Candidates Respond to
Key Citizen Questions

We have invited candidates to respond to the following key questions that reflect the concerns of citizens throughout Arizona about a broad range of issues important to our future.

 

Select a candidate from the dropdown menu to view their responses. The list of candidates will be updated as we receive their responses.


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DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed by candidates who respond to citizen questions are solely those of the candidates, and do not reflect the position of the Center for the Future of Arizona or its partners.

 

Composite Questions

 

Your Vision
What is your vision for the state? How will Arizona be different if you are elected to office?

 

Your Issues
What issues are most important to you? What positions on those issues will cause voters to support you?

 

Your Politics
Partisanship and divisiveness are becoming endemic at virtually all levels of government. As a candidate, what kind of assurance can you give that the interests of Arizona citizens are going to be put before party, special interests, or personal ideology?

 

Your Approach
If elected, you will be expected to take action on a number of issues that are important to citizens. Many of your decisions about one issue will affect other issues. Your decisions on education will affect job creation, for example, and your decisions on healthcare will affect state finances. Please describe your approach to dealing with the multiple implications of these kinds of decisions.

 

Issue-specific Key Questions to be Answered

 

Job Creation

  1. What is your perspective on the value of incentives for economic development? How important are incentives, and should they be planned at the state level or at the local level?

     

  2. What kind of collaboration do you desire between education and industry? How would you foster that collaboration to generate more jobs and better qualified employees?

     

  3. I’d like to ask the candidates what they will do to create green jobs for Arizona? It’s been our experience that this draws young people. It’s a very exciting occupation for young people, and I think that would do a lot to turn around our per capita income.

     

  4. In Arizona, 97 percent of the businesses here are run by small business owners. What are you going to do to help the small business owner create jobs?

     

  5. Do you really believe that we need to diversify our business base rather than just waiting for real estate construction and tourism to recover? What actions would you take to foster that?

     

Education

  1. Do you believe that the success of public education is the most important role of government in the State of Arizona?

     

  2. There’s been a substantial reduction in funding for higher education in this state, and I’d like to know specifically from candidates what level of investment you will support in higher education and how you believe that will support our economy.

     

  3. How would you ensure our students rise to national/international standards? How will they become “career-college ready” with the state’s current education fiscal budget?

     

  4. Every candidate says they support education. What specifically will you do to change education in Arizona?

     

  5. Knowing that getting a child ready for kindergarten begins at birth, how do you plan to support a P-20 educational system?

     

Natural Resources

  1. Do you support having the whole state comply with the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, which requires that you cannot pump out any more groundwater than is naturally or artificially replenished? Right now there are vast areas of the state, mostly in the rural areas, that do not have to comply with that law.

     

  2. I would ask any candidate if they're willing to support continuation of the Growing Smarter program, which helps protect our natural resources. In particular, do you support bringing back the scorecard program, which was never fully implemented?

     

  3. What is your position on state trust land reform, and would you be in favor of giving the State Trust Land Department more latitude in the way they manage their lands for the benefit of Arizona schools?

     

  4. What is your commitment and plan to keep all of our state parks open? And should they be publicly funded?

     

  5. Will you look beyond the needs of Maricopa and Pima counties? To what extent will you consider the needs of smaller cities and rural areas with regard to water and environmental issues?

     

Healthcare

  1. If elected, will you work to expand Kids Care again to deal with the 40,000 children that are on the waiting list at the time?

     

  2. What will you do to close the gap for the working poor who do not qualify for AHCCCS but cannot afford private insurance?

     

  3. We have a shortage of healthcare professionals in Arizona, and the University of Arizona has gone through extensive planning to expand the medical school in Phoenix. It requires a great deal of investment. Are you supportive of continuing this investment or increasing it?

     

  4. Given the current extreme shortage of doctors in the State of Arizona, what would you do about tort reform to help more doctors want to practice here?

     

  5. Do you support additional funding for Graduate Medical Education, which helps put medical residents in rural community hospitals?

     

Immigration

  1. The majority of Arizona citizens support SB1070, despite the fact that some communities have decided to take legal action.  Do you specifically support or oppose SB1070?

     

  2. Do you support the removal, in whatever way, of the 600,000 estimated illegal immigrants? Or do you support creating a process in which some of those would be able to stay in the state and in the country legally?

     

  3. My question is about the children who come to this country at three years of age and have gone through elementary school and high school. Are you in favor of sending them back, even though they had no reason to be in this country except their parents brought them here?

     

  4. Will you do everything possible when you get into office to make sure that the federal government does the job it has been constitutionally mandated to do, which is to protect our borders from illegal entry?

     

  5. What kind of influence can you bring to bear on our Congressional delegation to secure a comprehensive immigration policy for this country and especially for our state?

     

Leadership & Government

  1. How do you feel about an open primary concept for legislative office, where anyone can vote in a primary election and the general election is a runoff between the first and second (place) candidates?

     

  2. In almost every election, we have propositions on the ballot. How do you feel about proposing some kind of legislation that these voter-mandated programs be revisited periodically and referred back to voters on some kind of regular basis?

     

  3. Do you support changing the position of Secretary of State to Lieutenant Governor?

     

  4. Do you support term limits?

     

  5. Do you support a redistricting process that results in more politically competitive districts?

     

  6. Will you support a constitutional convention to modernize our state government?

     

State Finances

  1. If you want to decrease taxes in Arizona, you can do it with a simple majority. But if you want to increase taxes, you need a two-thirds vote. Are you willing to do anything about that so we can increase or decrease easier as needed?

     

  2. Every issue we’ve talked about really has some cost to it. What I want to know is what your top priorities are for state spending? Where should the dollars go first, and where should they go last?

     

  3. It’s my understanding that there’s a cap on the amount of money or revenue that can go into the rainy day fund. Do you favor removing the cap?

     

  4. We are experiencing a severe economic downturn, and I think part of that is because of the tax structure we have in Arizona. What do you feel the appropriate mix of taxation should be in the state?

     

  5. Oftentimes our cities are burdened with unfunded mandates. I want to know the candidates' opinions about unfunded mandates and if they would be willing to lessen them or eliminate them altogether.