“Republican votes like a Republican!” That’s no more newsworthy than “Democrat votes like a Democrat!” or “Water runs downhill!” But when a Republican like Ethan Orr wears his moderate credentials as a badge of courage, then he votes with the NRA and the school privatization/voucher crowd, that deserves to make the news.
Orr is the sole Republican legislator in Legislative District 9, which stretches from mid-Tucson through the Foothills to Avra Valley and is one of Arizona’s few swing districts. He’s a nice, sensitive, even kinda lovable guy, and sometimes he defies his Republican colleagues. So some Democrats and progressive-leaning Independents in the LD like him. But the NRA likes him even more, courtesy of his votes on making guns more a part of Arizona life than they are already. And his votes on education . . . well, when I heard him talk about education on the campaign trail, he adopted the proper “I love children and I’m for education” tilt of the head, but he steered clear of specifics, and his votes show why.
Here are a couple of Orr’s latest votes.
He sided with the gun lobby on HB2339, which allows guns in more public places.
HB 2339, approved on a 34-22 vote and sent to the Senate, says anyone who has gone through the state-required training and background check to have what’s called a CCW permit can ignore the “no guns” signs, whether or not there are lockers available.
He voted for that bill not once but twice: in the Judiciary Committee in February, then again last Wednesday, March 12, on the House floor. Victoria Steele, the Democratic House member from LD-9, voted No.
The conservative voucher expansion du jour is the push to increase the number of children who can go to private schools or be home schooled on the public dime courtesy of a program called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. This Monday, March 17, Orr voted Yes on a bill, HB2139, expanding the program. Steele voted No.
If we dumb down “moderate” to mean less out-there than Andy Tobin and not fizzing with rabies like Russell Pearce, then Ethan Orr qualifies. But his “moderation” ends when it comes to issues like sane gun legislation and, recently, public education. His stand on women’s health issues is abysmal as well. Calling him a moderate with positions like those pushes the definition of the term to the breaking point.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2014.
He’s only a moderate when compared to the Republican “leadership” in the state Legislature. Just as well start calling him a MINO (moderate in name only) now and avoid the rush.
MINO. I like it. I’d like to embellish a bit. We have RINOS and DINOS, both animals, so why not MINO-taur, with the body of an elephant and the head of a donkey, spouting bull?
I met Ethan Orr at a neighborhood picnic when he was campaigning. Being a retired public school teacher, the first question I asked him was, what was he going to do to support public education. He began talking vouchers and I asked him where his children went to school. His response was that they attend private schools and of course he immediately defended his reasons. Needless to say, his voting record regarding vouchers comes as no surprise. I think the phrase, moderate Republican is an oxymoron.
MINOtaur works for me!
Ah, Demitri. I see you didn’t mention Orr’s stands on women’s health. There’s always another comment where you can share your views on that issue.
If you agree with Orr about guns, fine. I don’t. There’s no question it’s a right wing stance which most Democrats disagree with, and lots of non-Democrats, including police officers, disagree as well. If you agree with Orr about vouchers, fine. I want taxpayer money to go to public schools — district and charter — and not to private schools, the vast majority of which are religious. Most people dislike vouchers when they’re called by their real name, not Tuition Tax Credits and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.
So the question is, should a Democrat say, I can forgive votes that I disagree with intently because Orr made good votes on SB1062 and Medicaid expansion? Would I vote for Jan Brewer, who agrees with Orr and me on those issues? I say no in both cases. I wouldn’t vote for Orr, and I wouldn’t vote for Brewer. When there are two good Democratic candidates for LD-9 House, the incumbent Victoria Steele and the new candidate Randy Friese, why should a Democrat — or anyone who disagrees with Orr on his many conservative positions — vote for Orr?
Ethan Orr? A moderate? NOT! Ethan Orr, being up for re-election this November has been trying for some time to cast himself as a moderate but the reality is that he’s far right. Mr. Orr was one of those GOP House members who helped pass through SB 1062 while trying to look as if they were against it. Orr allowed it to pass Judiciary and voted against the half dozen Democratic amendments that would have made 1062 less discriminatory. Ethan Orr brags that he voted against SB 1062 and he did, in fact do just that. Ethan Orr and two other Republicans who are considered weak in their districts voted against 1062 as their “yes” votes were not needed to pass it.
While Orr continues to try to lie his way back into another term by being a self described moderate a few things to consider are that the NRA gave Ethan Orr a 92-percent approval rating. He received a “Zero” rating by NARAL/Arizona Right to Choose and he received a VERY low 18-percent rating by the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club for his record on environmental issues. These are not the ratings of a “Moderate”.
In January 2013, Mr. Orr joined other legislative Republicans and Governor Jan Brewer in signing a proclamation denouncing Roe vs. Wade. on a document for Cathi Harrod and the “Arizona Center for Policy” (the fun folks who wrote and tried to ram through SB 1062). Further, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Orr this month voted to approve a bill to make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to use any public facility including roads, sidewalks, bathrooms and parks.
Simply put, Ethan Orr is far, far to the right of “moderate”. He’s pro gun (with no controls), anti-environment, anti-choice, pro SB1070, pro SB1062, pro Center for Arizona Policy and, to be blunt, a big part of the problem here in Arizona.
Disappointing, Demetri.
David, you must seek help for your severe case of hoplophobia!
What does HB 2339 really do?
Specifies that the exemption for correctional employees carrying weapons, only applies to them while they are in the performance of official duties.
· Exempts any person who has a valid concealed carry permit from having to forfeit his or her weapon upon entering a public establishment or public event if requested to do so by an owner or sponsor of an event.
· States that the above exemption does not apply to any of the following:
A public establishment or event that provides security personnel, metal detectors and safe storage for weapons.
Community college districts or universities.
Public establishment or event that is licensed by the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.
A university, college, community college, high school or common school in this state.
· States that the bill does not relieve or limit an operator of a public establishment or event from the requirement to provide weapon storage pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-3102.01.
· Makes technical changes.
I think this column is just telling the truth about Rep. Orr. In fact, when it comes to education policy Mr. Safier usually tells the truth about the shenanigans committed by various and sundry politicians across the political spectrum.
The only exception I have seen since he has been writing for The Range is his support for TUSD Superintendent Sanchez despite all the damage TUSD does to public education through its culture of insider dealing and its terrible allocation of resources. For example, the hiring of a friend of Rod Paige’s (and Superintendent Sanchez) to do strategic planning for TUSD without a serious process of competitive bidding and spending less than half its resources in the classroom (49.2% is the most recent audited figure) have renewed concerns that student learning is way down the list of priorities for TUSD’s leadership.
The fact is that many local residents base their opinions about public education on what they read about TUSD. Absent such behavior on the part of the largest and most prominent school district in the area there would be far less support for vouchers.
To be technical, David’s article is a hit piece on Rep Orr for the Democrat Party. There has been a lot written about Rep. Orr’s ‘moderate’ leanings and Safier has made several attempts to dispel that is a myth to aid Steele and Friese, both of whom he supports.
I learned a new word this morning from Just Another Az PC: Hoplophobia. It refers to the irrational fear of weapons. Apparently it’s a fairly new term coined, according to Wiktionary, by “Firearms authority and writer Colonel Jeff Cooper.”
Thank you, Az PC. I’ll try to use it 10 times today. I hear that will make it a permanent part of my vocabulary. (Don’t worry kids, it wasn’t on the old SAT and certainly won’t be on the new one.)
Foothills residents did not run away from Amphi. Catalina Foothills residents had no high school and they wanted one in their area. That is the story of Cat Foothills HS.
Vouchers steal funding from public education. We are required to fund public, not private, education in order to have an informed electorate and to be educate citizens to help them be productive in the work force. Private (often over-priced for profit) education is NOT our taxpayer responsibility EVER, regardless of how many Republicans pander to their supporters to provide subsidies to their children’s private schools. NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY. Taking funds from public education weakens it further in a time when teacher salaries remain low and children have too many others in their classrooms in order to meet the school budgets. Instead, encourage corporations to fund grants to private (and public) education. Encourage parents who are more affluent to donate extra money to fund the private schools. We cannot afford to take any more money from public education. Our students and school employees deserve better.
Our nation is made up of ALL our citizens, not just the privileged. ALL deserve to learn well in order to live productive, active, and efficient lives in our work force serving US. Undermining any of those educational advantages by removing funding from public education will make it more likely that you might find poor service from businesses you frequent and more likely that more will be in poverty which we will then have to subsidize with support. It is better to equip students to provide for themselves.
From what I have seen, the vouchers do not make it more possible for those with lower incomes to enter private schools which may or may not be better than the schools they left. Instead, it primarily helps those who can well afford to pay their full share. Providing a means for “competition” for our education funding is ridiculous. We want all to be winners.
In the context of the Republican party nationally and even more the Arizona Republican party as led by the Andys — Biggs and Tobin — it’s not terribly inappropriate to consider Ethan Orr a moderate… but that’s ‘moderate Republican’, not moderate on a left-to-right continuum. In a rational world anyone given a 92% approval rating by the NRA and a 0% rating by NARAL would not be deemed moderate, except perhaps by Wayne LaPierre and Cathi Herrod.