The DCCC is Petrified The Parkland Students Are Going To Find Out About Ann Kirkpatrick's Record On Guns

DCCC endorsed NRA ally Ann Kirkpatrick instead of any of the progressives in AZ-02

Arizona's second district is one of the most competitive in the country. McCain beat Obama 50-49% and Romney beat him 50-48%. But then Hillary beat Trump 49.6% to 44.7%. In 2015 the PVI was R+3. Now it's R+1. The district includes most of Tucson-- everything but the Latino neighborhoods in the west and southern parts of the city and the whole southeast corner of the state, bordering on New Mexico and Mexico. Although all of Cochise County is included in the district, virtually all of the voters live in much bluer Pima County.

Both parties' primaries for Congress this year are also very komptetibe, especially since incumbent Martha McSally decided to run for the open U.S. Seante seat. The 5 Republicans running are Lea Peterson, Danny Morales, Brandon Martin, Casey Welch and Marilyn Wiles. There are also 6 Democrats running: Matt Heinz, Ann Kirkpatrick, Billy Kovacs, Mary Matiella, Barbara Sherry, and Bruce Wheeler. (There may be 2 other candidates running as Democrats running as well, Yahya Yuksel and William Foster but no one seems to know for sure. The filing deadline is May 30for the August 28th primary.)

Saturday, the Democrats all attended the March for our Lives rallies in either Tucson, except Barbara Sherry who went to the rally in Sierra Vista, while all the Republicans shared a stage at a candidates forum in private club, the Mountain Oyster Club, charging $7.50 to get in. Reporters were banned.

As of the December 31 FEC reporting deadline, the only Republican who had raised any significant money was Peterson ($218,266). Three Democrats had raised serious money: Kirkpatrick ($749,533), Heinz ($343,119) and Matiella ($151,425).

Platform-wise, all the Democrats are in sync on most issues, although Kirkpatrick, the most conservative of the 6, opposes Medicare-for-All. She's also a flip-floppy candidate who changes her mind to please whomever she's speaking to. She went from being one of the NRA's strongest allies in Congress-- keynoting their events and earning an "A"-- to claiming she now opposes them. Many Arizonans remember that Kirkpatrick was a co-sponsor for the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act which allows those authorized to carry firearms in their home state to travel with their weapons. The DCCC has endorsed her. They always pick the most conservative candidate in contested races. Funny how their Red tie Blue page on Kirkpatrick doesn't say a word about her record as an NRA ally. Don't Democratic voters have a right to know?



There is no other Democrat running in AZ-02 who could have ever said this except Kirkpatrick:

"I am not going to allow Washington to ignore the values of Arizonans and the traditions of four generations of my family in District One, and I am proud to be pushing back against the federal government to stop our Constitutional rights from being infringed. Every time the anti-gun rights groups propose legislation that restricts our freedoms, I am going to make sure they know millions of Americans will fight them every inch of the way."

Nor this-- when she welcomed the NRA, which she referred to "one of the country’s oldest continuously operating civil liberties organizations," to Phoenix:

"As a gun owner myself, I firmly believe in the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms, and I am proud that my state is hosting the group that has protected that right for 138 years. This is a chance for Arizonans to show our nation’s leaders we will not let them take away our freedoms... People in Washington need to stop undermining the Second Amendment. That’s why I took on the Attorney General for his proposal to ban so-called 'assault weapons.' I will continue to work vigilantly to maintain and protect our Second Amendment rights against every challenge they face."

This is a truly disgusting person whose hands are dripping in the blood of school children. And Kirkpatrick is a carpetbagging careerist from the northern part of the state who has one of the most vile spam campaigns of any candidate for Congress in the whole country-- just an unrelenting shit-stream of banal, insipid and utterly insincere e-mails every single day. Yesterday, Sunday, was not exception:

I don’t have the words to describe just how grateful I am to have your support. We’re already being called one of the top 10 House races to watch by the Washington Post AND we’re one of four must-win seats for Democrats. And it’s only March!

I’ve seen all the birthday love from this past week. So many of you chipped in-- it truly warms my heart.

As we begin the second half of our campaign and march to November, I’m excited to see what we will accomplish together.

Mary Matiella and Matt Heinz are both far better candidates and either would make a better member of Congress. When we spoke with Mary recently she told us that "The DCCC is right about AZ-02 being a great pickup opportunity but they're wrong if they think an establishment/corporate Dem is the way to win. Southern Arizonans are a fiercely independent bunch and ultimately it's the voters, not the establishment who will decide who best represents their values." She followed with a statement for DWT readers about her stand on immigration reform:

I'm sick and tired of the Trump-McSally machine demonizing our immigrant communities to score political points with their most narrow-minded supporters. We are a nation of immigrants and dehumanizing communities of color in the name of border security is wrong. Militarizing our border sends the wrong message to the world and is an ineffective strategy for dealing with border security.

What I believe is simple: secure the border at the border. We need more Customs Officers at the ports of entry, rather than more agents combing the desert. Over 80% of the narcotics and violent criminals that come across our border do so through our ports of entry. And that's where we need to focus resources. Not miles away at checkpoints the narcos and the coyotes know how to avoid. And, $1.6 billion budgeted for border walls-- what a waste of money!

I believe in comprehensive immigration reform that includes protecting DREAMers, providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, and reducing the current visa backlog. Breaking up families, racially profiling in our communities, and strong-arm tactics are morally repugnant practices that only serve to divide our community.

This issue is deeply personal to me. I am a Latina who grew up in southern Arizona. Many members of my family, including my husband were born on the other side of the line. We must do better to deal with the economic and humanitarian issues along our border.