For example, four out of our last five governors have been women - Rose Mofford, Jane Hull, Janet Napolitano, and Jan Brewer.
Another example - two out of our nine members of Congress (and two out of our five Democratic representatives) are women - Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema.
Women who are running for office here have some great role models to follow, if they choose to take their inspiration from other women who have been candidates or office holders.
Some of the female officeholders/candidates in this state have been outstanding examples for anyone to follow, regardless of partisan identification or gender -
Before she was the victim of an attempted assassination by a shooter who went on to kill six and wound 12 other people, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was highly-respected, well-liked, and expected to move on to bigger and better things.
In addition, word was that whenever she met with the Republican leadership of the Arizona legislature, former governor Janet Napolitano was usually the smartest person in the room. And when she wasn't, anybody in the room that was smarter than her was there working for her.
Both were and are known for their intelligence, professionalism, work ethic, and desire to actually achieve solutions to problems and not for just grandstanding.
In short, they have been among the best public servants in America, not just Arizona.
Unfortunately, the willingness of the Arizona electorate to elect female candidates has also supplied evidence that there are women who are as unfit for office as some of the men who win elections here -
Governor Jan "Brain Freeze" Brewer ("Headless Bodies" would have worked here, too), former state senator Lori "Quickdraw" Klein (would have gone with "Thinks Bigoted And Ignorant Stereotypes Should Serve As The Foundation Of Public Discourse And Policy", but that is too long to serve as a nickname :) ), and State Representative Brenda "Foot in Mouth" Barton are no better than Maricopa County Sheriff Joe "Federal court ruling? Who cares?!?" Arpaio, former state senate president Russell "Never Met A Brown Person He Didn't Want To Deport" Pearce, and former state senator Frank "Don't Make Me Mad" Antenori.
They all have brought, or are still bringing, great amounts of ridicule upon Arizona.
Now, 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Jones has staked out her campaign path, and it appears that she is patterning herself after the crowd that merits ridicule, not respect.
She recently appeared at a fundraiser for the aforementioned Arpaio (video courtesy KTVK) -
Once you get past her pseudo-standup comedy part of her time on stage, she gets into the "ignorant" part.
Starting at the 3:35 point in the video, she starts talking about some of the good things that Arpaio does that no one really knows about.
Like leaving water for immigrants crossing the Rio Grande to come into Arizona.
Like having Hispanic people as half of his MCSO staff.
Umm...
A. The Rio Grande River forms part of the border between *Texas* and Mexico, not Arizona and Mexico*.
B. The MCSO itself states that 23% of its employees are Hispanic. Not even close to 50%.
* - Courtesy U of A, a map of rivers in AZ (note the lack of a river along the border with Mexico, much less one named "Rio Grande") -
And then, she serenades Arpaio (starting at approximately the 5:10 point in the video, ending at approximately the 8:48 mark).
In terms of quality, it wasn't "bad". It went on way too long, but otherwise, well, it wasn't Mitt Romney singing "America The Beautiful". In other words, it wasn't painful to watch.
However, in terms of "image", it doesn't exactly say "serious candidate here" either.
On the other hand, at least she didn't try to do an impression of Marilyn Monroe serenading JFK for his birthday in 1962.
Which was fine for the time period and subtext (the JFK/Monroe relationship) in 1962 (I suppose; it was kind of before my time), but would have brought a whole new level of "creepy" to the Arpaio event.
