CD 9 Democratic candidate forum(s) UPDATED 4pm MST 7-26-12

This evening, David Schapira, Kyrsten Sinema and Andrei Cherny participated in a forum/debate at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in North Tempe answering questions from KJZZ managing editor Al Macias and government reporter Mark Brodie.

The questions were substantive and well thought out. Rather than commenting on the responses, I recommend you listen to the audio recording at KJZZ.org. Macias promised it would be posted by late morning on Thursday, July 26.

Schapira, the current Minority Leader in the Arizona Senate, announced at the start of the forum that just this afternoon former Congressman Harry Mitchell has endorsed his candidacy.

"The primary in Congressional District 9 has pitted three of the brightest members of the Democratic Party in Arizona against each other. All three candidates are leaders in our state and I am honored to call them friends. I believe that each of them would serve admirably – and the creation of this new Tempe-centered district has presented a great opportunity to send a strong community-based representative to Congress.

Tempe has always been different than other cities, especially when it comes to elections. Yes, we’ve disagreed on issues and done so passionately. Yes, we’ve debated and we’ve fought hard. But the nature of our politics has become increasingly polarized and divisive. We witnessed it in the last mayoral race. It was discouraging, to say the least. This is also why I didn’t wade into endorsing a candidate in this race lightly.

I believe it is important that we elect someone who understands and values our community – and will work hard to represent it. This is why I’ve decided to cast my primary vote for Tempe's State Senator, David Schapira.

I’ve often said that you can’t be successful unless other people want you to be. For the better part of close to 40 years, I’ve held the titles of teacher, councilman, mayor, senator and Congressman. I’ve been blessed to have so many people in our community be supportive of me. This is why I hope you will join me in supporting David Schapira for Congress."

Additionally, tomorrow (Thursday) evening (first shown live at 5:30pm) on KAET Channel 8 in the Phoenix area, the three candidates are scheduled to debate on Arizona Horizon with Ted Simons.

UPDATE

I've been notified that this forum on Arizona Horizon has been rescheduled for August 7.

Also, David Nir at Daily Kos reports on this race:


Sometimes I see comments from a politician and, with a wince, I think, "I bet they wish they could un-say that." In this case, though, Andrei Cherny—currently atop the leaderboard for "worst Democrat running this cycle" (non-Larouchie division)—is such a d-bag that he probably doesn't, were it not for political pressure forcing him. John Celock at the Huffington Post summarizes:

A Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona is under fire for comments he made at a 2010 Tea Party forum, where he said he was "proud" of the group and said he opposed the Affordable Care Act. Andrei Cherny, a former state Democratic Party chairman who is seeking the Democratic nomination for a Phoenix-area congressional seat, said he believed in Tea Party ideas on economic and tax policy in 2010—he was one of several Democrats to appear at Tea Party events around the state that year. At the time, Cherny was the Democratic nominee for state treasurer, a race he lost to Republican Doug Ducey.

Amazing that a former state party chair could say such things. Now, of course, Cherny's trying to dance away from his remarks, claiming that the tea party has since been "corrupted" and that he actually opposed the ACA from the left. Unreal.