debate – Powers For the People

Watch the LD9 Clean Elections Debate (video)

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Pamela Powers

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)

Capitol Times & Clean Elections Hold Online Legislative Forums (video)

Posted on July 15, 2020July 15, 2020 by Pamela Powers

Each election year the Capitol Times hosts a Meet the Candidates event in July for all Legislative candidates and incumbents at a fancy downtown Phoenix hotel.

This year, the Cap Times event — sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission — is virtual and spread out over five evenings, from 6-8 p.m. each night. The schedule is below. All of the forums are broadcast live on YouTube and posted on YouTube immediate afterward.

Pima County LDs 2 and 3 were on July 13, and Pima County LDs 9,10, and 11 were on July 14. The videos for those two events are posted below.

There are a ton of contested primaries in the Legislature on both sides of the aisle. Our forum on Tuesday was very interesting; our Republican challenger was one of the men who were no-shows. The format is that each Legislative District is up, one at a time. Each candidate for each district gets a minute or two to introduce themselves, but the majority of the time is fielding questions from the audience.

Continue reading Capitol Times & Clean Elections Hold Online Legislative Forums (video)

#AZHouse Republicans Pass Burdensome Regulation on Citizens Initiative (video)

Posted on May 9, 2019February 15, 2023 by Pamela Powers

Arizona House Republicans recently passed SB1451, Senator Vince Leach’s latest attempt to kill the Citizens Initiative process. Every year, Republicans add new regulations to the popular Citizens Initiative process–like dramatically increasing the number of signatures, strict compliance on petitions (forcing us to write in between the lines or risk having our signature knocked off), or eliminating the pay-per-signature practice for paid circulators.

The worst part of 1451 was taken out in the Senate. That was the section that made people group the petitions by circulator and allowed for elimination of whole petitions if one volunteer’s petitions got mixed up with another. The house added another amendment to give the attorney general the power to change the language used to explain the initiative. (This is a scary thought, after all of the intrigue and BS that surrounded the language of the initiatives on the 2018 ballot. You’ll remember that the anti-Clean Elections initiative was allowed to be purposefully misleading.)

SB1451 is a bad bill that over-regulates the Citizens Initiative process, adds bureaucracy and slows the process of circulator recruitment and signature gathering down.

#AZ House Republicans Pass $7.25/hour Minimum Wage for Students (video)

Posted on March 1, 2019February 15, 2023 by Pamela Powers

The worst vote of the 54th session has to be the Republican passage of the sub-minimum wage on Thursday. Rep. Travis Grantham’s HB2523 would allow employers to pay full time students, who work part time and are under 22, the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, instead of the voter-approved minimum wage of $11/hour.

Republicans and Democrats debated HB2523 for more than one hour the day before during Committee of the Whole (COW) and again when we explained our votes on Thursday. It passed on a strictly party line vote.

After mulling over the speeches from both sides of the aisle, I think there are some of the Republicans who truly believe paying $7.25/hour to full-time students is good idea. I wonder how many of them own restaurants, farms, retail stores, or other small businesses that would benefit from cheaper labor. Hmmm…

This vote needed 3/4 on HB2523 because it is an attempt to change the voter-approved Prop 206 Citizens Initiative that raised the minimum wage in 2016. During the COW debate, I proposed an amendment to add a Prop 105 vote to HB2523, but Republicans said it was not necessary. (The Rules Attorneys said it was necessary. Who are you going to believe?)

#ICYMI: Watch the LD9 Clean Elections Debate (video)

Posted on July 25, 2018July 27, 2018 by Pamela Powers

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) organizes and hosts debates for all elections in which at least one Clean Elections candidate is running. In Legislative District 9, three of the five people running for office are Clean candidates: Jim Love, Victoria Steele and me. The other two people who are running for house– Rep. Randy Friese and J.P. Martin– are running traditional.

Since early ballots for the August 28 primary election will be mailed on August 1, the CCEC has been hosting many debates in the past month. On July 19, the LD9 candidates had their debate. (The LD9 video link is here and the embedded video is below. To watch other CCEC debates go here.)

CCEC debates include some questions that are asked of all candidates and other questions that are asked of specific people. I have annotated the debate with time stamps– in case you want to focus on particular topics. Since there were several audience questions about guns in schools, the environment and prison reform, I have grouped those questions and answers.

Continue reading #ICYMI: Watch the LD9 Clean Elections Debate (video)

This Week: Clean Elections Debate, House Parties & Canvassing

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Pamela Powers

We have four events this weekend–starting with the Legislative District 9 Clean Elections Debate on July 19. Here are the details.

LD9 Clean Elections Debate, July 19

The Legislative District 9 Clean Elections debate will be Thursday, July 19 at Pima College Northwest, 6-7:30 p.m. All five Democratic candidates will be participating, including the two House incumbents, Dr. Randy Friese and me. Here is a link to the full schedule of debates sponsored by the Citizens Clean Election Commission (CCEC). [The above picture was taken at the CCEC general election debate in 2016. Republican challenger Ana Henderson (far right, no pun intended) will face the two winners from the August 28 Democratic Primary in the November 6 General Election.] Please vote!

Arizona List Event for Rep. Pam Powers Hannley, Victoria Steele & Leila Counts, July 20

Kim Khoury has graciously offered to open her home for a joint house party for three Arizona List-endorsed candidates: former Arizona House Rep. and current LD9 Senatorial Candidate Victoria Steele, TUSD candidate Leila Counts, and me. The Facebook link for the July 20 evening event is here. To RSVP and get the address, contact Claire Knipe (claire@arizonalist.org). [The above picture was taken at a joint canvass that Victoria, Leila and I had in June.]

Joint Canvass for LD9 Incumbents, July 21

The Powers For The People Team and Team Friese will be canvassing in the Northwest Region of LD9 on Saturday morning, July 21. We will meet at 8:30 a.m.and leave the staging area by 9 a.m. Please meet at Road Runner Coffee, 9665 Thornydale Rd.

We will be carrying campaign lit for both LD9 House incumbents– Dr. Randy Friese and Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. As always, we can use walkers and drivers. Please join us! Bring your hat, water, sunscreen, good walking shoes, and your MiniVan password. Facebook event here.

My team is canvassing every Saturday morning at 8:30. Watch my Events tab on Facebook to find out where we will be next.

Legislative Meet & Greet in Northwest Tucson, July 22

What did the 53rd Legislature accomplish? What big issues were left on the table when we adjourned? And, more importantly, where are we headed in 2019 and beyond?

Find out the answer to these questions and more at this Northwest Tucson Meet and Greet with Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, Legislative District 9 representative in the Arizona House. The event will be hosted by Nathan Davis and Taylor Cleland at their home, from 1-3 p.m. Click on the Eventbrite link here to get free tickets and to learn the address. This is the fourth Legislative Meet and Greet that I have done this summer. Watch for more events on Facebook. [The photo above was taken at a canvass staging area in 2016. Nathan is displaying his #PowersForThePeople pink and purple.]

#PowersForThePeople Signs Available!

SIGNs! You can tell it’s election time in Tucson because of the proliferation of political signs around town. You can help me empty my trunk by putting a yard sign in your yard. There is a stack of my signs at the Pima Dems Headquarters, and I will have them at all of the events listed above. Thanks for your support.

Register to Vote, July 30

July 30 is the last day to register to vote in the August 28 primary. Even if you think you are registered, you may want to check it out. Some people have been surprised to find out that their records are incorrect or incomplete. I am counting on your vote on or before the August 28 Primary and on or before the November 6 general election. There are many important primary races in 2018. Early ballots will arrive in the mail at the beginning of August.