Residents of Legislative District 9 have a clear choice for Arizona House. Two Democrats Rep. Randy Friese and Pamela Powers Hannley are running against Tea Party candidate Ana Henderson.
The Clean Elections debate revealed major differences between Henderson’s extreme Tea Party positions and the two Democrats’ views.
To simplify your voting decision, I revised my ven diagram (below) comparing where I stand on the issues and where Henderson stands.
The Arizona Clean Elections Commission recently hosted a debate between the three candidates vying for two seats in the Arizona House: Democrats Rep. Randy Friese and Pamela Powers Hannley (me) and Tea Party Republican Ana Henderson.
This debate was the first candidate forum that Henderson participated in with the two Democrats, and it’s likely the last. With 75 or more people from both parties, the debate was well-attended. The audience submitted many great questions. Some questions are asked of all candidates– like education funding, climate change, Prop 205 (marijuana legalization), and Prop 206 (raising the minimum wage).
Below is the video.
If you want to skip through the topics, there’s a list of the high points below.
Continue reading #LD9 Voters – Can’t Decide How to Vote? Watch the Debate (video)
Did you ever notice that politicians often have “three things” to say.
“Three things” we campaign on, like– 1) economic reform and public banking; 2) equality and paycheck fairness; and 3) targeting opiates with anti-drug efforts.
And often “three things” to describe ourselves, like– 1) public health advocate, 2) small business owner and 3) communicator.
This blog post focuses on my experience as a small business owner.
Small Business Owner
I have owned two successful small businesses during my professional career– Powers/Queen Associates (PQA) and Wind Dancer Design.
PQA was my communication consulting business. I was a freelance writer, photographer, and graphic designer from 1987-93 with many quality clients like the Arizona Cancer Center, the University of Arizona Foundation, Tucson Mall, Jones Intercable, TUSD, Great American Bank in Arizona and California, Tucson Lifestyle Magazine, and others. My niche was annual reports, and I won Silver Quill awards for annual reports, for writing, and for photography. I had clients who hired me because I could do everything related to producing a publication– writing, photography, design and print production management– and clients who just wanted one service– particularly photography.
Continue reading Pamela Powers Hannley: Small Business Owner
Rep. Randy Friese, Pamela Powers Hannley (me) and Ana Henderson– the three candidates for the two Legislative District 9 seats in the Arizona House– faced off on Friday night in front of a packed house for the LD9 Clean Elections Debate.
This was the first event– and perhaps the only event– in which voters got to hear all three candidates. Friese and I were the only LD9 candidates who appeared at the Pima County Interfaith Council Candidate Forum, the candidate forum sponsored by the UA pre-law candidate forum, the Arizona Daily Star candidate interview and Pride on Parade— besides all of the joint events with Matt Kopec during the primary. (OK, so Pride wasn’t a candidate forum, but many candidates turned out to show their support for the LGBTQ community and celebrate diversity.)
So– even though this is the first time that most of us got to hear Henderson talk, we learned a lot about her views. Climate change, reproductive choice, homelessness, corporate tax cuts, minimum wage, public banking, gun violence, and, of course, education– the three of us fielded a wide variety of questions from the audience last night. (I’ll link the full video when it is available on the Clean Elections YouTube channel.)
Here’s we learned about Ana Henderson at the debate.
She’s against raising the minimum wage. (She said it’s bad for business, and government shouldn’t be meddling in business– except to dole out more corporate welfare. In a town with a 25% poverty rate, too many workers are just scraping by in the gig economy. They can’t buy the goods businesses are selling if they have no expendable income.)
She’s against legalization of marijuana. (In her opinion, marijuana– a plant that never killed anyone– is dangerous for children, but a loaded gun in the house is safe. Yes, we need to work on impairment definitions for marijuana– and other drugs. And, yes, dosing for edibles has to be improved. When you buy a whole Snickers bar, you expect to eat the whole thing– not just a 1/4 inch of it. And, yes, parents should protect their children from accidental drug poisoning and from accidental death by firearms.)
She’s a climate change denier. (She’s in the it’s-just-a-theory camp on climate change. She stands with free market forces on the question of incentivizing people to install solar panels. Friese and I both said clearly that climate change is real. Look at the increased dust storms, flooding, and fires. We should take our heads out of the desert sand and start planning for the changes in order to mitigate their effects. Look at the increased dust storms, flooding, and fires.)
She thinks corporate taxes are too high and supports more trickle down economics. (Friese and I attacked the $4 billion in corporate tax cuts repeatedly last night, and she defended them as necessary to boost the economy. We’ve been waiting for 35 years for trickle down economics to work. Time’s up.)
She likes public education but supports expanding vouchers. (Friese and I talked a lot about public education funding, educational goals not met, teacher retention, and shortchanging our future by denying a good education to so many children. Her main point was parental choice– a buzzword for more vouchers. Republicans like to say that Arizona is #1 in school choice. The other way to phrase this is: Arizona has cut and weakened public education more than any other state. That’s not something to be proud of.)
She supports “small government.” (Republicans tout “small government” when running for office, but once they are in office, Arizona Republican Legislators routinely pass 300-400 new laws each year. If you average that at 350/year for each year since the Tea Party took over in 2010, that’s 2100 new laws. I had fun pointing that out that 2100 new laws in six years is “too much government regulation.” Ha!)
She supports Donald Trump for President and made excuses for his now-infamous bragging about sexually assaulting women. Her “everyone does it even women” excuse for “vulgar locker room talk” was shocking.
The debate video will be up in a few days. I’ll post the link when available.
LD9 incumbent Rep. Randy Friese and I met with representatives from the Arizona Daily Star a few weeks ago to share ideas and answer their questions. Traditionally, the Star meets with all candidates for a position simultaneously, but LD9 Tea Party challenger Ana Henderson did not attend the interview.
On Sunday, Oct 9, the Star released their endorsements, and I’m proud to say that they endorsed me– along with the LD9 incumbents Friese and Senator Steve Farley. Here is an excerpt from the endorsement story.
On the House side, we endorse incumbent Randy Friese and newcomer Pamela Powers Hannley.
They are a solid combination and compliment each other’s strengths with experience and policy knowledge.
Friese and Powers Hannley are Democrats running against another newcomer, Republican Ana Henderson.
Powers Hannley identified the economy as her top priority, which isn’t unusual for a political candidate.
What makes her stand out, however, is that she’s not identifying “jobs” as her platform but puts economic stability and viability in a larger frame. She thinks of it “broadly, to lift people out of poverty.”
She supports an increased minimum wage and identifies corporate tax cuts and loopholes as a target to increase state revenue to spend on urgent needs, such as public education.
“These are issues that are not one-party issues,” she said. She cited paycheck equality and fairness as an example.
She also rightly points out that the southern end of LD 9, in midtown Tucson, is rife with rundown housing and that many residents don’t have the means to maintain or improve their property.
She raised the possibility of Arizona forming a public bank, which could give residents low-interest loans to improve their homes or businesses. We’re not ready to sign on to that just yet, but we appreciate her innovative thinking and reaching for different ideas.
To read the full story, here’s the link:
Star endorsement: Arizona Legislative District 9
Here are a few other news stories about the LD9 race:
Here are the local candidates we recommend this election (Star)
Steller: Candidates increasingly view debates as optional (Star)
Three candidates battle for two House seats in District 9 (Star)
Political Notebook: Anti-McCain primary votes loom large (Star)
State House: Most incumbent Democrats doing well (Star)
Legislative District 9 races (Blog for Arizona)
Who Is Ana Henderson? (Blog for Arizona)
Union roots propel Amherst native in Arizona House race (Amherst News Times – my hometown newspaper.)
#LD9 Debate Reveals Clear Choices Between Dem & GOP Candidates (For a recap of the LD9 debate on Oct 14.)
Funding for education at all levels — but particularly for k-12 public education — has been a HOT button issue in Arizona since Governor Jan Brewer and her henchman, ousted Senate President Russell “SB1070” Pierce, started mercilessly slashing education in 2010, at the dawn of the Tea Party Revolution in Arizona.
After six years of Tea Party cuts to public ed and six years of legislative gifts to private schools, charter schools, and big corporations, in general, Arizona’s education system is on the ropes– demoralized and penniless.
Frustrated parents are angry. Demoralized teachers are leaving Arizona in droves. Aging school buildings are crumbling and dangerous. Contentious schools boards are arguing over how to spend the scraps.
Although some come to school hungry, our children soldier on everyday. Are they learning in this financially and emotionally stressed environment?
No one can pretend that this scenario is anywhere near optimum. Why has this situation been allowed to develop? Our current education system was created by budget cuts based upon right-wing, anti-government ideology and not on what is best for the families and children of Arizona– or what is best for our state as a whole.
At the Pima County Interfaith Council (PCIC) candidate forum on October 2, I asked the audience, “What is our goal for public education?” and rattled off a short list of facts that show we are short-changing students and families. Here is an expanded version of what I said…
What is our goal for public education?
Continue reading What Is Our Goal for Education in Arizona? (video)