Democrats seeking to unseat McSally work to assert their political differences

Roughly a full 10 months before the primary, the five Democrats vying to replace Rep. Martha McSally spent two hours this week trying to define their political views and separate themselves from one another in front of about a hundred Tucson voters.

The congressional hopefuls — former Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick; former state Reps. Matt Heinz and Bruce Wheeler; former Assistant Secretary of the Army Mary Matiella; and businessman Billy Kovacs — focused largely on policy and shied away from Washington insider politics during the forum Thursday at Rincon High School organized by a local political action committee, Represent Me AZ.

Early in the evening, a lightning round of questions had the candidates supporting a pathway to citizenship for “dreamers,” opposing the Rosemont Mine, allowing women on Medicare to use Planned Parenthood as their health-care provider and advocating the restoration of recently cut cost-sharing subsidies to insurers that were part of the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.

Additionally, the five candidates signaled they would fight any attempts to repeal the estate tax and voiced opposition to President Trump’s proposal for a multibillion-dollar border wall.

The candidate forum offered a slightly irregular format, allowing candidates to choose whether to answer each question and limiting the number of responses to each individual question. Candidates were also told they could respond only to a total of five questions posed by moderator Jim Nintzel.

For example, Kovacs, Matiella, Wheeler and Heinz chose to answer a question about whether they’d support the creation of a federal gun registry: They would. Kirkpatrick choose not to answer the question.

However, in the next round of questions, Kirkpatrick noted she has the endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a leading advocate for gun law reform.

Other questions included the candidates’ support of missions at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, border security, climate change and having a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

On the latter question, Wheeler said he was to some extent undocumented, explaining that he has never had a birth certificate. He clarified after the debate that he was born in an oil drilling camp in rural Venezuela, where his American father was working.

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A portion of the forum did open the door to partisan attacks, with candidates given a singular opportunity to ask each other questions.

Wheeler, however, opted to keep it light and make a thinly veiled criticism of McSally’s recent mini-tour of the district where she sang the national anthem at various events.

He asked for a show of hands from his rivals on who thought they had a better singing voice — with Kirkpatrick, Heinz and Kovacs signaling they had better pipes. Matiella, however, said she isn’t much of a singer.

Matiella, Heinz and Kovacs took the opportunity to criticize Kirkpatrick, questioning a number of her votes and pledges she has made over the years.

Both Kovacs and Heinz asked about Kirkpatrick’s years of service. Kovacs asked Kirkpatrick how she kept her ideals after so many years in Washington. Heinz reminded Kirkpatrick about her of support for term limits.

Kirkpatrick deflected Kovacs’ question, saying the she believes that Democratic principles are under threat. She told the audience that as a grandmother, she wants to fight for her grandchildren’s future. She sidestepped Heinz’s question, saying she still supports a constitutional amendment for term limits, but there is little support in Congress. Instead, Kirkpatrick said, the district needs a Democratic candidate who can turn the district blue.

“We’ve got to take back the House, we’ve got to get rid of McSally, we’ve got to repeal Citizens United,” Kirkpatrick told the audience.

Matiella asked Kirkpatrick about her vote against the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era piece of legislation to set national limits on carbon pollution from power plants. Kirkpatrick defended her vote, telling the audience that she believes there needs to be a balance between jobs and the environment.

Kirkpatrick used her time for a question to remind the audience that Kovacs was relatively young, asking him how he’d get millennials to vote. It led to a lighthearted moment, with Kovacs quipping, “I am not that young. I am 30.”