Newspaper says congresswoman has “earned the voters’ trust”

FLAGSTAFF – Northern Arizona’s largest newspaper, the Arizona Daily Sun, endorsed Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s re-election campaign today, calling her a “thoughtful and independent lawmaker.” 

The Daily Sun joins the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Daily Star, the Tucson Weekly, and the White Mountain Independent in endorsing Congresswoman Kirkpatrick.

Read the full editorial below.

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Kirkpatrick responsive to the many faces of CD1

Our view: The Flagstaff Democrat is a thoughtful moderate who deserves another term in Congress

There’s always a risk of sounding parochial when endorsing a hometown candidate in a congressional race.

But U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Flagstaff has earned the voters’ trust as a thoughtful and independent lawmaker in a swing district with a nearly equal number of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. She reflects that diversity in a sprawling district that stretches from the Tucson suburbs through the White Mountains to Flagstaff and the Rez. The fact that she is also articulate and reasonable only reinforces our belief that she deserves to be returned to Congress as a force for moderation amid the hyper-partisanship on both sides of the aisle.

Although Kirkpatrick has a “D” after her name, it is no guarantee that she will vote with her party and its supporters. She is working with Republican Paul Gosar to get the Resolution copper mine in Superior off the ground, and she is no fan of the EPA’s anti-haze and CO2 regulations that affect the Navajo Generating Station in Page.

And on gun control, she is not exactly a leader in the movement, even after the shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson.

On the other hand, she believes strongly that people with pre-existing health problems should have access to health insurance, thus her continued support for Obamacare, albeit with some proposed tweaks.

She is also a realist on illegal immigration and supports the McCain-Flake comprehensive reform package that will bring 11 million people out of the legal and economic shadows in exchange for a path to eventual citizenship.

And she rightly recognizes that the Grand Canyon is not only a national park but a world treasure that deserves the special protection of the 20-year uranium mining moratorium.

Her opponent, state House Speaker Andy Tobin of Paulden, only magnifies by his lockstep conservatism Kirkpatrick’s mainstream credentials. In pushing for bills like SB 1062 and 1070 while rejecting the broad-based compromise on hospital-backed Medicaid expansion and voter-backed citizen redistricting, Tobin shows a tin ear for populist resentment over partisan overreach. We see little in his record that would foretell a different, more responsive approach in Congress.

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