AZ Republic endorses Barto for Senate

Barto well-spoken and gets the job done

Ray Barnes and Nancy Barto have spots in any legislative trivia contest. Barto replaced the first legislator to be removed from office for Clean Election violations. Barnes suffered a heart attack on the House floor, his life saved by an intern who knew CPR.

Now the two District 7 representatives are facing off in the district’s Senate Republican primary, along with two other candidates. This isn’t a race pitting a moderate against a conservative. Both are solid conservatives. The choice for voters comes down to style and effectiveness.

Our recommendation goes to Barto. She’s professional, well-spoken and gets bills passed into law. She sponsored the referendum on the November ballot that challenges federal health-care reform.

Barnes has become best known for launching into embarrassing rants on the House floor. He is less effective than when he first came to the Legislature.

The Senate has half as many members as the House, so it’s vital each senator be as strong as possible. District 7 voters would get that with Barto, should she go on to win the general election in this heavily Republican district.

They’d also get a thoughtful lawmaker, responsive to constituents. Barto said she was disinclined to put a temporary sales-tax increase on the ballot. Her constituents, however, let her know they wanted to vote on it. She acceded and eventually cast her own vote for Proposition 100.

“The voters got it right. They wanted to minimize the cuts,” she said.

She also had the courage to stand against the 2009 version of what this year became SB 1070. Standing against any immigration bill can be politically dangerous for a Republican, but Barto thought the 2009 bill was being railroaded through the House outside the normal process. Law enforcement’s concerns were being ignored, she said. Stopping the bill in 2009 allowed those concerns to be addressed in a better bill this year, she said.

For these reasons, we recommend Barto as the Republican nominee to face Democrat Eric Shelley in November.

Northeast & Scottsdale Republic editions  Barto well-spoken and gets the job done. published July 21st  and Saturday, July 24th.