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Meet Jesse Kelly (R Cand, AZ-08).

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  August 15th, 2009 at 08:43 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Website for Jesse Kelly here: contribute here.

AZ-04 is a R+4 district: its current holder (Gabrielle Giffords) picked up the seat as part of the 2006 shellacking. In time-honored Blue Dog fashion, she’s handling the health care rationing controversy by hiding from it: Giffords abruptly canceled two Thursday meetings by ‘combining’ them into a RSVP-only whatever-it-was at a military base. Fairly typical behavior, in other words.

Enter Jesse Kelly: Marine, businessman, and more than happy to go to the canceled town hall and talk, same time, same place. How did he do? Judge for yourself:

It’s the weirdest thing, but it seems that the best way to handle a confrontational situation is not to run away, Giffords’ example to the contrary. I’d recommend that the Democrats emulate Kelly’s example when faced with a person who’s loudly disagreeing with them, except that would be cruel of me: the reason that they’re running away is because they can’t win this on the merits, and they know it.

Moving along: to the best of my knowledge, the national party hasn’t made a decision yet on who best to foster in AZ-08 (which is reasonable: this is the season for making those decisions). If somebody else on the GOP side of this race has got something that can beat or match the above, though… well, now’s the time to show it.

Via Instapundit and Short for Ordinary.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • ellisclarke

    Why are Democrat and Republican, Senators and House Members supported by their respective political parties, lobbyists and special interest groups rushing to DISMANTLE our health care insurance programs?

    The current American Health Care System, which is envied around the world, is the best in the world. People from around the globe come to America seeking our health care. Do Americans travel to Canada, Cuba, England or France etc. to seek health care? Of course not, ours is already the best.

    Is it to include health benefits for the 15 to 20 million illegal?s and non-Americans? Is it to cover the 2 to 3 million who do not have and can not afford health care coverage for political reasons? Or, is it, so Government and political parties can further control your life style and have unelected bureaucrats and czars make the decisions for us based on political party preferences and voting habits?

    Why is there NO clause or statement in any proposed health reform that specifically states that NON-CITIZENS will NOT be entitled to benefits under the Government socialized universal health care program. WHY?

    The Obama reform for a socialized universal health care and government run program, is a complete dismantling of our current health care insurance system over 5 years. Other than an attempt to further control of our lives and give coverage to 15 to 20 million illegal residents it makes no sense.

    Wake up people, these Senators, House Members, with their respective political parties and biased and pro Obama news media (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN etc.) lobbyists and special interest groups are not looking out for our interests, but rather the interest of 15 to 20 million illegal and non-Americans living here at our expense through increased taxes for all Americans.

  • IJB

    The title is correct – Giffords is AZ-08 (I should know – my brother and mother live in her district).

    But in the text, you have it listed as “AZ-04″, which is actually Ed Pastor’s district (and a solid ‘D’ one, at that).

    Just so you know!

  • http://www.phxgonline.com phxg

    Mr. Kelly as some great legs to stand on and he’s taking the message to the people, even when the incumbent Rep Giffords ran away.  She recently married a spaceman, and I suspect she will want to be nearby him on a regular basis. Since there are no NASA operations for real live astronauts in Tucson or D.C., there is her exit strategy.

    I believe Jessee Kelly, American hero and all around great guy (let’s hope he follows the Jeff Flake methodology of governance) can and will win.

     

    Something to also consider. The writer of the story, a supposed unbiased journalist is anything but. Daniel Newhauser’s Twitter feed is rife with comments like:

    trying to debunk myths and rhetoric about health care reform that are scaring the hell out of seniors in my community

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • smagar

    The Arizona Daily Star didn’t mention Giffords’ cancellation of her town hall, and nor did it mention Kelly’s public discussions.

    I just searched the Star’s online archives for “Giffords,” “Jesse” and “Kelly.” The only thing that popped up was this brief article on Rep Giffords’ discussion of the new GI Bill.

    If you got your news from the AZ Daily Star, you’d never know this whole issue even existed.

  • ColdWarrior

    Great video of Jesse Kelly.

    Talk about effectiveness — showing the people exactly what the bill says — the socialized medicine bill Teleprompter Boy wanted signed before anyone read it.

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

  • smagar

    Read it for yourself.

    The people who just interviewed Giffords are the same people who will be framing the questions/driving the coverage for the 2010 Congressional race between Giffords and Kelly (assuming Jesse is nominated, that is).

    Perhaps it’s me, but I thought that the Star interview was overly friendly, and some of the questions were leading. It’s as if the Star editorial board was having a friendly chat with a colleague in thought.

    Which isn’t surprising in Arizona print media. The Arizona Republic, Phoenix’s primary daily paper, recently laid off a bunch of people. One of them was an editor from the paper’s Editorial Board. Where did she end up? Apparently, home.

    Republic Editorial Board writer Jennifer Johnson, a victim of the most recent round of Gannett lay offs, has become spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. ‘Nuff said.

    Kelly is facing a Democrat-friendly media and an incumbent with plenty of money. If he wants to be viable in 2010, the Pima County GOP needs to coalesce behind him soon. He needs to convince Tucson’s political power centers that it’s worth it for them to risk antagonizing Giffords. And the Star.

  • smagar

    Please include a “” tag after the word “Republic” in the second sentence, third paragraph.

    :(

  • smagar

    That should come sometime within the next two weeks.