Votes Should Control Our Elections, Not Money (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley

Millions of dollars are being poured into Arizona this year to sway your vote. I’m sure you have seen the street signs, the social media posts, and the TV commercials and received the emails, robocalls, text messages, mailers, and pamphlets dropped quietly at your doorstep.

Candidates raise and spend money to get elected, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Special Interest Groups create Political Action Committees (PACs) to raise and spend money to support some candidates and causes and attack others. Donations to PACs are transparent. Independent Expenditures (IEs) are non-transparent, dirty money campaign expenditures that are not supposed to be coordinated with the candidate. There were millions of dollars in IEs spent to tear down or build up candidates in the August 2020 primary in both Democratic and Republican races. In the General Election, the money is even worse.

Next time you receive a mailer or see a TV commercial, check who paid for it. IEs are usually behind the really nasty mailers based on half-truths, heavy spin, or just lies.

Continue reading Votes Should Control Our Elections, Not Money (video)

Helpful Voting Links: Nov 3rd Election Day Is Fast-Approaching

Posted on by Pamela Powers
Rep. Pam Powers Hannley

Voter turnout statewide and in Legislative District 9 — particularly among Democrats — has been phenomenal. There are still a few more days to vote in person or to drop off a paper ballot. Here are several links from the Pima County Recorder’s Office, from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, and from the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Here is a list of Curbside Ballot Drop-Off Sites in Pima County where you can drop off a paper ballot between now and 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2.

Here is a list of Early and Emergency Voting Sites in Pima County.

Here you can find your polling location in Pima County.

Here you can check the status of your mail-in ballot with the Secretary of State’s Office to verify that it has been counted.

Here is a link to the Voter Information Portal on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website.

Here is what you have to take to the polls to vote in person, provided by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Continue reading Helpful Voting Links: Nov 3rd Election Day Is Fast-Approaching

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

Posted on by Pamela Powers
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)

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

Posted on by Pamela Powers
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)

Thank You for Your Support! Now, Please Vote! (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley

Today is primary day 2020, August 4. It’s obviously been a rough year for humanity with the COVID19 pandemic, which was made more deadly by bungled governmental responses worldwide.

The 2020 election — already historic in importance — is layered on top of a public health crisis of epic proportions.

Take a deep breath. We will get through this. As I have said many times, the world will be different at the end of Coronavirus tunnel. Our future is like a five-point Likert Scale, which ranges from Significantly Better than the “Before Times” to Significantly Worse, with a neutral/no change center choice. I don’t think “no change” is possible. Too many people have died. Too many broken systems have fallen apart. I strongly believe that it is up to those of us who were dissatisfied with the status quo before COVID19 to come together to envision and create a more equitable and more sustainable world — one based on respect, cooperation and environmental stewardship, rather than based on greed, power and profit.

Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley and Beth Britton
Here I am at the LD9 Holiday Party with one of my most loyal volunteers, Beth Britton. Beth has driven me miles around the district over the past five years.

PACs, SuperPACs, and wealthy Arizonans are spending heavily in the Legislative races in 2020 because they have gotten richer and more powerful while “small” government/big tax break Republicans have been in control. They really don’t like outspoken Clean Elections candidates like me because I don’t take dirty money or any PAC money. I vote on your behalf — not on behalf of wealthy donors, special interest groups or big corporations. I am the only person in the Arizona House who voted against every tax giveaway in the last four years because I believe the Arizona Legislature should fund the People’s To-Do List — education, healthcare, infrastructure, and safety and security — and not the corporate wish list. I can’t be bought, and they know it. That is why Big Money is playing in the LD9 race and bankrolling my young Republican, Chamber of Commerce opponent with tens of thousands of dollars in donations.

I beat all of my challengers by significant margins — Democrats and Republicans — in 2016 and 2018, and I plan to beat this guy, too, with your help.

A Time for Gratitude…

Right now, I’d like to take a few minutes for gratitude and thank the many volunteers, precinct committee members, petition signers, $5 donors, voters, and LD9 officers for helping me get on the ballot, helping my collect my Clean Elections $5 Qualifying Contributions, and offering encouraging words in virtual meetings and on social media.

Continue reading Thank You for Your Support! Now, Please Vote! (video)

Big Money Politics Targets the ‘Tucson Progressive’ in 2020 Election (video)

Posted on by Pamela Powers
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley

Corporate America, was it something I said?

Are you putting tens of thousands of dollars in big money donations behind my pro Trump, pro deregulation, pro tax giveaway, pro privatized insurance, pro Open Up Arizona (and masks are a personal choice) Republican opponent because I told the people of Arizona the truth about tax giveaways? That we were poised to giveaway $1 billion in taxes to corporations, special interest groups and wealthy Arizonans in 2020, after giving them $400 million in 2019?

Or was it because I said (repeatedly) that we should fund the People’s To-Do List — Education, Infrastructure, Healthcare and Safety and Security — instead of the Corporate Wish List?

Or maybe you didn’t like my video on raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for public education, instead of continuing to raise sales taxes on the poor to fund the state government?

Or maybe you didn’t like it when I exposed the GPLET tax shell game or the $13 billion in state tax giveaways?

Or was it my speeches against voter suppression and against attacks on Clean Elections, the Citizen’s Initiative, Independent Redistricting and Medical Marijuana?

Or was it because I opposed the sub-minimum wage of $7.25/hour, fake pregnancy clinics, dangerous deregulation, and Reefer Madness anti-marijuana legalization efforts?

Or was it when I said that Arizona chose a short-term economic boost over common sense, opened up the economy too soon, and gave our state the worst COVID19 record in the world ?

Continue reading Big Money Politics Targets the ‘Tucson Progressive’ in 2020 Election (video)