Trent Franks Must Be In Trouble

NickelBack · August 22nd, 2004, 10:24 PM

Trent Franks' foe hitting false notes

Trent Franks' first congressional term turned out more consequential than expected.

When Franks surprisingly won a badly splintered Republican primary in 2002, it was thought that he would be a noisemaker on social conservative issues, and a pretty run-of-the-mill conservative Republican otherwise.

But the political universe revolved around Franks for a few hours in his first term, when his switch of a vote saved President Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan from defeat.

Franks is the social conservative who most sets the teeth of social liberals on edge, for reasons that aren't entirely clear.

He is uncompromising on the social issues, and addresses them with bold rhetoric. On abortion, for example, he says that if abortion is the killing of a child, then we are "living in the midst of the greatest holocaust in the history of mankind."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...822robb22.html

WizardOfAz · August 28th, 2004, 05:19 PM

Newcomer Murphy knocks Franks' record

The upshot is that both Franks and Murphy are running on Franks' record. Franks said that record demonstrates his conservative values. Murphy said it shows a lack of commitment to issues vital to the district. Murphy argues that:

• Franks ignored rural areas until recently. The district encompasses most of the northwest Valley, Mohave County and, via a thin strip across northern Arizona, the Hopi Reservation. "We never saw much of Trent Franks," Murphy said.

• Franks went back on his word to oppose President Bush's Medicare prescription-drug bill when he became the proposal's eleventh-hour swing vote for passage. Franks said he did so to prevent a more costly, burdensome bill from emerging. Murphy called the legislation an expensive mistake that will hurt elderly voters.

• Federal funding to help build the Hoover Dam bypass in the wake of terrorist concerns has not been fully supported by Franks. Though Franks said he worked to include bypass funding in federal omnibus legislation, he concedes he eventually voted against the bill "because of all the pork in it." Though Franks said he knew the bill would pass, Murphy labels Franks a hypocrite.

• Franks violated his 2002 promise to voters not to accept political-action-committee money. As of mid-July, he had accepted $235,000 in PAC funds for the current campaign, some of it from defense contractors' PACs. Franks concedes the criticism is "a fair point." Murphy is not accepting PAC money.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...6murphy26.html

Trent Franks Must Be In Trouble

You might be right, I saw this in the paper today: