Vote 2014: Congressional District One Debate

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Three candidates are running in the republican primary for Arizona’s Congressional District One. Join us as candidates Gary Kiehne, Andy Tobin and Adam Kwasman debate the issues.

Ted Simons: Good evening, and welcome to this special Vote 2014 edition of Arizona Horizon. I'm Ted Simons. Tonight's show is a debate. We'll hear from candidates competing in the Republican primary for Arizona's Congressional District 1. As with all of Arizona Horizon's debates, this is not a formal exercise; it's an open exchange of ideas, an opportunity for give and take between candidates for one of the state's most important offices. As such, interjections and even interruptions are allowed provided that all sides get a fair shake and we'll do our best to see that that happens. CD-1 is a huge district that covers most of northeastern Arizona and much of the eastern and southeastern parts of the state. It's the 10th largest district in the country and has the biggest number of American Indians, more than any district nationwide. Three candidates are competing in CD-1 in the Republican primary. They are Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin, State Representative Adam Kwasman, and hotel owner and rancher Gary Kiehne. Each candidate will have one minute for opening and closing statements. Earlier we drew numbers to see who goes first, and that honor goes to Gary Kiehne.

Gary Kiehne: Thank you, Ted. My name is Gary Kiehne, and I want to thank you all for the opportunity to visit with you tonight. I'm running for Congress because like you, I'm fed up with the way things are being done in Washington. I think it's high time we sent people back to Washington with some business background. Rather than just the average career politician that we've been sending back there. You know we're 18 trillion dollars in debt roughly; it's unbelievable we could be facing these kind of problems in our country. And I'm looking toward to representing you as your next congressman from here in Arizona, and I thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Ted Simons: All right. Thank you very much. For the next opening statement, we turn to Andy Tobin.

Andy Tobin: Well thank you, Ted. Thanks Adam and Gary for being here tonight, and thank you to the audience. You know it's not my first appearance here, but I think as a candidate it is. Usually I'm here talking about the issues of the day, which most folks will as they look back on my lustrous career as a Speaker of the House for the last, I'm in my fourth year, but this legislature, and I'm not taking full credit for it, I'm taking credit for being part of the leadership that's brought us there, we have focused and won and transformed our election official retirement plan. They don't exist anymore. We have balanced budgets, we have cut the government more than any other state in the nation by a fourth. Took a lot of heat for that by the way. You know I was there for 1070, I was there when we did you know unfortunately we had to do more than just 1070, we have to have e-verify. The best state in right to life now over the last six years, the best state for the economy, Forbes magazine even says we're the number one place to grow. We've cut taxes here like I've said we would do, the job growth is really rolling along, we've had water policy, land policy. Washington is broke. I think we can all agree with that, but Arizona isn't, and Arizona did the job.

Ted Simons: All right. Thank you very much. And now Adam Kwasman with our next opening statement.

Adam Kwasman: Thank you. I'm Adam Kwasman, I represent about 40% of the Republicans who live in Congressional District One. I hold a Master's degree in economics, even though I was born and raised right here in southern Arizona, I hold a masters in economics from George Mason University with my specialty in the role of government in society and how it affects government. And how it affects you and I. I believe when government is limited, we can go as far as our god given talents can take us. I served in the legislature, I'm the Vice Chairman of the Arizona House Ways and Means Committee. There, I was named the most conservative member of the Arizona legislature, according to Americans for Prosperity. I've been endorsed by FreedomWorks and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, because I believe that we need to send fighters to Washington. It's a hundred trillion in debt if you count interest on our spending. We need to make sure that those in Washington go to fight for limited government and for the state of Arizona.

Ted Simons: All right. Thank you very much. Gentlemen, let's get started with the district itself. It is huge. Why do you want to represent a district that will take you a lot of time to travel in and by the way, you gotta go back and forth to D.C. as well. Why?

Gary Kiehne: Well I think I'm at home in the district, Ted. I'm probably the only candidate in the race that actually has a background throughout all parts of the industry that are represented in the district. From cattle ranching, to tourism, to oil and gas, to minerals and mining. I mean I've got a background in all of those, all my business experience lends itself to being able to represent the people in this district like they need to be represented.

Ted Simons: Why? Why do you want this job?

Andy Tobin: Yeah, well this is the most beautiful part of the state of Arizona, no disrespect to a lot of other pretty parts. But when you look at what this is all about, this is about Washington, DC, taking apart rural America. This is about Washington, DC talking about our Navajo generating station and thinking even after we have tried to resolve some of those issues with them to come at us again and harm Native American jobs and Arizona's economy. This is about tourism. My opponent Ann Kirkpatrick decided it was ok to keep parks closed. That's not acceptable when you live an hour like I do from the Grand Canyon. It's not acceptable when you have mayors in Page, and in Kingman, you know in Williams, and in Tucson, and other parts of the state, the White Mountains upset over the fact that this congresswoman thinks it's ok to keep those parks closed. So there's a lot of reasons to run. We are not recovering like the urban areas do. We never do. But Arizona is in a place where they believe in rural Arizona and it's a part of this economy. So I believe I'm the guy to be there. I'm endorsed by over 30 local folks, sheriffs, mayors, county supervisors, might surprise you some are democrats. But at the end of the day, they know who's been there for them. They need money for highway funds. We produced it. They need money to be able to go ahead and take care of the forest. The feds have failed them. I won't.

Ted Simons: Why does this district? Why this job?

Adam Kwasman: I'm not running for office to spend any more money. I'm running for office because Barack Obama is destroying this country, he's centralized our health care system, he is now what we have seen in our veterans affairs, he has absolutely destroyed the health care of our veterans. He's going for our guns. He is -- We've shown what he's doing when dropping illegal aliens off in the state of Arizona. We need fighters to go there right now and stand up to big government Democrats of course and big government Republicans. Ann Kirkpatrick is just a rubber stamp for Barack Obama. We better send some people up there if we're going to save this country and put us on the long-term path to prosperity.

Ted Simons: Are you a member, are you aligned with the Tea Party?

Adam Kwasman: I believe in limited constitutional government. If that's what the Tea Party believes, that's what I believe. I believe in free markets. The free enterprise system. When government is limited we go as far as our god given talents can take us. I know many Tea Partiers believe that, that's what I believe, but you know what, that's also what a lot of conservative rural democrats believe too. But I'm proud to have been endorsed by the Tea Party Leadership Fund.

Ted Simons: Ok, alright. Are you a member of the Tea Party, do you consider yourself aligned with the Tea Party?

Gary Kiehne: I think I'm pretty well aligned with them. I'm not a member of the Tea Party. I certainly respect all of their views and certainly see a lot of them going my way. I certainly think they're right in a lot of issues.

Ted Simons: How about you? Yavapai

Andy Tobin: Yeah, I was a dues-paying member to our Tea Party in Yavapai County, I was their keynote speaker on many of our tax days at Yavapai County Square, and we have had 500 to a thousand people show up on many occasions. Those folks were independents, those folks were Republicans and those folks were conservative democrats as well who wanted to come out and find out why this government is growing at such a large pace, that it's jeopardizing their children and grandchildren. So Tea Party and I are, you know I would say at the end of the day that they've shrunk from their larger focus, and I was disappointed to find that there weren't as many of them showing up anymore, and I'm not so sure why. But it saddens me that there was not, this larger group doesn't exist like it used to in traveling around.

Adam Kwasman: I can't disagree more. You know I've been endorsed by the Northwest conservatives, which is a Tea Party group down southern in Pima County, I've been supported by Don Carter, who is the Graham County Tea Party leader, the city of Maricopa Tea Party leader, also in Flagstaff, their Tea Party --

Andy Tobin: I wasn't picking names. I was telling you --

Adam Kwasman: But --

Andy Tobin: A thousand people would come to the Yavapai county courthouse to listen to speakers go up and talk about this national debt problem. It doesn't happen anymore. So maybe it's happening in smaller pockets, but I was at the Tea Party event up in Coconino for the parade. We only had 12 people. You know so I share with you that there are pockets and pieces that are working, but the bigger movement I think is more -- Is not as active as it's been in front of the camera. Maybe it just is more behind the camera.

Adam Kwasman: Just last Thursday we were at, Gary Kiehne and I, were at the Northwest conservatives with standing room only. In the district, the Tea Party is strong. You just have to go there and show up and you see that we have standing room only crowds and we want to fight for constitutional liberty against Barack Obama.

Gary Kiehne: Well you know the Tea Party is a full representation of conservatism. That's what our people are tired of, the liberal attitudes of both the mainstream Republicans, and the liberal side of the Democratic Party. But you're going to find in our district that there's an overwhelming number of conservative democrats. I grew up a democrat myself. And I can tell you, that they were registered democrats and they are extremely conservative in the northern part of this district.

Ted Simons: You have been quoted as saying that you are an outsider and that you kind of critiqued your opponents as being insiders. What is wrong with being an insider, what is wrong with knowing how to get things done?

Gary Kiehne: Well the bottom line is this, you know everybody is talking about my experience in politics. Let's talk about experience in politics that I don't have. I don't have experience in taking freebies such as lunches and free trips, and tickets to ball games. You know I don't have that kind of experience, sir. I've always had to pay my way. And I think it's time that the people understand and the people in this district are fed up with career politicians, and that's what I mean by being an outsider. I'm not a career politician, I'm a businessman that wants to go to Washington and fix it, and I don't want to look at how many freebies I get out of it or how much I'm benefiting because of it. I want to benefit my district members.

Ted Simons: I think that freebie is a reference to you.

Andy Tobin: Well Mr. Kiehne hasn't been in the game long enough to know what's going on at the capitol in the first place. All he has to do is talk about a free ticket somewhere, which you can't find. We don't go down to the capitol to observe things, we go down to the capitol to vote on issues. Mr. Kiehne has never cut a government budget. Mr. Kiehne has never voted for a pro-life agenda, Mr. Kiehne has never cut pension for government pension, has never cut it. At the end of the day, what we're talking about job growth, Mr. Kiehne has never voted to cut taxes, Mr. Kiehne has never voted for 1070, neither did Adam Kwasman. Mr. Kiehne has never voted to have employer sanctions. Neither did Adam Kwasman. So you're looking at the guy, you say you're an insider, but an insider in the pool of people that I deal with, really good folks who come down to serve every day, that is an insult. Because they're coming down, they're getting paid 23 or $24,000 a year, whatever it might be, and it's an insult to assume that oh my gosh, somebody took him for lunch so he can learn about an issue. I think it's insulting.

Adam Kwasman: Guys, guys, it's petty. Listen nobody wants to go to Washington to go and -- Nobody wants to elect somebody who is going to go to Washington and immediately fall on the inside. And go out for steak dinners and be bought by lobbyists. People want those to go to Washington, they want a representative in Congress and Senate to go to Washington, do the people's work and then leave after a couple years of doing good work. It doesn't matter where -- Whether you've served eight years, whether you've run for the town council and lost. Everybody here has run for office already, we've all run once. At least once. You know Gary, if you won your town council seat you would have served longer than I have. Mr. Tobin, you've been in for a long time, you and I have very different records. I think all in all though, the way to beat Ann Kirkpatrick is to all pledge today that when we go to Congress, we're going to come home soon. That's why I signed term limit legislation pledges. We need a constitutional amendment for only a certain amount of terms, three terms, then come home, leave it to the next person.

Ted Simons: You mentioned that your record differs very much from Andy Tobin's. How so?

Adam Kwasman: Well, I was named in my first year by Americans for Prosperity as the most conservative member, the highest ranked in their cumulative scoring, as the most conservative free market member of the legislature. Andy's record, when he was there in 2009-2010, the year of the Tea Party, he was ranked friend of big government. I fought against Jan Brewer's Obamacare Medicaid expansion from day one, that's how I made a name for myself in the legislature. Andy Tobin wrote his own Obamacare plan, he wrote his own Medicaid expansion plan, he ran out of time, he floated to the lobbyists, floated to the legislatures, ran out of time, and voted against the Governor's bill and then just said, hey, I'm against it from day one. You know it's just -- There's conservatives, there's conservative and there's big government Republicans.

Ted Simons: Respond, please.

Andy Tobin: You know I mean Mr. Kwasman has a different way of looking at things. He writes me letters and tells me he's just thrilled with the leadership that I've had, and then he comes in here because he's now running for Congress, he gets his big shot on TV, so he gets to be the big guy and say Tobin is not a conservative. You know nobody is running to the right of me here. I mean what I have is a record of performance. What Adam has is a score card done by people that gets shuffled around. I've been endorsed by more people -- Neither one of these guys have a single mayor in this district who have endorsed them. Not one. You know we've got one sheriff. I've got six or seven. I got county supervisors all over who are endorsing --

Adam Kwasman: Excuse me. Excuse me one second. You think that just because I'm encouraging a fellow Republican that's a bad thing? Here, you want to talk about --

Andy Tobin: What do you mean encourage a fellow Republican? What do you mean by that?

Gary Kiehne: You know folks, this is a prime example --

Adam Kwasman: Work with me. Excuse me one second. You work with me, do you know what's not a score card? You know what's not a score card? Your common core vote. When you voted for common core --

Andy Tobin: That's not common core. Andy Biggs voted for that, Andy Biggs, the entire senate voted for that. You're telling me members who you put on your website who voted to kill Aims, put it on your website, and you espoused their picture, but they voted differently.

Adam Kwasman: Andy Tobin voted for common core, wrote his own Obamacare expansion bill, pushed through a billion dollar sales tax increase and was ranked by a friend of big government by Americans for Prosperity.

Andy Tobin: That's just not true.

Gary Kiehne: There you go, Arizona. These two guys are a prime example.

Ted Simons: Of what?

Gary Kiehne: Of career politicians that in 2012 actually endorsed each other, and called each other big buddies and when they get to competing against each other, they try to cut each other's' throats.

Adam Kwasman: We better send the right people to Congress.

Gary Kiehne: The bottom line is, if you want to send somebody up there that's got a business background that understands how to fix problems and economics, true economics, not economics read from a book, I'm your guy to send up there. I'm not going to sit here and debate what I did in the legislature or what they've done in the legislature. Because the bottom line is, they left -- They left this year, legislative session on a $9 billion budget, with a half billion dollar deficit. Now if we're going to send them to Washington, to tackle a $17 trillion deficit, that's 18% difference. That means they'll be happy with a $20 trillion deficit.

Ted Simons: Respond, please.

Andy Tobin: Yeah well, once again, it's nice to be able to say I wasn't there so I can pick on the guys who were. Neither one of these guys were there when we weren't sure we had payroll. We cut government by a fourth. What Adam is referring to is Prop 100. Prop 100 was a sales tax initiative sent to the voters that we had already made another billion dollars in cuts, if they wanted the sales tax, it would be replaced by that. That's what Adam is referring to. So if he wants to say I've spent a billion dollars in sales tax, that's great. Why don't you explain that to all the folks who are out there who really have voted for me overwhelmingly for eight years.

Andy Tobin: Well then that moves me on to my next question. The concept of compromise. Is compromise at times necessary to effectively govern?

Adam Kwasman: Absolutely. But we don't compromise on certain principles. We don't compromise on Obamacare. We don't say that a little bit of big government socialism is better than a lot of big government socialism, because both gets us off the fiscal cliff. But I will tell you in a place where I believe conservative Republicans can really compromise across the aisle, and that's on civil liberties. When we are looking at Barack Obama and Ann Kirkpatrick supporting spying on our cell phones, when they're looking at data, when we make sure that we have a rule of law, that is something that the far left can agree on, and the far right can agree on. That's why you have Tea Party conservatives like Rand Paul going into Berkeley and getting standing ovations from Berkeley students. So when it comes to a good idea, I don't care who gets the credit. Big government is big government, and it doesn't know a party.

Ted Simons: The concept of compromise.

Gary Kiehne: Well, sir, the only way you're going to ever fix anything is to compromise. I mean, I've traded with the best horse traders in the whole dad gun country and I can tell you, you never get a horse bought for what you actually think you're going buy him for, unless you pay too much.

Ted Simons: Compromise has been described by some as a dirty word these days. Your thoughts?

Andy Tobin: There's places that it doesn't fit. I mean there are places that it doesn't fit. The governor wanted to expand unemployment. I said no. And we weren't going there. When it comes down to having all the votes for the Medicaid expansion that you wanted, that I believe harmed Arizona and certainly harms rural Arizona, it was me who was involved in the lawsuit. I had warned her about 108. Early on we had talked about it. We have gone down this road with this governor many times. We simply disagree. And she ran me over, Adam gets on the floor and tells everybody the speaker has done nothing wrong, but yet because he gets a camera now he can speak to it, now everything, now Tobin is a bad guy.

Ted Simons: Address that. Why the change? What's going on?

Adam Kwasman: They were going overthrow a speaker of the house. It's different than Andy Tobin writing his own Medicaid expansion bill. Listen --

Andy Tobin: Andy Tobin didn't write a medication expansion bill. Andy Tobin was trying to utilize federal dollars which we get on a regular basis. Not to expand, but to help businesses get reductions and credits and be able to control the expansion of these costs from our hospitals.

Adam Kwasman: I ask any viewer at home to google Andy Tobin own bill to expand Medicaid. That is Andy Tobin's Medicaid expansion bill. We're done with double talk. We're done with this.

Andy Tobin: You can't keep saying that when I voted no. You can't keep saying that when I voted no and I fought this governor, they tried to overturn me. You can continue down this road all you want -- What are you supposed to do --

Adam Kwasman: Wait.

Andy Tobin: I did vote no.

Adam Kwasman: You don't float your own Medicaid expansion bill then vote no.

Andy Tobin: You call that Medicaid expansion, that is not what I call it. I call that a business solution to draw down federal dollars.

Adam Kwasman: Very nice that you call it a business solution. It was a Medicaid expansion bill.

Andy Tobin: You were prompting me to say hey are we going to do something different? Are we going to have an alternative? That's what you were telling me to do.

Adam Kwasman: I believe in an alternative but not a Medicaid expansion bill.

Andy Tobin: But you don't stand up there and come up with an alternative on your own.

Adam Kwasman: Oh, wait. Stop. This is a great -

Adam Kwasman: 1070 this is an expansion, it's something that was different from the year before, that we came up with in compromise with the Governor on. So there are places --

Gary Kiehne: You know what guys, that's history. Bottom line --

Ted Simons: It is history, but what happened with 1070?

Adam Kwasman: I wasn't there.

Andy Tobin: He wasn't there.

Ted Simons: So you weren't there?

Adam Kwasman: No, but I've been endorsed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, knowing who Andy Tobin is, knowing who Gary Kiehne is, yet Arpaio still endorsed me.

Gary Kiehne: I have to tell you, I've never met Joe Arpaio.

Adadm Kwasman: You should meet him, he's one of the conservative heroes of Arizona.

Andy Tobin: And I'm endorsed by Sheriff Aldridge, Sheriff Babeu, Sheriff Mascher, Sheriff Richards, Sheriff Sheahan. So I mean you know, what else you got, Adam?

Ted Simons: He said he didn't vote on 1070, he didn't have a chance.

Andy Tobin: My point is that you can come out and say, hey this guy didn't do enough, he's not conservative enough, when I was here and I voted on 1070 in your studio, people are like, well you're way over conservative. When I go to a national conservative for the Republicans, they're coming over to see the most conservative speaker in the house. There is no better conservative agenda that we have passed in any state, in any state, in the last six years, than this conservative agenda that we have just gotten through with in the last six years. And we're not quite done yet.

Ted Simons: Please.

Gary Kiehne: You know, let's talk about how we're going to fix America. Let's talk about when we had our first debate in December, I challenged both of my opponents to come up with a way to pay back $17 trillion in debt. And the challenge was to do it in our next debate, without raising taxes. Neither one of them has ever told us a thing throughout this whole six months of campaigning.

Andy Tobin: Well that's not true.

Gary Kiehne: Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing, how they can pay off the national debt and how they can create jobs in this district.

Andy Tobin: 25 years ago I was with Ronald Reagan working a balanced budget amendment with Ronald Reagan.

Gary Kiehne: Well--

Andy Tobin: Ronald Reagan, so I believe in a balanced budget amendment. So don't say nobody has come to you and said here's my plan.

Gary Kiehne: How are you --

Andy Tobin: You have to engage -

Gary Kiehne: How are you going to pay off the national debt? How are you going pay off $17 trillion?

Andy Tobin: We did it in Arizona. You cut government. Then you cut taxes.

Gary Kiehne: That's not going to happen enough. You can't cut government enough to pay back $17 trillion.

Andy Tobin: You can't fix 20 years of bad policy in two years.

Gary Kiehne: You've got to produce your way out of it.

Adam Kwasman: Guys, guys. Guys. Guys.

Ted Simons: Adam, please.

Adam Kwasman: It starts with looking at our agencies and starting to reduce government left and right and finding --

Andy Tobin: Which is what we did at the state capitol.

Adam Kwasman: We need to --

Andy Tobin: Cutting taxes --

Ted Simons: Ok, I got to let him finish his statement.

Adam Kwasman: The debt first of all is not $17 trillion. It's $100 trillion if you count --

Gary Kiehne: You're right.

Adam Kwasman: It's $100 trillion. It starts with getting our monetary policy in order, we start with limiting the federal reserve and then abolishing the federal reserve. Then once your monetary policy is in order, you start looking at full departments, what can we bring to the states where we can adopt both article one section eight, get back to our constitutional variables, adopt 10th amendment principles, send full departments back to the states, make sure that those who are coming up in new generations have the type of choices necessary to be able to choose their retirement, and choose their health care, we have got to stop spending now. That's what solutions are.

Ted Simons: We've got a very short amount of time now before --

Andy Tobin: It's easy to say but --

Ted Simons: A very short amount of time before closing. But I want to get this last question in there, a lot of talking about who is more conservative, who is the most conservative of the three? My question to you is can you be so conservative and so far to the right, I need a brief response, that you might win the primary but you'll lose the general?

Gary Kiehne: Sir, I think I'm the only one here that has a snowball's chance of winning the general. Because I understand the Native American issues and what kind of problems they're facing. The V.A. hospital is a prime example of what's going on in government and the whistle blowers act, and the Native American, Indian health services is suffering basically the same way. And my opponents are totally unaware of that.

Ted Simons: Can you be too conservative to win the general?

Andy Tobin: I don't know -- Too conservative, I don't know what too conservative is. Most people that see me think I'm too conservative except for Adam. So I would have to say that I've been elected for eight years already. I have an incredible list of local folks who have endorsed me. I have an incredible list of agencies that, or rather groups who have endorsed me as well. So I think that at the end of the day you can be very conservative and win this district. You just have to be -- You have to be right. And you can't just fly off the handle and make goofy comments.

Ted Simons: Very quickly, can you go so far right that you lose the general?

Adam Kwasman: When you have teachers and you have families who have lost their health insurance because Barack Obama and Ann Kirkpatrick have slammed down socialized medicine down their throat, I just want to create solutions for people. And when we talk about limiting government, you --

Ted Simons: Gotcha.

Adam Kwasman: You going as far as your god given talents can take you.

Ted Simons: Got to stop right there. Each candidate will now give a one-minute closing statement, and going in reverse order of the opening statements we start with Adam Kwasman.

Adam Kwasman: Thank you very much. I'm Adam Kwasman. I represent 40% of the Republicans who live in congressional district one. I'm proud to be a resident of congressional district one. I've been endorsed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, FreedomWorks for America, and I was named by Americans for Prosperity as the most free market, the most conservative member of the Arizona legislature. I believe that we need to send conservative solutions based candidates to Washington, DC to take on big government Republicans to take on Barack Obama, if we send the same people over and over again, we're going to lose this country. Last week was D-day. Last week we celebrated D-day. 70 years. They left a generation that was absolutely better than what they started with. Are we going to be there, are we going to have that future for our kids and our future generations? We better start saving this country now. Please.

Ted Simons: Thank you very much. Our next closing statement, Andy Tobin.

Andy Tobin: Thank you, Ted. I'm glad we're here, thanks for giving me a chance to visit today. I'm Andy Tobin, I've lived in Arizona over 30 years. I've raised five children here, my -- I'm the son of immigrant Irish grandparents who are passed away, my father is a retired New York City cop my mom worked a side job as well to keep food on the table. My wife and I live in Pullman, Arizona, I have a career in aerospace, I have a career in banking, I have a career in insurance, I have a career in private sector. And all this is accumulated into what I consider my public service and my life. So I will share with you, I was a little late coming here today because I was busy signing a Hualapai water letter to agree to that. I was busy worrying about a sergeant we have in Mexico who is being held up. And I'm not sure these guys know who the consul generals are in Mexico, I'm not sure who they know or who can go ahead and get these folks out and help them. But would I share with you, I ask for your vote, I work very hard, I think this is the greatest state in America and we've proven it here as my ten years as speaker.

Ted Simons: Thank you sir. Gary Kiehne, please.

Gary Kiehne: Thank you, Ted, and thank you gentlemen for this debate. I want to thank the people of the state of Arizona for listening tonight. You know, I think really and truly, it's time we looked at the people we send to Washington, and their underlying motivation that they have when they desire to go. I'm one of you. I'm a businessman. I'm a rancher, I'm not a politician, although I am now. I think it's high time we cleaned up Washington, and we sent people to Washington who actually know how to do something and I actually know how to sign the right front side of that check instead of just endorsing the back. I look forward to your support and your vote. Thank you very much.

Ted Simons: All right. Thank you. Thank you candidates, and thank you for watching this special vote 2014 debate featuring the Republican candidates for Arizona's congressional district one. This is the first of many debates we will host here on Arizona Horizon leading up to the primary and general elections. I'm Ted Simons. That's it for now. You have a great evening.

Gary Kiehne:Candidate, Arizona's Congressional District One; Andy Tobin:Candidate, Arizona's Congressional District One; Adam Kwasman:Candidate, Arizona's Congressional District One;

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