Monday, December 26, 2011

Sylvia Allen, keeping the "AZ" in crazy

State Sen. Sylvia Allen (R-LD5) is a conservative legislator from northeastern Arizona.  During her career in politics, she's been best known for two things - she's a close friend and ally of Russell Pearce, the recently recalled former president of the state senate, and she's prone to uttering some of the whackiest things ever to pass the lips of an elected official in AZ (and that's saying something in a state that boasts among its past and present electeds folks like Evan Mecham, Karen Johnson, and Jack Harper).

Whether it was claiming that it is OK to strip mine uranium because the Earth is 6000 years old and is doing fine, that people should think of more ways to help the wealthy, that trees in Arizona should be destroyed because they suck water out of Arizona's water supply, or even crazier, she's been embarrassing her district and her state for years.

She's still going for the crazy, as this article from The Payson Roundup from last week illustrates.

From the article, written by Pete Aleshire -

State Sen. Sylvia Allen called for a state struggle against federal authority in a wide-ranging appearance last week before about 50 members of the Payson Tea Party gathered at Tiny’s Restaurant.

{snip}

...she decried the mostly federally funded Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System as “socialized medicine.” AHCCCS provides coverage for about 30 percent of the residents of Gila County.

{snip}

“We need to tighten this program up and have people pay for babies. That’s not life and death. They won’t let you charge (the patients) a penny for that care. That’s the socialized direction we’ve gone in for 50 years.

{snip}

Sen. Allen also decried various efforts to increase voter turnouts, with things like mail-in ballots and online voter registration.

Now to be fair to Senator Allen, I have to leave open the possibility that she isn't crazy.

She may just be someone who revels in pure ignorance while relying on party talking points to get her through contact with actual voters.

4 comments:

Eli Blake said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eli Blake said...

To be honest, I'm one of her constituents and to answer your question at the end, I think it's just that she's not very bright.

Even her supporters will concede that up front.

I think Roman Hruska's heydey is finally here. We have filled our government with 'mediocre people.' Among many voters, being educated and intelligent is now considered a flaw. What does that say about our society?

Desert Beacon said...

My, it seems you have discovered AZ's answer to NV's Sharron Angle?

Craig said...

Hi DB,

Right now Angle has the edge - she tried to take her very special brand of craziness to the federal level. So far, our Sylvia seems content to run wild in one of AZ's largest (geographically) legislative districts.