Governor Jan Brewer (Republician) and Gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Terry Goddard (Democrat) will debate for one hour tonight September 1st in Phoenix, which will be telecast on Horizon KAET Channel 8. Libertarian candidate Barry Hess (who has run for this seat before in 2002 and 2006), and Green Party candidate Larry Gist are expected to participate in the debate as well. Ted Simons, who moderated most of the Primary election debates for the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, will be moderating tonight.

And I just learned that KUAT Channel 6 in Tucson will be telecasting this debate also at 7 to 8 p.m.

The online video (for those who miss this telecast tonight), can be accessed within 72 hours at the Clean elections website (click here). The General Election will be on November 2nd.

UPDATE: This debate video is online now at www.azpbs.org/vote2010. The Governor joked that she was happy to be at the debate with “Larry, Barry, and Terry.” I guess it’s like saying this debate was “3 Men and a Lady.”

Governor Jan Brewer served on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, in the Arizona legislature (State House & Senate) and was elected Secretary of State in 2003. She was appointed to the Office of Governor in January, 2009 when then-Governor Janet Napolitano took the job as Head of Homeland Security. Brewer grew up in California and Nevada, and has a degree (certificate?) from Glendale Community College. Her website is: www.janbrewer.com

AG Terry Goddard is an Arizona native (born in Tucson), educated at Harvard College, with his law degree from ASU. He served as Mayor of Phoenix for 4 terms, and was elected Attorney General in 2003. He ran for Governor before in 1990 and 1994, and his father Samuel Goddard Jr. was Governor for 2 years (1965 to 1967). His website is: www.terrygoddard.com.

Larry Gist, Green Party candidate, is a local Arizonan from Yuma and a graduate of Arizona Western College and ASU. He has been in the mortgage banking business and his campaign info says he “worked for one session for state legislature”. His website is: www.gist4governor.com.

Libertarian Barry Hess, who grew up in Florida, Ohio and New Hampshire, and a graduate of Fordham University (New York), has been the Libertarian Party nominee for Arizona Governor (twice) and U.S. Senate before. He is an investor and his website is: www.hessforgovernor.com.

Governor Jan Brewer

Attorney General Terry Goddard

Larry Gist

Barry Hess

Last night at “The Great Debate A Governor’s Forum” at Sabino High School, a straw poll vote by the audience favored Tucsonan John Munger of the 4 Republican male candidates challenging Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Candidates at the debate were political newcomer Dr. Matt Jette, State Treasurer Dean Martin, millionaire businessman Owen Buz Mills, and Tucson attorney John Munger, J.D.

Results from the straw poll per Channing Bancroft, President of the Sabino Young Republican Club:
John Munger-140
Buz Mills- 99
Dean Martin- 78
Gov Jan Brewer- 5 (though not present)
Dr. Matt Jette-3

It seems that not everyone voted, as both the Star reporter and I estimated the crowd to be about 600, as the auditorium capacity was reported to be 1100.

Governor Brewer was invited but did not attend, though her name was on the program and on the straw poll ballot.

For my previous blog about the format, panelists and organizers of this event, click here.

Munger was passionate in stressing that Arizona needed new “leadership”, Mills said that his opponents were mostly “more of the same” and that new “thinking outside the box” was needed, while Jette thought that Arizona needed to “retool, rethink, relearn” to get itself out of its economic abyss. Of the four speakers, Martin has the most political experience having been a State Senator in Phoenix and now State Treasurer for a total of ten years. He said Arizona’s problems were neither Democratic nor Republican but “a math problem”, which he would be able to fix with his financial background.

Only Jette would consider a 3 year guest worker program for those seeking employment in America, while the other three candidates wanted to secure the border to Mexico likely with the National Guard. All three agreed on advancing nuclear power in Arizona, but Jette wanted to also look into solar and wind power as alternatives.

When asked about photo radar enforcement, none seemed to favor it except for Jette who said that drivers “just need to slow down”.

When asked if they lost the Republican primary, would they support the one who did win– Martin, Mills, Munger all said “yes”, but Jette said “it depends”– which drew groans from the audience. At one point one of his opponents called him a “Democrat Lite”, but he countered by saying that the Republican Party included all types of members from Far Right Conservatives, to Moderates and Independent thinkers.

Overall, each of these candidates offers a different perspective, but is that enough to overcome Governor’s Jan Brewer’s incumbency (and long political career), and name recognition? GOP voters will decide this on August 24 in the primary.

Last night Tucsonans in Pima County indicated that they liked their own local candidate and his ideas for change. (See www.johnmunger.com.) Munger emphasized that he is a “pro gun, pro life, fiscal conservative”.

Note: If you want to learn more about political newcomer/businessman candidate Buz Mills (who received the second most votes), click here (http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2010/4/23/kuat-buz-mills/) for his recent April 23 interview on the Channel 6 KUAT AZ Illustrated Roundtable.