When Ethan Orr supported Governor Brewer’s Medicaid plan, she promised to help him win reelection in Legislative District 9. Early in the primary season, her independent expenditure committee, Arizona’s Legacy, bought a bunch of Ethan Orr for State Representative signs and stuck them around the Tucson area. At the top, they read, “Supported by Governor Brewer.”
A new batch of Arizona’s Legacy signs has sprouted up more recently. As you can see in the image above, they’re identical to the original signs, except for one important change. Governor Brewer is no longer mentioned. Both signs have the required “Paid for by Arizona’s Legacy” information in small letters at the bottom.
Why the change? The answer is, Orr’s strategy for winning the election is to belong to the Moderate party, not the Republican party. A moderate has a chance of drawing enough votes from Democrats and middle-of-the-road Independents to pull off a win in a top-two field which includes him and two Democrats, Randy Friese and Victoria Steele. A Republican, especially one whose name is linked to Brewer’s, will have far more trouble peeling off the necessary votes.
The fact is, Orr is a Jan Brewer Republican — which is to say he’s a Jan Brewer conservative — but he’s better off keeping that quiet on the campaign trail. He’s not an Al Melvin Republican. He’s not a Russell Pearce Republican. He’s a Jan Brewer Republican. Brewer is not as far right as the wing-nuttiest members of her party, but you have to move the “Moderate Meter” way, way to the right to include Brewer under that label.
So Brewer’s IE, either on its own or at a veiled suggestion from the Orr campaign (which, of course, can’t coordinate directly with an IE), decided to remove the overt Brewer endorsement from its more recent campaign signs.
When Orr talks to a mixed crowd, his message is something like this: “I’m almost as good as a Democrat, and I’m almost as powerful as a Republican, and that’s why you should vote for me. Let’s just not talk about my stands on guns and women’s reproductive rights, OK?” Here’s a shorter version, my encapsulation, of what he said at the Clean Elections debate in early September where he stuck pretty close to that message:
“It really sucks being a Republican. So many of them are bad, hateful people. And that’s why I vote like a Democrat almost all of the time.
“Guns? [Orr has a 92% approval rating from the NRA] It’s really all about mental illness, and as everyone knows, I’ve taken a strong stand against mental illness.
“Women’s reproductive rights? [Orr has a 0% rating from NARAL/Arizona Right to Choose and signed the anti-abortion, fetal personhood proclamation along with 31 House and 16 Senate Republicans] Some of my best friends are in Planned Parenthood, or I talk to people in Planned Parenthood, or something like that.”
Orr hopes it’s a winning message. A number of voters believe it and the media has mostly repeated it — minus talk about his stand on guns and women’s reproductive rights — though that may be changing. The closer Orr is tied to Brewer, Republicans and the conservative agenda, the further away are his hopes to pull out a win.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2014.
An organization of whose existence I was made aware this week, Arizonans for Gun Safety – Tucson, has a list of five issues on which it rates candidates in our upcoming election, and they have produced a handy little report card. The issues:
Background checks should be mandatory for all potential gun owners: Ethan Orr and Todd Clodfelter, running in LD 10, disagree.
Child access prevention laws should be enacted: Orr, Clodfelter and William Wildish, also running in LD 10, disagree.
Cities and counties should be able to exceed state gun safety standards: Orr and LD 10 Republicans disagree.
Guns should not be present in public places (except for military/law enforcement): Orr and LD 10 Republicans disagree .
There should be limited access to military style weapons and ammunition: Orr and LD 10 Republicans disagree.
And by the way, the Democratic House candidates in both districts agree with Arizonans for Gun Safety on all five issues. I guess we have differences and a significant basis on which to make our choices.
I attended the Dr Randy Friese-Ethan Orr Clean Elections debate, and I came away absolutely certain Representative Orr would not get my vote.
He actually bragged about sitting at the table with of the bunch of right-wing extremists. He sat at the table that has proven to be a total embarrassment for Arizona.
He touted how he should be sent back to join the Republican party that has chased jobs away from Arizona, closed state parks, been on the take for football tickets, and really did some disastrous things like spitting in the voters eyes on funding for public education.
At least the Court has ruled the table that Orr claimed to be a part of owes the public schools in this state millions of dollars. That is the same table that swept away road funds and other funds for local government to give tax breaks to a few campaign donors and special legislation to representatives of special interests stalking the legislative halls.
I expected Representative Orr to say, I’m a moderate and then tell us if he goes up to Phoenix again he has changed his ways. No, all he has done is try to cover up is sorry legislative record.
He may be backed by Governor Brewer because on one vote she promised campaign funds to a few Republicans who would join the Democrats in expanding Arizona’s version of Medicaid.
One good vote, oh but wait, what Orr didn’t tell us, this year he attempted to undo that vote with a vote for HB 2367 which would have reversed the benefits the low-income Arizonans received from the expansion of “Medicaid” under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Which is it Mr. Orr?
Oh by the way, apparently Governor Brewer didn’t like HB 2367 that Mr. Orr voted for because she vetoed the bill!
One last thing about that table that Mr. Orr wants to join, sitting square in the center leading it may be Representative David Livingston. Orr recently came out with his early public support for Representative David Livingston for majority whip for the 2015-2016 session.
Want to know who Representative Orr wants to lead? One of the GOP legislators that traveled to Nevada to support rancher Cliven Bundy and his bunch of gun-toting anti-government right-wing don’t pay their legal grazing fees gang.
Representative Livingston a leader in the effort to pass SB 1062. SB 1062 was a bill to amend an existing law to give any individual or legal entity (business) an exemption from any state law and would have allowed discrimination on the basis of religion.
That Mr. Orr is not moderate, it is your legislative record of right-wing narrow minded thinking we have seen from you and the table you want to rejoin, not with my vote.
Obviously, this gentleman is indeed a subscriber to the Whacko faction. If he’s serious about actually winning an election, he should either move to Phoenix or Kingman, where the necks are red and the guns are plentiful.
The radical left loony’s are spewing today. I wonder how many thinking people read the whole long paragraphs?
Orr is anti-women, and voted so during the last session. Hopefully he will soon be ending his Legislative career.
Yes, but Ethan is making up for it by posting his signs on 3 or 4 corners of each major intersection in Midtown. Enough, already, Ethan.
I carefully listened to Mr. Orr before the last election and was encouraged by the fact that his work had been to help people. My hope that he would be watching out for our needs. I thought there was hope that he would bring back the “vote for what is best for Pima County and Arizona” idea held by thinking Republicans in the past. When Mr. Orr got to Phoenix, he caved to some of the pressure exerted by the less than moderate Republicans. I was wondering where his spiffy signs came from. He obviously made some Republicans happy. Please, Mr. Orr, return to your values promised before you were elected.
Ethan Orr is human, he is a politician and as such things change and he can not be effective standing alone.
First hand I know when you get elected you move into another world, joining an elite group of people with heavy responsibilities. You are immediately thrown into a group of people with the same label, similar values and believes.
You soon realize cooperation and working with your group is necessary in order to succeed. The pressure to produce forces alliances and it is within those alliances of people that working together sometimes breaks down to trust.
Legislation is complex and you seek counsel from people in your group. Advice on legislative proposals that came before their committees and others meeting together in your group. (party caucus)
No legislator, especially new has knowledge and experience in every field, they look to others, many times your understanding and need to be accepted leads you to “go along to get along”.
As voters we need to look at the candidates not only on what their campaigns slogans and rhetoric say but look at the group they will be “working”. It takes time to gain experience and confidence to sometimes stand out there alone. Just because you were successful in getting elected, doesn’t mean you automatically become super human or know it all.
When voting does that group, political party, have a record that most closely reflects your own views because you are not just choosing an individual but his “power group”. Is that legislative group and leadership the one you want to control your vote on state spending and laws to be enacted?
That is where political parties come in to play in your decisions. It will take time for the representatives you elect to gain, experience, knowledge and seniority to be most effective. Vote not just for the individual, vote based on the group that most reflects your expectations.
Are the other legislators meeting with Ethan Orr the ones you trust or is it possible his opposition deserves your vote based on their platforms and record. Check the records, their past actions give you some assurance of their future actions.
From what I personally know Ethan Orr is a decent respected person, I just don’t agree with the majority of his legislative record. One or two votes that I agree with don’t cover the other several hundred I don’t. Once people get elected it is their record that counts, not rhetoric.