Gosar is Ideal Candidate for Republican Party

By Billy Nachman       

  

        Republican challenger Paul Gosar is somewhat of a poster-child for congressional candidates in the Republican party this election year. Facing off against incumbent Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona’s First District, Gosar is building his platform on four powerful Republican topics this year: Financial reform, immigration, taxes and energy, all of which are big issues in Arizona. Gosar is feeding off of a Republican uprising across the country, and is doing an excellent job of harnessing the major talking points of his party, and applying them at the local level.

       
        In his book Congressional Elections, Paul Herrnson emphasizes the candidate-centered elections that take place at the congressional level. While this is certainly the case, he also points out how it is common for congressional candidates to take cues from their national party on certain issues to focus on, and how to apply party rhetoric to issues at the local level. This is especially useful in an election year when the Democrats are taking a lot of heat for recent policy initiatives.
       

        Gosar’s viewpoints on financial reform, immigration, taxes, and energy might as well be coming from Newt Gingrich himself. Gosar is strongly opposed to excessive regulation on Wall Street, and his attitude toward taxes runs along a similar line. According to a feature on keyhouseraces.com , "I adamantly oppose this Liberal Congress’ tax and spend ways. As a small businessman, I understand how harmful they can be. It should be a fundamental principle of all elected officials that the American people get to keep more of what they earn." Gosar is also strongly in favor of energy independence, advocating more domestic drilling, in addition to alternative options. In terms of immigration, as expected from a Republican (especially in Arizona), Gosar wants to secure the border and crack down on illegal immigration.

      
        Paul Gosar is the ideal Republican congressional candidate for this election year. While Republicans across the nation are uniting to set the political agenda, Gosar is spreading the ideals of his party to his district, and is on the right track to winning office.

Here are a couple of Gosar campaign ads

Anti-Democrat Sentiment Helps Gosar

        By Billy Nachman

     

         With less than two months until election day, the race in Arizona’s First Congressional District is very much up for grabs. First-term incumbent Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick is getting all she can handle from Republican challenger Paul Gosar. A wave of anti-Democrat sentiment across the country may be a huge help for Gosar, who wants to cut back the federal government’s power and reduce taxes and regulation.

      

           

       According to a recent poll conducted by Ayes, McHenry and Associates, Gosar is leading the incumbent by six points, 47 percent to 41 percent. This is not good news for Kirkpatrick, especially considering other questions in the poll which favor Gosar even more. According to a September 8th article in the White Mountain Independent, results from the same poll indicate that the biggest issues for voters in the district are keeping taxes low, fixing the health care problem, cutting government spending, and promoting sound economic policies. The biggest factors in this election as pointed out by voters strongly reflect the platform of Gosar. In fact, in an interview with the Verde Independent published on September 11th, Gosar expressed such sentiments. "It's about saving jobs and saving people in business. I'm a small businessman. I can tell you small business doesn't want a bailout. We want to be left alone, so we can expand business and hire people. You do that by lowering taxes and lowering regulations." Another area where Kirkpatrick could be in trouble is from her voting for the health care bill. 47% of respondents say they will be much less likely to vote for her because of her support for Obama’s controversial bill. The poll had a silver lining for Kirkpatrick, as she beat out the relatively unknown Gosar by 25 points in the trust department.


       Negative attitudes towards Democrats this election season certainly seems to be impacting the race for Arizona’s First District. Gosar will need to capitalize on such sentiments while campaigning over the next couple of months, and Kirkpatrick must prove to her constituents that she is worth re-electing.

Incumbent Kirkpatrick Faces Challenge in Arizona's 1st

       By Billy Nachman

      
       Ann Kirkpatrick is in somewhat of a difficult situation going into this November’s congressional elections. Kirkpatrick is a first-term incumbent in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, yet she is also a democrat, in what has historically been a conservative district. The raging debate over immigration reform in Arizona, along with the proposed and highly controversial immigration law in the state even further hurts Kirkpatrick’s chance of re-election. Kirkpatrick’s republican counterpart is Dr. Paul Gosar, former Arizona Dental Association’s “Dentist of the Year.” Gosar will be particularly dangerous for Kirkpatrick, a staunch conservative who is a strong supporter of the immigration law, and is running on an anti-big government platform.

      The Arizona Daily Sun ran a piece last Sunday examining the two candidates and their main views. It seems that considering the relatively conservative attitude of her constituents, Kirkpatrick is leaning towards the middle, certainly trying to play it safe. Gosar on the other hand, is leaning very much towards the right, making borderline outlandish statements regarding immigration reform. In the article he says, “We can no longer turn our backs on Arizona and allow illegal drug smugglers, human traffickers, criminals and murderers, sex trade operators, and others to cross our borders illegally, burden our schools and our jails and our hospitals, and expect the people of Arizona to continue paying the price.” I understand where Gosar is coming from here, but he seems to be describing a very small percentage of illegal immigrants. I’m pretty sure the vast majority of individuals crossing illegally into this country are not drug smugglers and murderers.

        Kirkpatrick seems to be the most level-headed and moderate of the two candidates, but in a midterm election where there is a great deal of right wing fervor, Gosar could take advantage of the conservative base in Arizona and make a serious run. Gosar is anti-big government, while Kirkpatrick voted for the health care bill and the stimulus bill. If the voters in Arizona’s 1st District start leaning towards the right this November, Kirkpatrick could be in trouble.