Category Archives: Elections

Meet Our Candidates: Lorenzo Sierra for State Representative, LD 19

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The Arizona primary election will be held on August 28, 2012. With so many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of this election year can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates,” spotlighting each Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona-endorsed candidate. To vote in the primaries, you must register to vote by midnight today (July 30) — and you can even register online. Make your voice heard in 2012!

Lorenzo Sierra is one of four Democratic candidates running in the primary in Legislative District 19, which covers the West Valley, Tolleson, and Avondale. Of these four Democrats, Sierra is one of only two, along with Mark Cardenas, to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona because of his positive positions on women’s health and choice issues.

“Planned Parenthood is just one organization that has been unfairly misrepresented by the current legislature.”

Sierra is an accredited business communicator and an experienced community leader who has served on several boards that have had positive impacts on the women and families of Arizona. One of the boards, Parenting Arizona, has worked to increase funding to parenting resources that strengthen home environments for children. Another, Xico, promotes indigenous arts and culture through community-based arts programs.

In July 2012, Sierra shared his views on women’s health and comprehensive sex education in this exclusive interview.

Tell us a little about your background.

I am an Arizona native who grew up in Tucson. I was the first person in my extended family to attend college. I even worked five part-time jobs my senior year at Arizona State University in 1992. I went on to have a successful marketing career with a few Fortune 500 companies. While working for those companies, I was able to serve on several statewide boards, including the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Governor’s Commission on Service and Volunteerism, Chicanos por la Causa’s Parenting Arizona, and Xico. I live in Avondale with my wife Rhonda. My son Adam is a freshman at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. My son Roman is an eighth grader in the Gilbert School District. And my stepdaughter Megan is a double major junior at ASU. Continue reading →

Meet Our Candidates: Dustin Cox for State Representative, LD 9

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The Arizona primary election will be held on August 28, 2012. With so many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of this election year can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates,” spotlighting each Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona-endorsed candidate. To vote in the primaries, you must register to vote by July 30 — and can even register online. Make your voice heard in 2012!

Dustin Cox is one of three candidates running in the primary for the new Legislative District 9. This district covers midtown Tucson, the foothills area from I-10 to Sabino Canyon, and as far north as southern parts of Oro Valley in the Oracle Road corridor. With all the redistricting that’s taken place this year, you might not even know what legislative district you’re in — but you can click here to find out!

“No government or legislature should be allowed to dictate health care decisions that should be made by individuals in consultation with their doctors.”

Cox has received much recognition and several awards for his service to the community. He was a Flinn-Brown Fellow in the inaugural class of the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership. In 2008 he was one of the youngest ever recipients of the Hon Kachina Volunteer Award for a lifetime of volunteer service and improving the health of the Arizona community. He has been a nominee for the Champion for Children and Families Award, and named one of Tucson’s “Top 40 Under 40” community and business leaders. What follows is an exclusive interview conducted with Cox in July 2012.

Tell us a little about your background.

Five generations of my family have called Arizona home. I think that has fostered in me a great love for my community here. It is a big part of what drives my desire to improve this state and fight the extreme measures coming out of our state legislature. It pains me to think that Arizona could be worse off for the next five generations of my family who will call this place home, and that is why I feel I must stand up and say, “Enough.” Continue reading →

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona Announces its Endorsed Candidates for the State Primary Election

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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (PPAA) proudly endorses 58 candidates statewide for the primary elections on August 28, 2012. The elections in 2012 also mark the first year that the PPAA Political Action Committee (PAC) will be a qualified super PAC in the state of Arizona.

“Thanks to the generosity of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona members, we are a state super PAC this year. We can now give up to $1,736 to a traditionally financed candidate we choose to endorse,” says Michelle Steinberg, director of public policy, PPAA.

The super PAC status was made possible by the contributions of the members of PPAA who specifically supported the PPAA PAC. The super PAC’s primary focus is to endorse candidates who stand for access to women’s health, sexuality education, and the freedom for Arizonans to make their own health care decisions and choose their own health care provider.

But the support of the PPAA Super PAC is nothing without the engagement of voters like you in the primary! Click on the links to the candidates in your district. Find out why PPAA is supporting them!

Click here if you are unsure of who is running in your district. Remember, district lines have been redrawn!

Don’t want to wait at the polls? Get on your county’s Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) and receive a mail-in ballot at home!

2012 Pro-Choice, Pro-Women’s Health Primary Candidates Continue reading →

Ron Barber Takes a Stand for Women’s Health

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Editor’s Note: What follows is our unedited, exclusive interview with Ron Barber, the candidate who is running to complete Gabrielle Giffords’ term in Congressional District 8. Barber has worked with Giffords since she was elected to Congress in 2006, after which he became the head of her Tucson office. He is endorsed by both Giffords and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Prior to his work with Giffords, he navigated bureaucratic red tape as head of the Southern Arizona branch of the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities, advocating for vulnerable members of the community. With strong bipartisan support, and strong roots in Southern Arizona, Barber will stand for CD8 in Washington — but first, he needs your vote. The election will be held on June 12, 2012; you can also vote by early ballot.

“Our federal and state budgets should reflect our values and not the extreme positions of a few legislators.”

Please give me a little background on yourself: where you grew up, your education, how long you’ve lived in Tucson.

I have lived here in Southern Arizona most of my life, running a small business with my wife, Nancy, and helping solve community problems — whether it was heading up Congresswoman Giffords’ district operations to help people get results by cutting through federal agency red tape, or working for 35 years to look out for people with disabilities.

I was born in England, but went to high school in Tucson, where I met my wife, Nancy. We were high school sweethearts — we first started dating in 1960 and have been together ever since. I went to the University of Arizona, here in Tucson, and received a bachelor’s degree. I’ve lived in Tucson for over 50 years — my children and grandchildren all live here as well.

What women’s health care issues do you see will need to be addressed in the remainder of this legislative term and in the next?

Access to basic care is still a major issue for women’s health. We must ensure that regardless of state laws on abortions or funding, Planned Parenthood and other clinics continue to receive funds to provide basic health care to women — from cancer screenings to mammograms. Continue reading →

Special Election on June 12: Ron Barber Stands with Planned Parenthood

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It’s pretty safe to say that nearly all of the political advertisements and newspaper articles covering the Congressional District 8 race between Ron Barber and Jesse Kelly have focused on Social Security and Medicare. But, the issue of women’s health care is also critical – and one that hasn’t received much attention.

Jesse Kelly is an avowed anti-choice candidate and has received support from the National Right to Life Political Action Committee. Barber, when asked about his position on choice and women’s health care, said he has always been pro-choice and believes women’s health care decisions must be made between women and their doctors.

Ron Barber is running to finish Gabrielle Giffords’ term in the June 12, 2012, special election. Early voting starts on May 17.

“There has been too much political debate about limiting our freedoms,” he told us. “Women have the right to make their own choices about contraception and any interference from the government or employers is an affront to personal liberty.”

The debate on women’s health care used to center on abortion. It has now expanded to include the availability of contraception and the “right to refusal” –  so-called consciousness clauses that allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, employers to opt out of providing insurance coverage for birth control, and health care providers to refuse emergency care for pregnant women. Barber, as do most Americans, believes that the “availability of contraception was an issue we settled 50 years ago” and employers, insurance companies, and pharmacists should not put themselves between a woman and her doctor. Continue reading →

Who Stands for Planned Parenthood?

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The past couple years have been rough for Planned Parenthood. As Congress ushered in Health Care Reform, we have seen definite losses to women’s health care rights. In 2010, the leadership in the House of Representatives shifted to Republican and Republicans increased in number in the Senate. The very conservative Tea Party became a large voice in this new Republican Party and are outspoken opponent’s of women’s health rights.

Nationally, 89 new laws were enacted in 2010 that affect reproductive health care rights. Of these, 39 of them in 15 different states pertain to abortion. Fourteen states introduced measures to restrict insurance coverage of abortion.

In 2011, 162 new provisions were introduced and 49% of those restricted access to abortion. Five states restricted funding to family planning providers.

Arizona passed five new laws further restricting abortion that effectively required Planned Parenthood to cease abortion services at seven of its health centers. Women living in rural areas will be the most adversely affected by these new restrictions.  Continue reading →

Arizona’s SB1309 Law Has Gutted Sex Education

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In May of 2010, Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law SB1309, the  so-called “Parental Bill of Rights.”  This bill requires parental consent before a child or teen can receive sex education in school.  This law also requires Arizona schools to notify parents when material regarding “sexuality” is presented in non-sex education classes, such as biology. Proponents of the law say this bill will ensure that the government does not intrude on parents’ child rearing.  The Arizona Board of Education says that it will be up to the local school governing boards to implement the law.

Before the passage of SB 1309, Arizona did not require sex education.  Local school boards decided which subjects this education would cover and the grade level in which topics are introduced.  If sex education was taught, it had to be age appropriate.  Abstinence had to be covered and stressed as the only effective protection against unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS, and abstinence from sexual intercourse outside of lawful marriage was the expected social standard for unmarried school-age person.  This is from the 1996 Welfare Reform Act that had provisions added for abstinence education. The federal government then began to divert tens of millions of dollars to abstinence education programs.  Most programs were tied to religious programs, rather than traditional public health organizations.

Arizona is one of three states that now require parental consent for sex education.  The other two states are Utah and Nevada.  The Guttmacher Institute says 35 states — including the District of Columbia — mandate that students learn about sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. Arizona is also ranked last in the nation in education funding.

The result?  Continue reading →

Provisional Ballots – How to Avoid Them and What To Do if You Have to Vote One

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The 2010 election in only a week away.  It’s time to seriously start planning what you will do next Tuesday when you get to the polls.  Will you wear a say-something hat, or simply dress casually?  Will you go to the polls before work?  Or on your way home at the end of the day?

All joking aside, there really are a few things that you need to do before you get to the polls so that you’re prepared when you get to your polling location.

Locate Your Polling Location
The most important thing to do is find your polling location. How else will you know where to go on November 2nd? Visit the Secretary of State’s website to find out where to go. Mapquest the directions if you’re unsure of how to get there.

Bring ID to the Polls
The state of Arizona requires voters to provide a government-issued form of identification, such as a driver’s license or tribal enrollment card, that bears the name, address, and photograph of the voter. You do not necessarily need to provide your voter registration card, but it never hurts to bring that along. Do not count on using a school ID, even though it has your picture on it. This will not be accepted.

Request a Provisional Ballot
In previous elections, thousands of voters were turned away at the polls for a variety of issues. As a result, Congress passed legislation requiring pollsters to provide a provisional ballot when a voter asks for one. If you have been told by a pollster that your name is not on the list of registered voters, it is your right to ask for a provisional ballot, and you absolutely should do so. Continue reading →