A friend of mine sent me the text below, having seen all the other posts I’ve been writing about Pamela Gorman (who I just had lunch with, by the way). In lieu of me writing my own post or trying to encapsulate this into my own work, let me just give this to you.
It is a true story.
If you want a government by and for the establishment insiders, stand down and do nothing – that’s what you’ll get. If you want better, you need to support true conservatives who have the guts to fight the establishment. Pamela Gorman running in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District is one of those conservatives.
Let me tell you a story. Despite being called the “Clean Elections” law, the Arizona public financing law has been anything but “clean.” Thankfully, the Goldwater Institute has been challenging the law (and winning) in the courts. At the end of the session last year, Senator Pamela Gorman single-handedly killed an insider deal that would have kept the “taxpayer-financed, full employment act for political insiders” pumping public cash into the system for another year.
How bad was the law? Well, if you run as a privately-financed candidate for the Arizona Senate and you raise and spend $30,000, your opponent (running on “Clean Elections” financing) gets a $30,000 check from the government to run ads against you. If an outside group independently spends $15,000 to support you, the “clean elections” candidate gets another check from the government for $15,000. Anyone who wants to run collects some $5 contributions and then the taxpayers will fund the rest of your campaign for you. It’s B-A-D.
As you might guess, the system has proven to be a cash cow for establishment insiders who scam the system, run a slew of candidates and collect a treasure trove of government checks. In some cases “straw man” candidates run, get public cash and don’t spend it, choosing to “donate it” to one of the political parties or even to the “charity” that the candidate’s spouse runs out of the basement. If private companies did these things, their officers would be headed to prison.
Well the political insiders, Party leaders, the Governor (who would have received a check for $1.4 million into her campaign account) and political consultants reached a “deal.” Senate leadership indicated that the deal was to be passed without amendment because there was no time left to have the House vote on Senate changes. It would be done in the dark of night (when hopefully the public wouldn’t notice). Senator Pamela Gorman said “No!”
Gorman took to the Senate floor after midnight when leadership tried to push the bill through on the last day of session. She talked. She fought. She debated. She offered one solid amendment after another. She was accused of impugning her fellow Senators because she questioned how they could be voting down amendments when reflected sound ideas that many of them had previously made speeches in support of (truth hurts). Ultimately, Gorman won the battle. She swayed enough minds that even though her amendments failed, she was able to strip off enough previous “yes” votes to kill the bill on final read. Once again Pamela Gorman, alone, stood against the establishment and put the public interest before the interest of the good old boys network.
If you want conservatives who are willing to fight for what’s right to win elections, it is critically important that you support Pamela Gorman for Congress financially. The “establishment” is trying to shut her down and prefers someone who will just go along.
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Dan Spencer
Jeff Emanuel
Neil Stevens
Dear God
Loren Heal (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 6:11PM EDT (link)More like this, please.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
The governor?
mustango (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 6:22PM EDT (link)Bully for Ms. Gorman, but… “the Governor”? Of Arizona? As in… Jan Brewer?
Oh dear.
“I just miss — I miss being anonymous.” — Barack Obama
I fully sympathize, Mr. President. I miss you being anonymous too.
Doesn't surprise me a bit. Brewer is a total milquetoast
eburke (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 6:38PM EDT (link)who was at one time SOS and couldn’t manage her way out of a paper bag with both ends cut out. She was around when we lived in AZ and the only reason she became Guv is because Janet baby went to DC.
She doesn’t have a principled bone in her body. She’s always and forever only been about the power (sound like any other AZ pol that we all know and love?) I am convinced that the only reason she supported SB 1070 was that she put her finger to the political winds and figured out that it was the smart thing politically to do. Why else would it have taken her a week to announce that she was going to sign it? I heard her on Laura Ingraham’s program the day after the Legislature passed the Bill and you’ve never heard such flim-flammery and position dodging in all your life.
So the fact that she was part of the ‘good ol’ boys’ on this surprises me about as much as the fact that Barry is a radical Marxist who doesn’t have a clue as to how to govern.
“All that need be done for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Unified Patriots
5 nt
aesthete (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 7:28PM EDT (link)“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
Brewer didn't "support" SB1070. She just
mbecker908 (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 8:14PM EDT (link)signed it after a week of dithering, and until she put pen to paper nobody knew what she was going to do.
The worst part of all of this is that she’s very likely to get elected.
Pamela Gorman's Solo Revolution
uvbogden (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 6:31PM EDT (link)Kudos to Ms. Gorman and her solo revolution! If only we had office-holders in Washington who held, against all the forces of darkness, to their conservative principles, as Ms. Gorman did, our nation would not be in the mess it is in now. How interesting that it takes a strong, conservative WOMAN to have a spine in government and truly represent the people.
“…an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance the budget–just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.” –JFK
I don't understand her campaign strategy
hippiessmell Friday, June 11th at 7:13PM EDT (link)Ever since I read your first article, I’ve been evangelizing for her to my friends and family that live in AZ-3 (as I do).
The problem is that she has little to no name recognition where I live (north Phoenix) nor where my family lives (north and central Scottsdale). I mean, I have a friend that lives in Anthem and he doesn’t even know who she is. This is a serious problem in a primary that includes Ben Quayle and his boatloads of DC establishment money. Not to mention I had no idea she was even in the race until I read your article here.
Now, I’m not a big believer that campaign signs on the side of the road win elections, but for crying out loud, if no one knows who you are but AZ state political junkies and RedState readers, at least put a couple signs up! If I didn’t read RedState, I would think that the only people running in the election were the big three: Vernon Parker, Ben Quayle, and Jim Waring along with the also rans: Paulina Morris and Ed Winkler.
Admittedly, it is a rare occasion when I’m in Anthem or Carefree so maybe she has some up there, but I have seen no indication of her anywhere in the southern 2/3 of the district. And I’ve been looking.
I don’t know, maybe she doesn’t have enough money or something, but this really needs to get turned around in the next month or so. I happen to belong to the ‘anybody but Ben Quayle’ camp, so even though I have problems with everyone running except for Ms. Gorman, who I really like, I’m going to have to vote for Vernon Parker unless I see some sort of indication that she has a chance to win. Because from what I’ve experienced around my district, I don’t see her as viable right now.
Leftism is just the latest incarnation of the decaying feudal system with its top-down paternalistic management of people’s lives–a system of having the “betters” take care of the dependent serfs, with the serfs surrendering their wealth, freedoms and choices.
hippiesmell, you're right
crosley (Diary) Saturday, June 12th at 12:47PM EDT (link)Living in CD-3 in AZ, the primary is going to come down to Parker, Waring, or Quayle. Pamela Gorman is a great conservative, and she was one of my top choices, but her fundraising has been abysmal and she seems to have been MIA this campaign. In my opinion, she doesn’t have the name or resources to run an effective campaign. There are also other quality “true” conservatives that split up the vote. It’s not a dynamic of conservative vs RINO, nearly all the candidates would have identical voting records once in Congress.
That being said, the two candidates I really don’t want to see win is Ben Quayle, who’s a joke in my opinion. He’s basically a bored rich kid who just got out of law school and needs a job. It was revealed he hasn’t even voted in the last few primaries. Even though this district is a safe Republican one, I could honestly see a Democrat pull an upset here if he gets the nomination. The other candidate is Morris. She’s basically a liberal Democrat trying to pretend she’s a conservative Republican. She has given donations to Planned Parenthood and several left-wing Democrats.
For me personally, it will come down between Jim Waring and Vernon Parker, but I would be delighted to vote for Gorman in the general election if she does win.
hippiessmell, look at what you just wrote
klondike Friday, June 11th at 7:48PM EDT (link)And consider what you didn’t write. You said:
” … so even though I have problems with everyone running except for Ms. Gorman, who I really like …”
then:
“I’m going to have to vote for Vernon Parker unless I see some sort of indication that she has a chance to win.”
What you didn’t mention is any plan on your part to help her win. I’m sure she could use your volunteer help putting out signs, asking people to donate to her campaign, etc. If we don’t help, only the well-funded and well-connected will make it into office, which is what we are trying to turn around.
You're right
hippiessmell Friday, June 11th at 11:17PM EDT (link)I didn’t write my plan to help her win. I didn’t write “Ever since I read your first article, I’ve been evangelizing for her to my friends and family that live in AZ-3 (as I do).”
Seriously though, I’ve done pretty much everything but volunteer for the campaign, which I absolutely do not have time for. I wish I could, but I can’t. So I donate money and talk to people at work and family and social events. My problem is I don’t see any bang for my buck except for admittedly awesome articles on her on RedState. And a couple of ads; also on RedState.
It wasn’t my intent to be an eeyore here, just looking for some kind of indication of progress. So in that vein, let me help out the cause:
Help me be less bear-ish on this whole venture and donate!
Leftism is just the latest incarnation of the decaying feudal system with its top-down paternalistic management of people’s lives–a system of having the “betters” take care of the dependent serfs, with the serfs surrendering their wealth, freedoms and choices.
THANKS for supporting the conservative!!
positiveenerg (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 8:06PM EDT (link)There is a reason that you haven’t seen a lot. Being the low-budget outsider candidate, Gorman has to spend VERY limited resources in a VERY targeted fasion to win. Mass distributed yard signs, mass mail, mass broadcast is not the way you do that unless you’ve got insider Quayle money.
You should DONATE MONEY to the campaign. Gorman has taken on the Governor, has taken on the political establishment, has fought against corporate welfare and has taken on Randy Pullen the GOP Chairman … and supported conservative principles. They are trying DESPERATELY to shut down her fundraising. Same kind of thing happened with Nikki Haley in SC and Sharron Angle in NV, but they broke through. The good old boys want her gone and want their own lapdog in there.
THAT is precisely why it is important to donate money, to spread the world and encourage others to do the same …. the message is getting out. And it’s AWESOME that you are helping spread it. Keep fighting because we’ve got a long way to go.
Brian Fojtik
Makes sense to me, nt
hippiessmell Friday, June 11th at 11:18PM EDT (link)Leftism is just the latest incarnation of the decaying feudal system with its top-down paternalistic management of people’s lives–a system of having the “betters” take care of the dependent serfs, with the serfs surrendering their wealth, freedoms and choices.
When last we saw
skat Friday, June 11th at 8:57PM EDT (link)our daring heroine she was whining about her measly $24,000 part -time salary to justify vacationing when she was supposed to be at the Arizona legislature working. Oh sorry, wrong episode – we aren’t to mention that are we?
Give us real links to real facts
conservativecrusade (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 11:56PM EDT (link)when you make assertions like this, or go get lost! If you have something to add that may or may not sway voters or show us something that matters, fine but back it up with proof. Your idiot ramble is laughable and will not sway a single soul!
“The America Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” — Alexis de Tocqueville
If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting. — Curtis LeMay
We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan
Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence. — George Washington
skat you are too funny
positiveenerg (Diary) Friday, June 11th at 11:13PM EDT (link)funny … you just can’t get your facts straight.
some people don’t like “uppity women” … get over it. you completely mischaracterize everything from the most liberal paper in Phoenix where you get your “intel” ….
Gorman had one of the top voting attendance records in the Arizona Legislature … find a new issue
Brian Fojtik
No Stronger Conservative than Pamela Gorman
dswaz (Diary) Saturday, June 12th at 2:28AM EDT (link)Let me tell you why I am a staunch supporter and defender of Pamela Gorman. Pamela has always been a strong social and fiscal conservative. Her record backs it up. She has always been near the top of the rankings for Americans for Prosperity and a variety of cultural organizations. She has never voted for a tax increase.
In 2009 when the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature was in an apoplectic seizure over sending a sales tax increase to the voters, Pamela was one of the lone Republicans who refused to vote for Governor’s sales tax hike. She said “NO” and incurred the wrath of the Governor and every crony of the Governor. There was even a phone and mail campaign targeting Pamela to give in to the Governor’s demand, but Senator Gorman refused. It wasn’t until she resigned to run for Congress that her replacement stepped in and voted for the sales tax hike.
There was NO Stronger defender of Pamela than I. You can read any of my posts on SonoranAlliance.com defending Pamela and her position NOT to vote for the Sales Tax measure.
It is said,”that which does not kill you, makes you stronger.” I am a firm believer in that statement and I know Pamela Gorman has lived it. I am proud to endorse Pamela in a crowded field of candidates running in CD-3. I know that she will be a strong advocate for a conservative agenda but most important, she will stand her ground.
Go Pamela!
Campaign Finance
dswaz (Diary) Saturday, June 12th at 2:35AM EDT (link)I forgot to mention that Pamela has also been a strong opponent of taxpayer-funded elections. My organization, Arizona Taxpayers Action Committee, challenged Arizona’s “Clean Elections” law opposing the matching funds provision. Recently, the US Supreme Court agreed with us and knocked out this aspect of the law that restricted our right to speak freely for or against candidates. Pamela strongly supports a campaign finance system that is based on transparency and competition.
Gorman on top in blog poll
azartist Tuesday, July 13th at 5:27AM EDT (link)Not a scientific poll, but the Arizona capital times blog has a sidebar poll running to choose from all the CD 3 names and Pamela Gorman is on top as of 7-13.