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| CD 1 Candidates Make Opening Remarks |
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| Written by Lynne LaMaster | |
| Wednesday, 23 July 2008 | |
Editor's Note: At the Las Fuentes debate last week, eash of the Republican candidates for Congressional District 1 offered opening statements before answering questions. Here are the 5-minute long opening statements from that debate. Preston Horn was unable to attend.
Barry Hall, top left; Tom Hansen, top right; Sidney Hay, lower left; Sandra Livingstone, lower right.HallThank you. I'm new to this business, I've been a minister all my life. However, I've had some incursions with political ambitions. When I was 30 years old, I entered a race for congress in the first congressional district of Maryland, and I got the front page of the Baltimore Sun about this big, and I got the whole front page of the county newspaper where I lived, and then I began to get telephone calls from reporters and television stations, and they wanted me to be on debates and forums. And I realized something about that time. Airways-wise I was in the periphery of being heard by every congressman and the President of the United States when I went to these debates and they were telecast. And I became very much afraid, frightened, I had adrenal sweats at night, I thought, I surely will not be able to answer those questions, and I went down and withdrew within the last hour of that particular campaign. Maybe I shouldn't have done that because the man who got the job was kind of lackluster, he committed suicide in the barn because of his involvement in Watergate. And then the next man who took his place was fraternizing with a male page and then he lost his job. Didn't do the Republican party any good. But, I'm here today, because I kept that ambition and in 2002 I was behind the scenes trying to gather my petitions to run against Mr. Renzi, and when the date came for the deadline, I didn't have enough signatures. This time I did get enough signatures, so I am in the race. Why would I want to do this? Why a minister? Well, why not a minister? One reason I was in the race in Maryland was because I read a newspaper article there that ministers were barred from running for public office in the state of Maryland. And I said, well, if that's true for state offices, they can't stop me from running for Federal offices. So, I was able to make a statement and a few years after that, that law was repealed.
Barry Hall shows his Medicare card to the audience.Why a minister? Well, did you know that there were ministers who were signers of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence. A man by the name of Witherspoon, John Witherspoon, if you recall. So I don't think there's any problem with a minister being in there, and I think that perhaps, honesty and integrity would be my trait. And I hope that that would be something that would be helpful in Congress. I have something here, if I can get it out of my pocket in time and not go over my 5 minute period... I have a card, see if you can recognize this card. Oh, I've got a lot of cards here, how'd I get so many cards? and I've got papers. Oh, here it is, do you recognize this card? Medicare. Now I know hwat you're thinking, I stole that from someone else.I know what else you're thinking - he's going to Congress, he's already corrupt, he's gone by and gotten somebody to conterfeit one of thsoe cards. And that makes me illegal. Well, no, that's my card. So I know what it's like to be a receipient of the graceful years, and the gray hairs and the benefits of Medicare and Social Security. And I want to make sure that I do you the best job to try to understand and make some sense out of Medicare, Social Security and protect those interests for you. I'm interested in also Homeland Security. I was in Washington, DC in the mid-eighties, I've been in this state since 1973, but I went away about 10-11 years. And a couple of those years I was in Washington, DC. And I had an acquaintance there who was with the FBI and I sat down with him one time, and I know Washington DC like the palm of my hand. You'll want to probably hear more about that on my website, which will be up in a day or two and my cards are on the back of the Victrola... One minute? I thought you were saying, 'hi'. But I was able to talk to an agent in the FBI and tell hiim that I thought if I did this, this and this in Washington, DC, I could fold the city up. And he acknowledged that I was correct. That was 15 years before 9-11. I have an eye for that, I have a sense for that, I have an interest in that, and I know here in this district, we need to be careful, especially in the Flagstaff area where there's interstate commerce. Thank you for your attention, and I hope that you'll consider me when you come to voting. HansenGood afternoon, Jan, thank you, and thank you all for being here this afternoon. My name is Tom Hansen, I live in St. Johns, Arizona, over on the other side of the state, if you will, about 20 miles from the New Mexico border. I've lived there for 32 years, I've served as a School Baord member for 12 of those years. All three of our sons have graduated from St. Johns High School, all four of my grandchildren are still in the state of Arizona. So, my roots are here in Arizona, although I was born in New Jersey, I went to school in Pennsylvania, and earned a Master's Degree at Stanford University in Electrical Engineering. After completing at Stanford, I went into the power production industry, I built about 10,000 megawatts, designed, built or operated power generation in the state of Arizona. Basically, half of the electrons flowing through the lights in this room have come from power plants that I've either designed, built or operated. So, my heart is really in energy. And that's one of the reasons I'm running for this office. I'm retiring from Tucson Electric Power this year after 24 years of developing generation. Initially, I developed coal power generation, but the last generation I've been developing is solar and wind. I think that's a direction this country needs to go. We need to have energy independence. That's the first of my three pieces of my platform. The United States is spending over half a trillion dollars a year purchasing fuel, be it oil or natural gas from overseas.
Tom Hansen shares his passion for energy solutions.The amount of natural gas that we've been purchasing has been increasing over the last decade, and will continue to increase even though non-electric consumption of natural gas has actually been reduced 10 percent over the last 10 years. We need to get ourselves to be dependent on only United States sources of electrical energy. To do that we need to be shifting our incentives from fossil fuel federal incentives to renewable energy incentives longterm. We need to make a commitment in this country to move to renewables. Look at the Scientific American, January 2008 article, you'll see one there called the Solar Grand Plan. It's a feasible plan using existing technology to move this country to energy independence. 90% of our fuel oil consumption for transportation could be eliminated by using electric plug-in hybrid vehicles and only increase the amount of electricity that we consume by 10 percent a year. If that all came from solar energy, we would dramatically reduce, first of all, our dependence upon fossil fuels from other countries, and sending all that money overseas and we could then use that half a trillion dollars a year to vitalize our own economy. And that's a second part of my platform, economic vitality. Congressional District 1 has a wide variety of potential resources. We need to develop those resources, and not leave them on the back burner. But we need to develop them in an environmentally sensitive manner as well. And there is technology today which exists which can develop our uranium, our oil, our coal, our natural gas as well as our solar and wind resources we have in this district and do it in an environmentally friendly manner and cost effective as well. We can actually bring down the cost of energy longterm if we start developing those resources now. And finally, the third piece that I feel is very important for the long term is educational excellence. As I said, I served 12 years on the school board in St. Johns. I was very frustrated by the work of the federal government in interfering in our ability as a local governing board to educate our children. I think the federal government needs to be out of the business of education. There's nothing in the constitution that says the federal government has to be involved in education. Let local school boards, local parents decide, 'What are the local priorities, what do we want to make our priority for educating our children, how do we want to spend our money?' Lets make that spending local and not tie it to strings from the federal goverment in Washington as some program, a social program to implement in the classroom that takes away time from educating our children. That has to be changed. Federal government is way too large. It needs to be streamlined. It makes no sense for us to send money to Washington, have them scoop 10-20% off the top, and send us back what they feel is appropriate for us to use for our own social programs, education and infrastructure development. We need to do that locally. That money should be retained within the state, and the state should have the right to determine its priorities, and its allocations for its needs for the future. I do have some handouts, I'll talk about it a little more in the end, but I do have a website, TomHansenforCongress.com and again, I appreciate everybody being here this afternoon. Thank you. HayThank you, thank you. It's so nice to be here with you today, and yes, I'm Sidney Hay, or hey, Sidney, I answer to either one. And I am running for Congress, and really, I'm running against Congress. Because so much of Washington DC is broken. Yavapai County has such a great tradition in politics. For it was on the steps of our Yavapai County Courthouse where Barry Goldwater launched his campaign for President in 1964. And that day, he warned us of something. He warned us that government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. And it was about a month later when Ronald Reagan ignited the conservative movement in America, in a speech entitled A Time for Choosing. And it is indeed a time for choosing today. And at the national level, in this fall election, what a stark contrast, what a choice we are being offered. Two distinct paths for America. Two very divergent choices and visions for this country. One path leads to appeasement in the war on terror, further dependence on bigger government and an America weakened by our dependence on foreign sources for our energy and so many other things. In this race for Congress, the choice is very clear as well. All of us up here, we are conservatives to one degree or another. And any one of us I think would be an excellent choice for this fall campaign. But we will also have a very stark contrast to who is currently the front runner on the Democrat side. And I just want to let you know about that. Because the front running Democrat in this race has a very, shockingly, actually, shockingly liberal voting record. And the residents of Congressional District 1 are not shockingly liberal. We're very conservative here.
Sidney Hay discusses the differences between the Republican candidates and the front-running Democrat.As you probably know, I've been a successful tax fighter, tax cutter, with a long record of tax cuts I've passed through the state legislature, especially that two-thirds majority vote in 1992 I led the campaign for, which have protected taxpayers in this state for fifteen years. But, what's being offered by the front runner, Anne Kirkpatrick, in this case, is a voting record that every single time she had a chance to vote for a tax cut, she voted against it. And I can't find a single example when, getting an opportunity to vote for a tax increase, that she voted against the increase. As you know, I've also been a champion of small business. Small business is the economic engine of America, with, gosh, the majority of all new job creation in America comes from that small business owner, that takes the risk, goes out there, works the 14 hour days, risks their life savings to be heroic in my view. But, I'm telling you, the Democrat that one of us will face, ninety percent of the time, in the State Legislature, has voted against those heroic small business owners. And I think that's very, very wrong. But, you know, when it comes to border security, well, this is serious, last year, for the year, that I have the most current records for, 155,000 people came across that southern border that we apprehended that were not from Mexico. That were from Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea, Syria. Now if we apprehended 155,000, how many didn't we catch? Why are they here, and what did they bring with them? Border security is national security, and yet, time and time again, at the state Legislature, the Democrat one of us will face, every time voted against even modest measures at border security, and that's serious. And you know, when it comes to high gas prices, I just want to echo what Tom said, and all those things, we have to get ourselves energy independent. It's hurting the economy, it's hurting people. And you know, again, I think gas prices are too high, but the Democrat we'll probably face, judging by her voting record and her statements, must think gas prices are too low. So, today, I just want to thank you for this opportunity, thank you for being here, thank you for caring about these important issues. Because I tell you, this fall campaign is very, very important. As you know, Ronald Reagan told us once that you and I have a rondevouz with destiny. That we can preserve, this, the last best hope of mankind on earth, and ladies and gentlemen, it is the last best hope of mankind on earth. Or we could sentence our children to take that last step into the thousand years of darkness. So, that's why I'm running, my daughter is Sarah, my oldest, Sarah, wave at everybody. And those are my three grandchildren. Andrew, Caleb and Sophia. That's why I'm running. And ladies and gentlemen, America and all your families are worth it. Thank you very much. LivingstoneThank you, it's wonderful to be back here at Las Fuentes. I used to come here all the time to visit my friend Dottie Galde, I don't know if some of you may have known her. She was a mentor of mine in many ways. And so it brings back fond memories. My name is Sandra Livingstone, my maiden name is Bunn, you may know the Bunn family, they've been here in Prescott since the 1920s, but my family history in Arizona goes all the way back to 1732, one of the first Spanish land grants given to the Ortega family along the Santa Cruz River. And then another part of my family established the town of Pine in 1979 and were the first to explore the Tonto River Basin. For me, I was born and raised here in Prescott, I graduated from Prescott High in 1982. And apart from being educated outside the district, and working or living abroad or representing the United States of America in the State Department, the last couple of years, I have always had a home base here. I got married here in 1993, we lived here for a few years after that, and I have two kids and have been married for 15 years. My background is basically, I left Prescott, I went to the Claremont Colleges in California, followed by Wheaton College, where I got my bachelor's in English Literature, and a pre-med major as well. I did part of my studies at Oxford University for that. And then I went off to China, and was a volunteer teacher in China, in inner Mongolia for two years. After that, I came back and went to Law School at Pepperdine School of Law, did a couple of minor things at Moscow University and Warsaw University, and after law school, did a diploma at Salzburg University. Moved on down to South Africa and worked at a firm that did the peace accords for Nelson Mandela. After that, I came back to the States and got married, and my husband and I went to England, went abroad again, for me to do a degree at Cambridge University. I did a PhD in International Law there and started teaching there, in my second year of my PhD. We stayed there for one decade until I was hired by Condoleeza Rice to come to the State Department as Director of Multi-lateral European Affairs in the Office of Human Rights, Democracy and Labor. So, that's basically my background before running for office. Having been in Washington, having to work with Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, Education, Justice, the Congress, the White House, the National Security Council, I know how Washington works, and I was very deeply disappointed. Like many of you probably are, with the way that Washington works or doesn't work. Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing again and again and to expect different results, and that, to me, sums up Washington, DC. There are just too few people there that are actually representing us and what we care about. I want to just talk about a few issues under the rubric of SENSE vs. insanity, and these are the issues I think are key issues for CD1 and our country.
Dr. Sandra Livingstone talks about making SENSE."S" is Secure our Borders. As Sidney said, and Preston mentioned, we've got to secure our borders, not just because there are illegal immigrants coming across, but because there are drug runners, terrorists, criminals, coyotes, etc. And because Hugo Chavez is now giving a free visa to anyone from the Middle East to cross that border. When I was working in counter-terrorism in the State Department, you could start the terrorist list on Monday morning at 8 am and the following Monday after that thing running 24 hours a day, you're still not done by the next week. We have got so many threats against us, and that border needs to be shut now. I would like to repeal the immigration code of 1986 and change it so that the anchor baby system does not exist. I would like to deal with the immigrants that are here by pulling them out with the registration process, keeping those here that who want to get guest worker visas who we need in industry, and anyone else who we don't need needs to be deported, and we need to secure that border to make that work.
The 'E' is Economy. It's unbelievable to me that we have a government that doesn't balance the budget, 9 trillion debt, $100,000 every 10 seconds, $30,000 for every man, woman, child is what we owe now. We're borrowing money from Saudi Arabia and China at a huge rate of interest and then we have nothing to say to them with their human rights abuses. We've got to balance our budget. Secondly, we need to stop the imbalance of trade with places like China, $460 billion this past year in imbalance in trade with China. Imbalance the trade with India and developing countries is destroying US industry, destroying our job market, outsourcing resources, etc. I'd like to stop that. And I'd like to see more incentivization for those businesses. The 'N' is NAFTA. NAFTA is symbolic, not just because it's so detrmentally affected CD1, I was interviewed on TV here in Prescott, in 1994, and mentioned that NAFTA was going to be disasterous for the State of Arizona, and for this particular district, and it has been. Plants have shut, workers have left, companies are gone. It's a totally unbalanced agreement that is not representative of fair trade. And a lot of these free trade agreements are just that. And finally, it represents giving up our sovereignty to panels that meet in secret and determine things without judicial review and without the appellate process. The fourth letter 'S' is Security, and that's the Iraqi war. I believe we need to restructure the political solution for Iraq. I would like to see a constitution that sets up a federated state with Sunni, Shi'a and Kurds. A federated city of Bagdad to secure our military position as well as to preserve the future of Iraq, with equal interests between the parties in oil and politics. And finally, the last 'E' is Energy. We don't neeed to explore for energy because we know where it is. It's in ANWAR, it's in Gold Bay, it's in Prudoe Bay, it's in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, the Balkin Reserves, it's in the Gulf of Mexico, it's in the Pacific, it's in the Atlantic and we know where it is. And we have enough to supply our needs for 200 years from almost any of those independent sources. Along with that, we need to exploit the natural gas that we've been pumping back into the ground at Prudoe Bay, Alaska with 36 737 engines every day. And go forward. Finally, I would like to see alternative energy sources used, like solar, wind, hydrogen, etc. so that we can provide all our own energy needs. Thanks so much, and remember, if someone asks who you're going to vote for in CD1, it's Dr. Livingstone, I presume.
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