Paul Babeu is seeking the seat for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, which is the largest land district in the state. Babeu is originally from Massachusetts, where he served as Headmaster of DeSisto Private Boarding School. He began his career in law enforcement as a police officer for the City of Chandler and served over 20 in the Army National Guard, with a tour in Iraq. He currently serves as Sheriff of Pinal County after being elected for his first term in office in 2008.
Babeu takes a strong stance against federal overreach and believes this issue is the foundation for ensuring prosperity for rural Arizona. “Federal regulations have negatively impacted our state, jobs and economy. I will fight the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations to kill coal. I will fight to defend coal and the thousands of jobs in coal, not just the power plant jobs but also those of coal miners and train conductors. The impact goes much further, though. There is billions of dollars in positive impact that would be lost if our power plants shut down.
“People talk about bringing in other jobs, but what other jobs? Where, when? When these jobs are gone what happens to schools? Thousands of families will relocate and the tax burden will shift. Everyone is impacted. I will fight in the majority and bring this fight to Washington,” he said.
Babeu also believes that the Department of Education should be downsized in order to allow more funding to come to Arizona in the form of community block grants and allow states to take control over the education of their citizens.
He wants to see Arizona lands come out from under federal control. “Only 18 percent of the land in Arizona is privately owned so when federal regulations happen they are outsized. Long ago those federal lands were supposed to be transferred into private management but that hasn’t happened and I will fight to make that happen. We can better manage that land as an economic engine that would further benefit our schools and provide more jobs,” he explained. “When we manage lands we can introduce, mining, grazing, recreation and lumber. We have to change the fundamentals or we will have a difficult future. That’s my focus, this is a crisis,” said Babeu.
Regarding health care, Babeu opposes the Affordable Healthcare Act and the impact it has had on the state. “Obamacare should never have occurred. It’s a march into Socialism and completely false. In Pinal County we had an entire pull out of insurance providers until the government said they would provide a 51 percent subsidy to bring them back. We have one choice and are looking at a 50 to 70 percent increase. It’s a catastrophic failure,” he said. “The state should be taking care of healthcare, it can’t be nationalized. What’s needed is for more money for states to increase Medicaid and Medicare.
“We also need to dramatically reduce the VA (Veterans Affairs) health benefits to just providing acute care. Our veterans should be able to go to the doctors of their choice, and if they don’t like the one they have they get to choose another and we pay for it,” said Babeu.
Babeu is also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and is endorsed by the National Rifle Association. He believes that restrictions on firearms will not solve the problem of crime in communities. “It’s clearly a mental health and criminal issue. They are the only ones that benefit when there are gun regulations. Not one mass shooting would have been prevented with Obama’s regulations.
“In Arizona we pride ourselves in exercising the Second Amendment. In this state you can carry a weapon open or concealed. This is still America. As long as a law-abiding citizen has a firearm I feel safer. I’m not threatened by law abiding citizens who wear firearms,” stated Babeu.
Regarding illegal immigration, Babeu believes we must provide for those in our country legally before assisting others. “We have more homeless children and veterans, yet we just brought in 70,000 families from Central America as refugees. We are compassionate to others but what are we doing for ours? These refugees get more money than our elderly and our vets.”
In conclusion Babeu state, “I would be honored to represent the people of District 1 and always put Americans first.”
