David Gowan, two far-right radical extremist Tea-Publicans. The Herald endorsed the Democratic slate of Rob Leach and Mark Stonebraker, both from Sierra Vista, for the LD 14 House. Our View: LD14 deserves better | The Sierra Vista Herald:

We have disagreed on many issues with the incumbents, Republicans David Stevens and David Gowan, both from Sierra Vista. We don’t think the huge cuts in state education budgets over the past few years have served the public or the state’s overall well-being. We believe it to be disingenuous to claim the success of a balanced budget when it was the voters, not the legislature, who OK’d a budget-saving 1-cent sales tax increase. There are other philosophical differences such as how cuts to AHCCCS funding hurt rural healthcare providers as well as those who receive those services.

Besides these issues, these two “representatives” have gained a reputation for being disinterested in what their constituents have to say — especially if those constituents have something to say that runs counter to their respective ideologies.

Openness to ideas, a willingness to discuss, to compromise are foreign notions to these two. This utter disdain for the people they are supposed to represent is notable by how widespread they practice it.

We’ve heard from several southern Arizona county and city officials. We’ve visited with members of the business community. And we’ve listened to just plain folks in and around Sierra Vista who all say the same thing. These legislators have an astounding track record for unresponsiveness to their constituents accompanied by a superior-than-thou attitude.

These “public servants” have completely abandoned the definition of those two words.

So, what to do? We urge you to vote for the Democratic slate in LD 14.

That would be legislative candidates Rob Leach and Mark Stonebraker, both from Sierra Vista.

Leach and Stonebraker are relative political neophytes, but after meeting with them we will bet they will at least be open to what their constituents have to say; will return calls and emails; and that they will treat people with civility and be rational should they disagree on the issues.

With a district whose registered voters are divided up as 39 percent Republican, 31 percent independent and about 30 percent Democrat, this duo has an uphill battle.

But we say it’s time for the voters in LD 14 to realize the incumbents have failed in the most basic of their duties — to represent, to listen, to vote — and then to be available to everyone regardless of political persuasion.

For these reasons, Stevens and Gowan are not deserving of re-election.

I could not agree more.

Comments

[Dan Rio]

My first big tip off is the very first sentence, "The generally GOP-friendly, conservative leaning Sierra Vista Herald surprised me today". I'm not saying anything in your letter is inaccurate because quite frankly I couldn't get past the first sentence because its so outlandish. I'm a native southern Arizonan and ALL my left and right leaning friends and family 100% agree that the Sierra Vista Herald is anything but GOP friendly or conservative leaning, and I'm a liberal Democrat! I typically don't comment on the Internet, and this took me an hour to figure out how. All the time and energy you put in this letter is negated by the first statement. Let's start with some truth, the Herald has always been a totally left leaning newspaper. Then we can get in to reading your opinions..