Watch the LD9 Clean Elections Debate (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
LD9 debate

Sept. 15 was the date for the Legislative District 9 candidate debate hosted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) and moderated by Hank Stephensen, LD9 resident and editor of the Captiol Times Yellow Sheet.

Due to the pandemic, the 2020 CCEC debates are being held online and not in person, as is the tradition. While we were waiting in the “green room” for the event to start, CCEC Executive Director Tom Collins said that the online debates have had much larger viewership than the in-person events, which is great news.

All three House candidates participated: incumbent Democratic Reps. Randy Friese and Pam Powers Hannley and Republican challenger Brendan Lyons. Unfortunately, Lyons’ schedule dictated a “hard stop” at 7 p.m., so our debate was truncated to one hour. Many audience questions were left unasked.

Below are the video time stamps for different questions, if you are interested in specific topics. Stephensen allows for more candidate interaction; check out the robust debates on unemployment insurance and how to pay for education.

Continue reading Watch the LD9 Clean Elections Debate (video)

Arizona Daily Star Editors Interview LD9 Candidates (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
LD9 candidates

Each election season, there is an endorsement process. Organizations, groups and causes conduct their endorsement processes differently. Some just hand out endorsements. Some require candidates to answer questions and do interviews.

Last week, the Arizona Daily Star conducted their endorsement interview with the three Legislative District 9 candidates: Democratic incumbent Reps. Randy Friese and Pamela Powers Hannley and Republican challenger Brendan Lyons. In the before times, these interviews were conducted behind closed doors with only Star personnel and candidates at the newspaper’s office. In the COVID19 era, the endorsement interview was an online forum with ~15 constituents and Star staff in the audience. Having even a handful of constituents “in the room, was a worthwhile addition. As you’ll see in the video, the people had good questions about reproductive choice, education funding and other topics.

The interview is an hour long. Pop some popcorn, pour your favorite beverage, and watch the video here. For your convenience, below are the question time stamps. (You can check out my other endorsements, honors and candidate statements here. Watch the whole collection of Star endorsement interviews here.)

Continue reading Arizona Daily Star Editors Interview LD9 Candidates (video)

Together We Can Build a Stronger Arizona for Future Generations (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
Rep. Pam Powers Hannley

Five years ago this month, I started my first campaign to run for the Arizona House to represent Legislative District 9.*

In 2016, I ran an unabashedly progressive Clean Elections campaign based upon economic reform, equity, and public health.

I promoted raising revenue by eliminating unnecessary lawsuits, tax loopholes, sweetheart deals, and corporate tax giveaways and by creating a public bank to spur the economic development, without draining governmental coffers.

I advocated raising the minimum wage, tackling income inequality, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and fighting discrimination against women and other minority groups.

Lastly, I was the only person back in 2015 talking about refocusing funds from the War of Drugs to tackle the opioid epidemic and  to end criminalization of marijuana. Far too many people — mostly men of color — are warehoused in Arizona prisons because of activist county prosecuters and over-policing of marijuana possession.

I promised to be the voice of the people in the Arizona Legislature, and as a Clean Elections candidate, I have been free to speak my mind because I am not dependent upon big money donations.

Now more than ever, with the COVID19 virus creating financial and public health insecurity, Arizona needs experienced leaders who will fight for the people and not kowtow to the corporations.

The Coronavirus has revealed deep-seated inequities and widespread race, sex, and gender discrimination in our systems. Underfunded public schools, mass incarceration, voter suppression, food and housing insecurity, environmental degradation in the name of profit, healthcare deserts, medical bankruptcy, and violence against innocents– whether it be domestic violence, gun violence, domestic terrorism, or police violence — these broken systems are baked into our laws.

It’s time for reform.

It’s time for historic change in the Arizona Legislature and in Washington, DC in Nov. 2020.

It’s time to end austerity for the people and welfare for the corporations.

Giving away billions of taxpayer dollars annually was already an unsustainable path. Continuing Arizona’s carte blanche corporate and special interest tax giveaways during the COVID19 era and beyond is fiscally irresponsible. We will need funds to rebuild our state; the tax breaks have got to stop. We can’t afford them.

Arizona should be investing in future generations. We should fund the People’s To-Do List: education, roads, healthcare,
and security — not the corporate wish of tax giveaways, deregulation, privatization, and sweetheart deals.

Continue reading Together We Can Build a Stronger Arizona for Future Generations (video)

2020 Citizens Initiatives Explained at LD9 Town Hall (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
LD9 town hall

The LD9 Town Hall on August 19 featured presentations by David Lujan of the Center for Economic Progress and Marilyn Rodriguez of Creosote Partners on the four Citizens Initiatives that have been battling in court to get on the November 2020 ballot.

All four initiatives — Invest in Ed (public education funding), Smart and Safe (legalization of adult use marijuana), Second Chances (prison and sentencing reform) and Healthcare Rising (stop surprise billing) — were challenged in court by those who profit from the current broken systems and want to protect those systems.

In the four videos, Lujan and Rodriguez do a great job of outlining the layers of legal challenges that each of the four Citizens Initiatives faced at the hands of Republican Legislators, the Chamber of Commerce, two retiring Pima County Democrats, and others who want to maintain the status quo in education funding, marijuana policing, prison sentences and time served, and privatized, for-profit healthcare.

It’s interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes political maneuver by Republican Legislators and Ducey’s judges in an all-out attempt to keep all four of these initiatives off the ballot. As of this writing, Invest in Ed (Prop 208) and Smart and Safe (Prop 207) will be on the ballot. Second Chances was knocked off the ballot by separate legal challenges from retiring Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall and retiring Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez. (Why?!)

Continue reading 2020 Citizens Initiatives Explained at LD9 Town Hall (video)

Five Online Events Coming Up with Rep. PPH

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
Rep. Pam Powers Hannley

Now that the primary is over, and fall is coming (hopefully), different types of events are popping up on the calendar. I have five events coming up in the next few weeks, some campaign-related and some Legislative. All of these free events are on my Facebook page. All of them require some form of registration; the two ticketed events that I am hosting require Event Brite registration. Here are the details and the links.

Powers for the People Volunteer Organizing Event, Aug 17, 4-5 p.m.

Join the Powers for the People team for a virtual meeting on how you can help me get re-elected in November. As you know, the Chamber of Commerce, the developers, and businesses that like prison labor are backing my Republican challenger. He has Big Money donors behind him. I have Clean Elections money and you. There are many ways you can help from your own home, like making phone calls, mailing or giving postcards to your friends, and helping with social media. For people who like to walk in the morning, we will be doing contact-free lit drops.  Here is the Event Brite link to register for this event. If you want to volunteer but can’t make the Monday event, contact me on my Facebook event here OR through Facebook Messenger to me or to my Campaign Manager A.J. Flick OR via email to Good4AZ@gmail.com. Thank you!

LD9 Virtual Town Hall, Aug 19, 5-6 p.m.

My seatmate Dr. Randy Friese and I are on our own for the LD9 town hall on Aug 19, due to multiple scheduling issues. This forum will follow the same format at before. Registration on Event Brite here is required for security purposes. There will be updates by the two of us, perhaps a guest, and Q&A at the end. This will be videotaped. If you want to watch past LD9 town halls and other political events, check out my Event Playlist on YouTube for a walk down memory lane. (I have spent quite a bit of time this summer building out my YouTube channel, uploading more office videos, and organizing the videos into playlists. Check out my channel here.) For more information, my Facebook event for this town hall is here.

Continue reading Five Online Events Coming Up with Rep. PPH

Thanks, LD9, for Making Me the Top Vote-Getter on Aug 4! Onward to Nov 3! (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers Hannley
Powers Hannley Beats Lyons

Thank you so much, LD9 voters, for making me the top vote-getter in the August 4 Primary Election, with 29,713 votes (50.7%).* Even though the LD9 House Democrats — Dr. Randy Friese and me — didn’t have a primary challenger, LD9 voters turned out the vote and heavily supported both incumbents over the General Election challenger. In November 6, 2018 election, Friese ended the night a few hundred votes ahead of me (less than 1%). This August, I’m a few hundred votes ahead of him … a statistical dead heat in both elections. Thanks for supporting both of us. I think we make a good team.  Let’s do this again on November 3, 2020, LD9.

Another pleasant outcome on Tuesday was the substantial showing that both Friese and I made, compared to our Chamber-backed Republican challenger Brendan Lyons. I am currently beating Lyons by 11,608 and Friese by 822, as final votes are counted. Below is the full screen shot from the Secretary of State’s website as of today (August 11). Lyons has hired a large, out-of-state consulting firm to run his campaign to oust me from the Arizona House. In 2018, I beat my Democratic challenger by >14,000 votes and beat my Republican challenger by almost 13,000 votes. Bring it on.

Continue reading Thanks, LD9, for Making Me the Top Vote-Getter on Aug 4! Onward to Nov 3! (video)