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Support your Corp Comm candidates!

Posted on 07/07/2010 @ 09:23 PM

This election will determine which party controls the Arizona Corporation Commission, the state agency that determines what you pay for electricity, water, phones and natural gas, and sets energy policy for our state. Two seats on the five-member Commission are open this year.

The Republican incumbent Gary Pierce is seeking to return to his seat. This is the same man who suggested Arizona cut off electricity to Los Angeles and was celebrated on Fox News as a result.

Republican candidate Brenda Burns presided over the Senate during one of the most embarrassing periods in state history, highlighted by the alt-fuels fiasco that cost taxpayers around $150 million.

Just last week Republican candidate Barry Wong told The Arizona Republic that, if elected, he would require regulated utilities to check the immigration status of customers.

Fortunately, the Arizona Democratic Party has three tested, proven candidates in our primary. All three candidates are running under the state's clean elections system. Competing for the two open seats are State Representative David Bradley, Democratic Minority Leader and State Senator Jorge Luis Garcia and former Corporation Commissioner Renz Jennings.

Our Corporation Commission candidates can join sitting Democratic Commissioners Sandra Kennedy and Paul Newman in a Democratic majority to promote solar energy, create local jobs and protect consumers from volatile utility bills.

The Republican Legislature actually sponsored a bill this year (HB 2701) that would have killed solar energy development and killed jobs in Arizona! It would have stripped the Corporation Commission of its Constitutional authority to set energy policy and given that authority to the Legislature.

Please watch the televised Clean Elections debate featuring all three of our candidates airing on KAET-8 (PBS) Wednesday, July 21st at 7:00 p.m. The debate can be viewed afterward on the Clean Elections website.

Let’s show the Republicans that we support our Democratic candidates for the Corporation Commission. Democrats know how to protect consumers, encourage solar energy development and create local jobs in the growing clean energy industries.