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Freeman: I support Tipirneni for Congressional District 6

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Arizonans are already casting their ballots, and voters in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District have a special opportunity this election cycle to send a fresh voice — Hiral Tipirneni’s — to Washington. Hiral is a physician, not a career politician; a problem-solver, not an ideologue.

A good fit for our district, she’ll be a bipartisan legislator in the Arizona tradition of Mo Udall and John McCain: patriots that transcended party when the national interest demanded it, doers who both left legacies of honor and achievement.

I’ve lived in the 6th Congressional District for 24 years. My wife is an Arizona native, and we’ve raised our daughter here. We’re tired of being represented by an unethical extremist. We’re embarrassed and appalled that our sitting Congressman, David Schweikert, has been cited by the House Ethics Committee for egregious ethics violations — 11 separate counts.

Among these, he used campaign funds for personal expenses, pressured Congressional staff to work on his campaign, and violated FEC reporting rules. He was unanimously reprimanded by the entire House of Representatives for his ethical lapses, and he was assessed a $50,000 fine!

The Ethics Committee found that he made vague and misleading statements so he could “evade the statute of limitations for the most egregious violations of campaign finance laws.” Oddly enough, delaying and obstructing has been his specialty in Congress. Schweikert broke the law and fled from responsibility, now placing the blame entirely on his staff.

David Schweikert, in the midst of this pandemic, has also supported lawsuits to overturn the Affordable Care Act. He voted against protecting folks with preexisting conditions. He voted to allow states to scale back the Medicaid program that provides care for the least fortunate of our fellow citizens. All the while, he accepted some $450,000 in campaign contributions from the health insurance industry.

Schweikert’s Congressional health care plan will be protected if the ACA is overturned, but 363,000 Arizonans aren’t so lucky. Beholden to special interests, David Schweikert’s ethics violations and his votes prove that he only cares about himself.

We want and deserve someone better than this as our representative, as our advocate in Washington. Dr. Hiral Tipirneni is that person. Her years of service to the district — first as an emergency room physician and then as a cancer research advocate — constitute evidence aplenty that she will bring honesty, integrity, and a can-do work ethic to her representation of AZ-06. She will work to preserve our environment, fight climate change and protect our public lands from rapacious exploitation.

She’ll bring her experience in the health care sector to the U.S. Capitol, strengthening the Affordable Care Act and protecting the millions of Americans who depend upon it for health care.

Dr. Tipirneni will work with Democrats and Republicans alike to heal the divisions in our country and move forward in meeting the tremendous challenges we face. She has my vote and the support of my entire family.

Please join us in supporting her candidacy and moving our district, state, and country forward.

Joe Freeman is a resident of Paradise Valley.

Tipirneni, CD6