Thursday, April 29, 2010

Tom Horne lays out priorities as he seeks Attorney General’s office By Bill Hess



04/28/2010

SIERRA VISTA — At Tuesday’s lunch meeting of the Thunder Mountain Republican Women held at the Pueblo del Sol Club, the attendees heard from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who is campaigning to become the state’s Attorney General.


Saying he will bring his conservative values as the state’s top educator into Arizona’s highest law enforcement office if elected in November, Horne said he won an important education case for states’ rights in the U.S. Supreme Court concerning bilingual education.

Noting the Democratic leadership of the state — governor and attorney general — refused to take on the issue which he believed violated the U.S. Constitution in the arena of separation of powers when it came to teaching English to non-English learners in
a special and expensive way, Horne said the nation’s highest court ruled 5-4 in his favor, which meant he saved Arizona $300 million.


And, it was his attorney background which helped, he added.

As attorney general, he said one of the responsibilities of the office is “to do what you can do to save taxpayer dollars.”

Seeking the state’s top law enforcement office means he will have three priorities.

The first will be to strictly enforce the laws; second, to protect the border — he supports the recently signed immigration bill approved by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer; and third, to improve the legal environment to support business growth.

As for the tough immigration bill signed by the governor, Horne said as attorney general he would ensure people’s rights are protected but he would also use to law to go after sanctuary communities like Flagstaff.

He also would have supported the governor’s call to fight the federal health care law as being unconstitutional, something Democrat Terry Goddard — who is running for governor this year — refused to do, leading Brewer to seek outside legal support to join other states in fighting the law.

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