Crossposted from SmokeyMonkey.org.
Well, its political ad season and both of my candidates have some TV commercials to share. On DailyKos.com today, Jeff Latas, candidate for House of Representatives for Arizona's 8th district, asked for feedback on 3 ads his team has created.
But, also, in my email, I received an invitation from Jim Pederson, candidate for US Senate, to view 2 ads that will be airing soon. Mister T in AZ diaried about the commercials on DailyKos.com.
The ads appear to be well-produced with good noise levels, good fades and such. The message, of course, is short. My brief analysis of pro's and con's below. I know very little of this candidate right now, so even this blip of new info helps. Make your own decisions.
Pro's
- HE ISN'T JON KYL!!
- Claims to be independent of politics
- Small town boy, simply spoken man.
- As a businessman, is independently wealthy and will not require huge contributions to compete
Con's
- As a businessman, possible corporate influence
- Does not express solid party affiliation
- Son was arrested for drug-trafficking, could be mud-slinging opportunity
I, honestly, don't care so much what his policy issues are, right now, because Kyl has absolutely got to go, period. I would seriously take Joe Lieberman over Jon Kyl any day of any week. I'm unaware of any other candidates running, so Pederson is my candidate this time around regardless.
However, I will express my reservation about some of his stances on issues. Between the ending quote of both TV ads and the following quote, the impression is being made that Jim is an independent.
As an independent-minded leader focused on getting things done, Jim won't hesitate to reach across party lines to fix the biggest problems Arizona faces.
Well, going from one pseudo-independent and one right-wing nutjob to two pseudo-independents is an improvement; just not much of one.
Another problem I have is with some of the priorities as listed on his website. At the top is "Protecting our Nation" from which you get this quote:
Jim Pederson believes that no job of a Senator is more important than protecting Americans from danger at home and abroad. That means refocusing America on winning the War on Terror.
Wrong. We are not at war, we need to reaffirm that the US is a nation of peace, not reaffirm the disastrous foreign policy of the neo-conservatives in power. Nor is it the job of the Senate to keep Americans safe. It is the job of senators to debate the issues at great (and extended) length and to put good legislation in front of the President to sign.
Most of you on DailyKos.com will take issue with his immigration stance, as well, which is number two on the issues list.
Jim will fight to make border enforcement a top priority and regain control over our borders by massively increasing the number of agents and bringing new technology to immigration enforcement.
I, however, agree with this statement and believe it is the first step in any immigration reform project. I have diaried previously about Pederson's stance on immigration.
Other than that, I think Jim Pederson has the standard issues on the right footing:
- Fiscal Stability: Will try to eliminate pork spending and waste
- Education: Wants better-trained teachers; wants to increase funding for Pell grants and student loan subsidies
- Health Care: Will fight for Medicare's ability to negotiate for lower drug costs; will fight fraud in the health care industry to bring costs down.
- Seniors: Against privatized Social Security; suggests automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans for new employees; wants to allow a portion of tax refund to go to retirement account
- Energy independence: Wants to invest in technological innovation instead of big oil subsidies; will increase use of solar, hydrogen, and bio-mass energy
- Environment: admits global climate change is a real threat; will develop clean energy; will preserve open spaces
Is Jim the perfect progressive candidate? Probably not. Will he be a better representative for the people of Arizona than Jon Kyl? Abso-fucking-lutely!