RepMendez

In Arizona our GOP legislators are so rabid around guns they legislate rights to guns.

I'm all for gun safety. I don't want the wrong people to easily get guns. I don't think anyone hurts constitutionally if it's harder to get guns. It shouldn't be so easy to buy guns at gun shows or over the internet. We also shouldn't let children play with guns at shooting ranges but I'm afraid if I started talking about that at the legislature it would be thought of as too radical.

Tuition prices are totally inflated and it's a systemic problem. Our current system of subsidized loans and hoping and wishing states help with the price is why we have tuition prices like we do in AZ.

I got my undergrad at ASU in 09, I was paying just over $4K a year. Today freshman are being asked to pay at least $12K a year. That's 3 times the price in just 8 years.

For higher education going forward we have to end the loan racket on the national level and work towards free college.

For more information I would recommend this doc Ivory Tower - it has a lot of great ASU coverage And then read this book The New Geography of Jobs and help me educate people on why we need more college graduates

I think this initiative took too long to get to the ballot but at the same time this election is perfect to pass this initiative.

I'm confident AZ will legalize cannabis this election. I don't think the initiative is perfect, I'm a little worried about having so little shops for the whole state. But with the amount of new voters we registered this election along with the minimum wage increase I'm confident in a large progressive turnout.

Every progressive thing Arizona has done has come through voter initiative. We have publicly financed elections, our public research college ASU, somewhat of a min wage to begin with and even an independent commission to deal with redistricting. Plus we've rejected pay day loans through the initiative process.

So I'm confident legalization has more than a chance. The hardest part was just getting it on the ballot. Going forward the conservatives have made it almost impossible to get more initiatives on the ballot.

I'm a fan of Lawrence Lessig, he's a constitutional scholar, tried to run for congress and then president this year.

We both want to bring about real progressive campaign financing but we're also equally tired of waiting for our current politicians to drop their addiction to money. Every year the Clean Elections system I use to keep money out of my election is threatened. This last legislative cycle I honestly believed we were going to lose our Clean Election system. It was only saved because of other drama and egos that pre emptively ended our session early.

I wasn't getting anywhere by myself - though I was part of a team that fought off traditional dirty candidates in my own district. We've won as many seats as we're going to win with clean elections as it currently is. The system is by no means perfect. As a clean elections candidate I'm limited to just $40K to win a primary and general election. That is more than enough for me in my district but doesn't mean anything to anyone running in a truly competitive seat.

I'm certainly campaigning in these other districts to get progressive candidates elected but because of how much traditional candidates are allowed to raise all our hard work equates to nothing more and wishes and hopes.

Again and again, what Arizona wants, our legislature doesn’t do — because the citizens who fund elections are represented, and the rest of us are not.

Every issue — from climate change to gun safety, from water to education spending — is blocked by this fundamental problem: Our current legislature does not represent the people.

The solution is to fix our democracy because a politician's reliance on a small group of funders denies equal citizenship in a way that resembles racial discrimination in voting.

So I started a PAC to do just that - I want to get people elected to office that will end the reign of PACs and I'm using a PAC to do that. I can't use the money on my own election.

1. Raise their pay
2. Provide more training and opportunities for advancement
3. Get them more funding for simple things like chairs and books
4. Then build/support the best teachers college in Arizona

When I'm not at the AZ Legislature I'm a substitute High School teacher. I'm passing out text books that I used when going to high school and I hardly have enough for how large most of my classes are. Last year I started subbing for an English class that went two semesters without a permanent teacher.

Teachers live hard lives we all need to do more to respect their profession. I hold teachers up as the true defenders of democracy. I would love any advice on how we could be doing more for teachers.