BY LINDA BENTLEY | JULY 16, 2014
Rep. Heather Carter can’t seem to quash her opposition
Sign wars amping up as we head into not-so-distant primary
CAVE CREEK – Rep. Heather Carter, R-Dist. 15, has been facing a lot of heat since she was elected to the House of Representatives for being anything but the Republican she claimed to be.
At a district meeting last year, the precinct committeemen of LD 15 overwhelming voted 54 –5 to censure Carter with a resolution declaring “no confidence” after she voted with the Democrats to expand Medicaid, against the wishes of her constituents.
Carter, who was labeled a “Champion of Big Government” last year with a score of 11 (on a scale of 1-100) by Americans for Prosperity, Arizona Chapter, (AFP) managed to only boost her ranking this year, an election year, to “Not Bad” for an overall “Friend of Big Government” rating since she took office in 2011.
Carter is facing conservatives, John Allen, who rated “Champion of the Taxpayer” by AFP and David Burnell Smith, who previously rated “Friend of the Taxpayer,” when he last served.
LD 15 precinct committeemen are throwing their support behind Allen and Smith with no support for Carter.
As Carter’s signs of all sizes blanketed the main corridors throughout LD 15, the Arizona Taxpayers Action Committee posted signs of their own stating, “Heather Carter Voted to Raise Your Taxes.”
Carter, who had a war chest of $153,157 as of the June 30, 2014 campaign finance report, came back with signs stating, “Carter Voted to Cut Your Taxes.”
Over the weekend, signs began cropping up next to Carter’s signs with an arrow pointing to her sign stating, “Voted for Obamacare.”
As these signs were being installed by an LD 15 precinct committeeman, Carter and an accomplice were following him around wearing sunglasses and T-shirts wrapped around their heads in an effort to disguise their identities.
After the arrow signs were installed, Carter and her accomplice were removing Carter’s signs, since it is illegal to remove others’ signs, leaving the arrow signs pointing to nothing.
When Carter confronted the man installing the arrow signs and asked who he was, he reportedly answered, “If you attended Republican LD 15 district meetings, you would know who I am.”
The Arizona Supreme Court is soon expected to rule as to whether the Democrat led Medicaid expansion tax, in which Carter and eight other Republicans joined to approve by a simple majority, is really a tax, which would have required a super-majority vote, or if it is merely some sort of fee.
The expansion increases eligibility for Medicaid to include those at 133 percent of the poverty level.
If the court determines the Medicaid expansion is a tax, the simple-majority vote to impose it was illegal.
However, whether or not it is a tax or some sort of other fee, Jose Borajero, who wrote a guest opinion piece for the Sonoran Alliance blog, summed it up by stating, “Whether we call it a tax, or something else, like a fee, an assessment, a contribution, an investment, or any of a myriad euphemistic terms that big government advocates use to disguise taxes, the fact remains that Heather Carter voted for bills that increase the amount of money that moves from the pockets of the taxpayers to the pockets of the government.”
He points to legislative evaluations done by three conservative leaning organizations, Americans for Prosperity, which has “Carter ranked 39th out of 43; the Goldwater Institute, which has her ranked 35th out of 43; and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which has her dead last in 43rd place.
Borajero concludes, “Carter is a friend of big government and an enemy of the taxpayer.”
Carter has proven over and over again, since being elected, she runs as a Republican only because she lives in a conservative majority district.
She is backed by unions, lobbyists and school bureaucrats, including Cave Creek Unified School District (CCUSD) Superintendent Debbi Burdick, whom she assisted with transforming all legally allowable district schools into charter schools as a scheme to receive more taxpayer funding.
These district-run charter schools are the same exact schools, with the same exact teachers, the same exact administration and the same exact curriculum.
Because CCUSD, under Burdick’s leadership, has been unable to demonstrate fiscal responsibility, voters have refused to pass seven out of the last nine bond and budget override measures.
Carter assisted Burdick in declaring the district’s schools “charters” as a means of getting around the voters to receive more money.
So, like CCUSD’s schools are charter in name only, Carter is a Republican in name only, commonly referred to as a RINO.
Carter votes with the Democrats, supports higher taxes and more government spending.
While the Medicaid expansion will receive partial federal funding for only the first three years, leaving states to their own devices to fund the additional burden thereafter, Arizona taxpayers will then be on the hook to figure out how to fund this welfare entitlement borne from Obamacare.
Carter’s idea of voting to cut taxes means voting against raising existing taxes, not exactly the same thing.
As her signs carpeting LD 15 demonstrate, Carter, with over $153,000 at her disposal for the primary, has spent $27,334, which is more than double what all of her opponents combined have received in contributions.
Coming in at a distant second is Allen with $10,870, as of the June 30 report and Smith with $2,400.
As of April 16, 2014, Arizona Taxpayers Action Committee has expended $409.35 in opposition to Carter, while the Arizona Homeopathic and Integrative Medicine Association PAC has spent $100 in support of Carter.
Registration closes at midnight on July 28, 2014 to vote in the Aug. 26 Primary Election, with early voting beginning on July 31.
