Election Integrity

It should be easy to vote, but difficult to cheat.

If you are old enough to remember when we had real election integrity in Arizona, then you remember precinct level voting with paper ballots on election day only, which were then hand counted at the election close, at the respective precincts.

Each precinct has roughly 1,000 to 1,500 voters. Accommodations for absentee voting can and should be made for voters with cause. Identification required.

Gun Rights – 2A

Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Second Amendment is sacrosanct and MUST be defended without exception.

Any and all “Red Flag” gun laws must and will be stopped.

I am a NRA Life Member and an Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL) member.

My # 1 firearm safety rule is, carry one.

I Am Pro Life

Life starts at conception. I will do all I can to protect the lives of innocent babies.

Rural Issues and Water

Whiskey is for drinking – Water is for fighting. - Mark Twain

The peoples’ republic of California, along with the federal government, have consistently imposed their size and power over the sovereign state of Arizona. Too often, our state officials capitulate to the water demands of others. Our priority should be with Arizona, always.

Meanwhile, California is dismantling dams and reservoirs throughout their state. Next, they will complain that they don’t have enough water.

Recently, the president of the Arizona Farm Bureau said the governor’s (Hobbs) Water Policy Council was not listening to input from the agriculture community. So, the Bureau withdrew from the Council. Hobbs would like to regulate and meter private wells. Not on my watch.

As a rural Arizonian, like most Arizonians, I know that the government that governs the best is the government that governs the least. I stand with agricultural producers, farmers, ranchers, and tribes. I do favor restricting foreign land purchases.

I stand with We the People.

Education

Government schools are failing our children. Currently, less than 1/3 of the students are proficient in basic reading and math. The knee jerk solution is always to provide more money, now at approximately $15,000 per student, which is half Arizona’s budget. Apparently, the more money government schools receive, the poorer they perform.

Many government schools indoctrinate, not educate. As an example, my teenage nephew, who is home schooled, is taking on line college courses while his peers attending government schools are trying to figure out which pronoun to use that identifies with their perceived gender.

The solution to failing schools is increased school choice competition in the form of charter schools and faith-based schools along with micro schools and home schooling in conjunction with Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA). The ESA program, school choice, provides about $7,000 in funding per student, about half the cost of sending a student to a government school. Parents can use the ESA school choice funding to remove their child from a failing government school, which for each student removed, is $15,000 less the school will receive.

With continued reduced enrollment, the government schools will be forced to either improve education or will lose so many students that some failing schools will close due to lack of enrollment.

Keep in mind that the teacher’s unions are all about mediocrity and are not interested in performance. The proof is that exceptional teachers make the same salary as the inferior teacher.

Law Enforcement

The difference between a capitalist society and a socialist society is the protection and defense of rights. No person in their right mind would make an investment (monetary or otherwise) knowing that it will be destroyed by those who “feel” that they are “entitled” to your life, liberty, and property. It is the rule of law, enforced by the police, that allows us to live peacefully in society.

I will continue to support law enforcement and will never allow them to be defunded. These brave men and women put their lives on the line everyday and have the same right as anyone else to go home to their families at the end of their shifts.

My wife, Kerry, and I are honorary members of the Arizona Law Enforcement Emerald Society. Now in our second decade, we have been supporting their benevolent work of assisting fallen and injured officers and their families.

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