‘Media & Press’

excerpted from The Yuma Sun

Shooter proud of batting average For Yuma County

May 21, 2011 4:32 PM

BY MARA KNAUB – SUN STAFF WRITER

State Sen. Don Shooter (R-Yuma) “batted” an average of 71.43 percent, tying for second place, according to a Phoenix newspaper that ranked the members of the 50th Arizona Legislature.

Shooter succeeded in passing five out of seven “substantive” bills, as termed by the Arizona Capitol Times. The freshman senator sponsored 13 bills during the entire session.

“That’s pretty good for a rookie,” Shooter said, smiling widely.

He and Sen. John McComish (R-Ahwatukee) came in behind Sen. Robert Meza (D-Phoenix), who ranked first for sponsoring and passing one bill.

Shooter said he was mainly concerned with making Arizona business friendly by passing the Jobs Bill. It consisted of a phased-in property tax reduction and got rid of “peripheral taxes,” while adding tax breaks for rural businesses and incentives for attracting out-of-state businesses.

“It’s a free market approach. It took Arizona from 28th place to fifth in the nation as a business friendly state,” Shooter said.

He believes the approach works because “it’s business and business people who create jobs, not the government.”

He’s also proud of the state budget, which called for making “tough decisions that other politicians had been kicking like a can down the road,” he said.

For the first time in many years, he pointed out, “we actually balanced it without gimmicks, accounting tricks, loans, selling buildings, all the shenanigans that have been going on.

“We actually spent less than we took in. If the economy doesn’t dip, if it stays within a 3 percent range, then we might even have a surplus,” he added.

[ click to read full article at The Yuma Sun ]

from THE BLAZE

IT’S OFFICIAL: TEA PARTY LICENSE PLATES COMING TO AZ

Posted on April 29, 2011 at 11:57am by Jonathon M. Seidl

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed three bills for 11 new special license plates, including one to commemorate the tea party.

She acted on the license plate bills late Thursday.

The tea party plate would feature the “Don’t Tread On Me” slogan, rattlesnake emblem and yellow background of the historic Gadsden Flag that is a symbol of the movement.

The Legislature completed action April 26 on the bill authorizing the tea party plate.

[ click to continue reading at THE BLAZE ]

from The Yuma Sun

State senator going all out in freshman year

March 05, 2011 2:36 PM

BY MARA KNAUB – SUN STAFF WRITER

Freshman legislator Don Shooter, the Republican state senator for District 24, jumped full force into state politics.

“I’m no tiptoer. I jump in,” Shooter said Friday while sharing how his freshman year in office is coming along.

It was his first weekend in Yuma since the beginning of the current legislative session in January. He’s been busy, having introduced about a dozen bills, of which “six or seven are still alive. That’s unusual for a first-year legislator,” he noted.

He declined to discuss specific bills, saying, “I don’t want to tip my hand.”

But he admitted the bills are all budget-oriented, with a couple of bills addressing specific requests from agencies.

Shooter is also serving as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Rural Issues, Education and Natural Resources and as vice chairman of Water, Land Use and Rural Development. He serves on the Natural Resources and Transportation and Veterans and Military Affairs committees as well.

He believes it’s all part of doing his job. “We’re not here to get re-elected. We’re not here to be politicians, we’re farmers, businessmen, housewives. We’re here to do a job, so we’re getting it done.”

[ click to continue reading at YumaSun.com ]

from KYMA

Harvest season is in full swing in Yuma county. Newly-elected Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce made a special trip to Yuma to take a closer look at the county’s number one industry. Pearce said, “We thought it was a good chance to get off on the right foot. To talk about the needs of Yuma, the agricultural business. See what are the challenges they have and see how we can help.”

State Senator-Elect Don Shooter invited Pearce to Yuma. Shooter took him around the county to see both harvesting and planting. The junior senator wanted to show Pearce just how vital agriculture is to Yuma county’s growth. Shooter said, “Everybody talks about green jobs and high tech jobs, and everything else. What about the thing we all have to do is eat. How about the agricultural business. It’s a billion, billion, billion dollar industry for Yuma county and Arizona . It’s an exportable industry and everybody benefits from it. I think President Pearce is here to show he supports it.”

[ click to continue reading at KYMA.com ]

22 Arizona Legislature candidates run unopposed

by Mary Jo Pitzl – Sept. 5, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

might be a tad presumptuous to start measuring for curtains, but two months before the general election, more than one quarter of the seats in the next Legislature are all but decided.

For 22 candidates, the Nov. 2 election is less a contest and more a waiting game. They either have no challengers or face nominal opposition from third-party candidates who don’t have the funding or the political-party apparatus to wage a competitive campaign.

Most of these heirs apparent are incumbent lawmakers or former legislators seeking a return. And perhaps most tellingly, they come from districts that heavily favor either the Democratic or Republican parties, which reduces the chance of a strong challenge from an opposition party.

This year, the Arizona Republican Party is fielding candidates in districts that have traditionally gone to Democrats, hoping to capitalize on a national mood that is anti-Democrat.

“We’re aggressively campaigning in areas where we haven’t in the past,” said Brett Mecum, the GOP’s executive director.

A prime example is Yuma’s District 24. Republicans ran Don Shooter as a write-in candidate in the primary, denying Sen. Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, what had been shaping up as an uncontested re-election bid.

[ continue reading complete article at The Arizona Republic website ]

from The Yuma Sun

Shooter running as write-in during primary

August 10, 2010 3:35 PM

BY STEPHANIE A. WILKEN – SUN STAFF WRITER

Another candidate has his name in the hat in hopes of becoming the next state senator for District 24.

Yuman Don Shooter is a write-in Republican candidate for the district that covers Yuma in the primary Aug. 24. There are no other Republicans in the primary. Currently, Sen. Amanda Aguirre (D) holds the position.

Shooter sat down with the Yuma Sun Monday to talk about his platform.

The differences between the two candidates are easy to define, he said.

“There will be no confusion in our positions,” he said. “If you like President Obama, you’ll like Amanda.

“If you like Thomas Jefferson, you’ll like me. If you like Jimmy Carter, you’ll like Amanda. If you like Ronald Reagan, you’ll like me.”

Shooter said he’s for limited government.

“As much as we can,” he said. “It’s a pretty clear-cut choice people have.”

He said members of the Democratic party may disagree with some Republicans on how to make decisions, but both love their country and their families.

“We may disagree on how to get there, but at least right now, the Democratic Party has been taken over by radicals and I think in general the American people and the people in Yuma don’t like it – and I guess we’ll find out,” he said.

With the growing popularity of Independent or no party affiliation, Shooter said he thinks “a lot of people feel disenfranchised.”

As for balancing the state budget, one of the major issues with the coming legislative session, Shooter said first, he’d like to give back some of his own salary, if elected – and if there was a way to do it.

“I would give 10 percent back to the Treasury,” he said. “I think you need to lead by example.

“I think that leadership begins at from the top and you can’t ask everyone else to sacrifice … why should we be any different?”

[ click to continue reading full article at The Yuma Sun ]