Arizona candidate gives GOP’s weekly radio address

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona congressional candidate Andy Tobin said Saturday that rural Arizona and parts of the country have been forgotten by Washington.

Tobin made the remarks while delivering the Republican national radio address from Picacho Peak, a prominent landmark in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.

The current Arizona House speaker said the state was essentially “under attack” from all the regulations enforced by the federal government. He cited the overregulation of energy and the “perpetrating a war on coal” as an example.

“Here in rural Arizona, the EPA’s mandates threaten to shut down the Navajo Generating Station, a coal-powered plant that is vital to our state’s economy,” Tobin said. “These mandates will mean higher water and electricity prices for Arizona residents.”

He also went on to call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the country’s need to get out of debt. Tobin then cited his own experience helping to balance Arizona’s budget by passing large tax cuts.

Tobin is the first U.S. House challenger to deliver the GOP’s address this year. He defeated two other Republicans in the Aug. 26 primary election to win their party’s nomination and faces Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in the November election.

Kirkpatrick campaign spokesman D.B. Mitchell on Thursday mocked the selection of Tobin for the GOP address.

“From his ties to the Fiesta Bowl scandal to his protection of the gift culture at the Legislature, Tobin is a candidate who will be right at home on center stage, pushing the out-of-touch agenda of his Washington bosses instead of fighting for Arizona’s working families,” Mitchell said in a statement.

Choosing local candidates for the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s weekly address is a time-worn way to give national prominence to candidates or state elected officials and help their campaigns. The Republican address usually alternates between members of the U.S. House and Senate. But as the election nears, the GOP will tap local candidates to give them exposure.

In his radio and Internet address this week, President Barack Obama distinguished the military campaign against Islamic State militants from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The president said more nations are joining a coalition against the extremists.

“This can’t be America’s fight alone,” Obama said.

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Online:

Obama’s address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: https://www.youtube.com/user/gopweeklyaddress

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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