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SIERRA VISTA — Democrats have been boasting about their chances to take the White House and keep Congress, but they need to be careful when it comes to local elections, state Sen. Tim Bee said Saturday.
“Democrats in Southern Arizona be wary, Republicans are strong,” the Arizona Senate president told more than 130 people at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner hosted by the Cochise County Republican Committee.
He spoke to more than 130 people at the event held at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center.
Bee is running for the Congressional District 8 seat, currently held by a freshman Democrat.
 Congressional candidate Tim Bee and his wife, Grace, at Saturday’s Lincoln Day Dinner in the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
Democrats want to make government bigger, which means spending more of the taxpayer dollars, he said. Republicans are for limited government, in what can be described as a testing of a stump speech.
He touted his record as a member of the Arizona Senate — he cannot run for that position again because of term limits — and how that experience, especially being Senate president for going on two years, has given him the ability to go on to Washington, D.C.
The state’s budget problems and how the Legislature addresses them benefits him, Bee said. When it comes to federal economic issues, he said the state work will have given him experience in addressing similar issues.
And, like many things, Democrats will steal the thunder of Republicans for political advantage, he said.
Noting the state House of Representatives passed a bill calling for a hiring freeze, something the Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano had refused to do. But, Bee said, the governor had a change of heart and signed an executive order that stopped hiring for some categories of state employees.
“It took Republican action to make her do it,” he said.
He came to the county Saturday for the annual fundraiser.
On Monday, his likely congressional opponent in the general election, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, spoke to about 75 people at a Cochise County Democratic Committee event in Bisbee.
Bee said his strengths in going head-to-head against Giffords is that he has brought together both sides of the legislative aisle in solving issues facing the state.
And, he said, that is what he will do as a congressman.
Talking about Iraq, Bee looked back at the Lincoln’s presidency and the Copperheads, a group of Northerners who opposed the Civil War and wanted to allow the South to go on their own. He said that on the war in Iraq, today’s Democrats are looking like Copperheads.
That cannot happen, he said.
On other national issues, Bee said there is a way to balance the budget and keep the tax cuts promulgated by President George W. Bush.
But he fears the Democratic control of Congress will only seek to increase taxes.
As for education, Bee said it is time for the federal government to stop telling parents and teachers how to run local school districts, but Democrats will not do that because they seek big government as a cure for everything.
“That is what I will do in Washington,” said Bee, noting he has worked hard as an Arizona legislator.
As for the likely general election campaign between him and Giffords, he said it will be clean and be “about policy issues and the differences they have on how to handle them.”
Saying he has received Democratic support in his runs for state office, Bee expects that will continue.
Bee said he and Giffords have records in the Arizona Legislature, and she also has a record in Congress. That, he said, means the decision on who will go to Washington “will be in the hands of the voters.”
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Mark C. wrote on Feb 27, 2008 1:33 PM: