‘Where I Stand On The Issues’

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 ]

I have been a lifelong opponent of abortion and supporter of the Right To Life movement.

The sanctity of human life, and the fact that it begins at conception is sacred with me.

Back in my younger days, and during the height of the Anti-Abortion Movement, my wife Susan and I took part in numerous marches, rallies and protests, such as the March For Life and the Vigil For Life. We even dragged our baby daughter Elizabeth with us – it’s never to early to start teaching our kids to respect and revere the miracle of life.

As your State Senator, I promise to continue my lifelong commitment to protecting the rights of all humans – even those humans still waiting to be born.

The politicians always cry that we need “comprehensive” immigration form – we need to enforce the border, while at the same time we need to do something about the illegal immigrants already living in the country – and it seems they always tell us the only solution to that part of the problem, is amnesty.

First off, I think it’s a fallacy that “comprehensive” laws are needed. “Comprehensive” seems to mean these days that there is something so bad in the proposed law, that if legislators tried to pass that something on its own, it would be soundly rejected by the voters. Remember – the healthcare bill was comprehensive reform, too – and we’re only learning now about all those nasty little laws and regulations that Congress stuffed into ObamaCare, that never would have passed on their own.

Secondly, and back to the notion that any future immigration reform must include amnesty – well, I just want to remind everyone that we’ve tried amnesty once already – under Ronald Reagan 25 years ago – and clearly amnesty did not work then, nor can we expect it to work any better today. It was a noble experiment – but it failed.

I contend the first step to solving illegal immigration is to enforce existing laws, which is essentially all SB-1070 aimed to do. We have to end sanctuary cities, end catch-and-release by law enforcement, and start enforcing proper identification standards again for obtaining drivers’ licenses, bank accounts, and social services – all of which can be addressed with our existing laws. We just need to demand enforcement of those laws by our local, state and federal government – and we need to stop looking the other way.

Yes, we can address all of our immigration problems with common sense and decency – but on a law-by-law, issue-by-issue basis. We don’t need another 2,000 page bill, though, trying to address every facet of immigration reform at once – “comprehensively”.

No – the best laws I say are the short ones. Like the 10 amendments of the Bill of Rights, that pretty much fit on one page.

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 ]

You can get a clear understanding from this testimony before Congress of what my views are on the attempt to regulate out of existence a Citizen’s right to own and bear arms in the United States of America.

Help me defeat Amanda Aguirre this fall – remember to WRITE-IN “Donald Shooter” for District #24 State Senate on the ballot for the August 24, Arizona Primary. And please contact joinup@DonShooter.com to help us out with the campaign.