Local opinion: Legislature needs to get back to the work of public service

I was lucky enough to be born in Tucson. I grew up just outside of the city limits — exploring the desert, watching Arizona basketball, playing soccer on dried grass.

The Southern Arizona I was raised in gave me amazing opportunities. The excellent education I received here at great public schools and Salpointe led me to graduate college in Economics with honors, intern in the office of Representative Gabby Giffords, help teach English in Mexico, serve as a fifth-grade teacher, and eventually become a small business owner.

I love where I live. But today, we are seeing serious issues in Arizona that aren’t being addressed by our Legislature. We have statewide crises in multiple categories. Education funding and teacher pay. Housing affordability and other costs of living. Water security. Public safety resources.

I believe the root cause of our most pressing challenges is that too many of our elected officials are wasting their time playing politics instead of tackling the issues affecting our lives. And that means our interests, and our community, are not being served.

My frustration with today’s politics led me to run for the Arizona State House of Representatives in Legislative District 17, which covers the outer Tucson metro area, to get the focus back on public service.

Of course, elected officials are supposed to serve the public! But if you ask me, that’s not happening in our district, and Southern Arizona is worse off as a result.

Recently, I participated in the Clean Elections Debate for the candidates in this race. This debate was supposed to be an opportunity for voters to hear directly from candidates and learn about their policy stances and priorities. Except it wasn’t even a debate — because my opponents, Cory McGarr and Rachel Jones, didn’t show up.

This is part of a pattern of my opponents, who are not only candidates but sitting representatives: not being accessible to their constituents, and not doing the work.

Let’s look at the numbers. Current representative Cory McGarr has now been in office for two years and collected more than $140,000 in salary and reimbursements, all paid by taxpayers. The results? Zero of his sponsored bills have become law. Zero impact on bringing much-needed resources for education, infrastructure, and first responders to Southern Arizona.

More numbers: He made sure to vote to uphold the 1864 abortion ban three separate times and voted to block over $150 million in funding for Southern Arizona schools.

I think it’s time we reset our expectations for our state legislators and say that no longer is it enough to go up to Phoenix, push extreme policies, post on social media, and call it a job well done. That’s not how success is measured in the real world that the rest of us live in.

I believe that serving in public office means an almost sacred duty to your constituents. Not only people of your same party affiliation, but everyone. To truly represent a district, you have to listen to as many of your constituents as possible. That takes work.

I’m willing to do that work. I’ve knocked on almost 5,000 doors, and I’ve reached out directly to voters in every single one of the 65 precincts of our district. I’ve talked with people of every age, profession, faith, and political persuasion to hear concerns, field questions, and listen to ideas. I am committed to being in touch with my constituents during this campaign and throughout my service if elected — because that is the job.

If elected, I am committed to focusing on working every day to solve problems and make life better for Arizonans. I grew up in a family that spans the political spectrum, and as a small business owner, my experience is that failing to deliver results is not an option. I will work with anyone, from anywhere, from any background, from any party, to find the best ideas and develop policies and programs to make government work better for us — because that is the job.

We know what the job is — now let’s change our leadership and start getting back to public service.