Opinion: Kevin de León’s defenders emerge, but they’re still a minority
Kevin de León, the president of the Arizona House of Representatives, has a different theory about the state’s economic and employment woes than the other candidates running for next month’s state Senate election in Maricopa County.
In a speech yesterday, De León said he wants voters to choose him because of his business background and because he knows how business works.
De León said he is focused on bringing a return to economic prosperity in the United States, and that he will work on the legislative agenda of his administration.
But voters aren’t quite as excited.
When asked if he believes Arizona has turned a corner, De León said he doesn’t see a bright spot yet, and that there is more he can do on the state level before things are improving.
De León is competing against two challengers in the March 26 elections — Republican Randy Pulliam and Maricopa County Supervisor of Elections Debbie Lesko.
The three most recent polls show De León leading in Maricopa County by three percentage points, but Pulliam is ahead in the most recent poll by double digits.
While De León is appealing to a different voter group than Pulliam and Lesko — Democrats, he is still the underdog, and that means he has limited resources.
According to the most recent polls, De León outpolls Lesko in the primary of Maricopa County in 2010, which had not been very competitive. In the 2008 primary between De León and his father, former President of the Arizona Senate Gordon De León, De León gained more support than the father of the current president of the Arizona House of Representatives.
The new governor of California, Jerry Brown, has not ruled out running for his old job, but there is a very good chance he will leave the presidential race to run against Democratic Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his lieutenant governor.
Brown, who currently sits on the U.S. Supreme Court, said he hasn’t decided whom to run for.
“I thought about it for a day, [but
