In Arizona’s 23rd legislative district, there are stark differences between the two candidates vying to represent the Scottsdale/Fountain Hill’s State Senate seat. First, there’s John Kavanagh.
Now, I’m no fan of Kavanagh, and never will be. He has been bought by the Center for Arizona policy, a conservative lobbyist organization that is responsible for all sorts of awful laws. He has attempted to ingrain a message of intolerance into our state’s laws. From bathroom bills, racial profiling bills, and even legalizing discrimination, Kavanagh is one of the most outspoken, conservative, and possible insane representatives this state has seen. He is what is wrong with this state, and is running on the principle that he’s a conservative – and that’s it. He can’t talk about the good he has done in this state, because he hasn’t done any.
It’ll take someone with a strong background, someone who has tough as nails, and someone who is ready to restore sanity to the state to beat him.
Enter Paula Pennypacker.
Paula Pennypacker is unlike any Democrat out there. For one thing, she hasn’t always been a Democrat. In 2010, she ran for State Representative in what is now LD 23 as a Republican and even said back then that she would never leave the Republican party, but rather would change it from the inside.
But that changed when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. As he battled that disease, she witnessed first hand the sad state of healthcare in this nation. She then went to her local Republican party meeting and pleaded with her fellow Republican’s that healthcare be easily accessible to all Arizonians.
But she was laughed at. So Pennypacker did what she found was morally right, and became a Democrat after over 30 years as a Republican.
Now she’s hitting Kavanagh hard on his inability to do his job.
What’s sets her apart from Kavanagh, and really any candidate I’ve ever seen, is her willingness to take on the status-quo. Her campaign signs say “Restore Sanity,” in her campaign stump speech (as was highlighted in the Phoenix New Times) she says her campaign is “…about taking on this guy. He’s out of touch, an embarrassment.”
And she’s right. Voting for Paula Pennypacker is a real opportunity for the Scottsdale/Fountain Hills district, because for once, we have a politician who tells it like it is.
