Play the video above to see these stories on AZ Illustrated Politics for Friday, May 16:
Host Jim Nintzel sat down with Republican Gary Kiehne, a rancher who is competing with Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin and state Rep. Adam Kwasman in the Republican primary that will decide which GOP candidate will face U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-CD1).
Kiehne said he wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, but he did not yet know what kind of program he’d like to replace it with. He said he did not know if such a program would prevent insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
He also said that undocumented people now in the country should be given some kind of legal status as part of any immigration reform proposal, as long as they did not have trouble with the law. He said he’d oppose a path to citizenship for them, however.
Kiehne said the EPA was over-reaching in its efforts to limit emissions at Arizona power plants and said that the federal government needed to cede more control of land to the states.
Nintzel was joined on the AZ Illustrated Politics roundtable by Arizona National Republican Committeeman Bruce Ash and attorney Jeff Rogers, the former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party. Among the topics discussed:
ATTORNEY GENERAL TOM HORNE’S LEGAL PROBLEMS: This week, a former staffer from the Attorney General’s Office said that Horne was running much of his re-election campaign out of the AG’s office. In addition, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said she would pursue a civil case regarding possible campaign finance violations dating back to Horne’s 2010 campaign. Rogers said that the ongoing bad headlines for Horne were a big problem for his reelection effort. Ash said that Horne had done good things for Arizona, but the bad headlines could doom his reelection effort. Horne faces former prosecutor Mark Bvnovich in the GOP primary. The winner of that contest will face Democrat Felecia Rotellini in the November general election.
GOVERNOR’S RACE: Ash said that of the seven Republicans in the GOP primary for governor, the top tier candidates were attorney Christine Jones, former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, state Treasurer Doug Ducey and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett. Rogers said that all of the candidates were in the single digits in polls that he had seen, suggesting that the race remained wide open.
NEW REPUBLICAN PRIMARY RULES: Ash said that at a recent meeting of the National Republican Committee, GOP officials had developed new rules to limit the number of presidential debates in 2016 in order to keep the liberal media from driving the agenda.
AZ Illustrated Politics is produced by Jim Nintzel. Contact him at jnintzel@azpm.org.
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