Ann Answers Tough Questions While Gosar Sips French Wine With Big Donors

PRESCOTT, AZ – Tonight, voters in Greater Arizona were supposed to see the only debate of this election between independent voice Ann Kirkpatrick and millionaire tax evader Paul Gosar. For 30 minutes, Ann and Paul were going to answer the tough questions, and lay out the very real differences in their visions for District One.

Instead, Gosar decided his time was better spent rubbing elbows with rich donors and drinking $200 bottles of French wine [link] than taking "six hours wasted of driving" to defend his out-of-touch positions [link]. And this isn't the first time he's found an excuse to avoid discussing the issues - he ducked the four in-district, neutral-ground debates Ann challenged him to [link], repeatedly canceled joint appearances after finding out Ann would be there [link], and even when offered the audience participation he demanded skipped out on a debate in Globe last night [link].


Ann decided to sit down with KAET anyway and talk about the issues that matter to Greater Arizona, like creating jobs and securing the border. Since Paul Gosar (R-Wall Street) decided to hob-nob rather than explain where he stands, Kirkpatrick did it for him, highlighting the real reasons he's been ducking debates - the views he doesn't want you to know about:

•    Gosar has pledged to protect the tax loopholes for the Wall Street companies shipping American jobs overseas to China, India and Mexico. [link]
•    Paul is "not a big fan" of the minimum wage, despite wanting to represent a district where median income is already under $33,000 a year. [link]
Along with these frightening views, Gosar has also done his best to hide his plans to end Social Security as we know it:

•    Paul's questioned whether Social Security is constitutional. [Human Events, 9/19]
•    Paul's proposed $73 billion in benefit cuts for seniors. [Yavapai Forum, 7/27; Arizona Daily Sun, 9/19]
•    Paul's suggested that seniors should follow his lead and just work until they die to avoid burdening Social Security. [Yavapai Tea Party Forum, 10/2]
•    And the corporate special interests who want to privatize Social Security and hand retirement security over to Wall Street are spending more than $1 billion to get Paul elected. [link]
Of course, it turns out that what you don't know will hurt you, and hurt Greater Arizona. That's why Ann continues to travel the district explaining the differences between her and Gosar to voters however she can. Unlike her opponent, she's committed to letting folks know where she stands.

"Millionaire tax evader Paul Gosar would rather hide away and drink Bordeaux than take a 'long drive' to explain what he believes. Does he really think he can serve the tenth-largest congressional district in the country with that attitude?" said Kirkpatrick campaign manager Carmen Gallus. "Paul's ducking tough questions because the more he talks, the more obvious it becomes to working families and seniors that he would work for Wall Street, not for Greater Arizona. Folks here deserve better than that."

MORE INFORMATION:

To see Ann's record as an independent voice for her district, click here.

To see what Ann has accomplished for Greater Arizona in just two years in Congress, click here.

To see what Ann's done to secure our border and keep our communities safe, click here.

To read about the Arizona Department of Commerce analysis that Ann discussed on KAET, estimating that Arizona job losses will be cut in half in 2024 with the help of the Recovery Act, click here.