Welcome to your vote 2022 I'm Liliana Soto.

Early ballots went out this week so voting is underway in Arizona This week.

We are focusing on the race in Congressional District six.

Before we get to the candidates, let's take a look at the district.

This is a new district drawn by the independent redistricting commission.

It includes parts of Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Graham and Greenlee counties.

In Cochise County, it doesn't include Bisbee and Douglas, but it does include Sierra Vista.

This week, we'll meet the candidates in the new congressional district six.

They are Republican Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel.

Mr. Ciscomani is with Christopher Conover Thanks, Lily.

So let's start at that 10,000 foot question.

You were a staffer for Governor Ducey for many years.

You worked for the Arizona-Mexico Commission.

Why run for office?

That's a great question.

I gained a lot of experience working for the state of Arizona and for Governor Ducey specifically around the area of the Arizona-Mexico Commission, as you mentioned.

I got to see a lot of things that the state can do well.

And I also noticed a lot of problems that should be solved at the federal level.

So we decided to jump in on this race on the federal side of government, because I don't like the direction that the country is going, especially in areas and ways where the federal government has a responsibility, specifically around the area of inflation and the economy.

Also, our border, not only on the security side, which is very important and top priority, but on trade and commerce and on immigration as well.

I think all of these are important issues.

And I got to tell you, I feel like I'm living the American dream Actually, I know I am.

And I'm earning it every day.

My family came from Mexico, where I emigrated from.

And I'm grateful to this country.

And I and I'm finding a good way to continue to give back and serve.

Let's stay up a little bit higher before we drill into some of those issues you just mentioned.

If you are elected, what's the first bill?

What's the top priority?

Well, we have to tackle this economy right now.

The cost of living is extremely high.

The federal government is spending money in a very reckless way.

We have to fix that immediately.

Cut the overspending from the federal government.

We have to get back to our roots, especially on finding energy sources here domestically.

The supply chain has been interrupted.

Gas prices are going up.

These are all things that the federal government has a responsibility and also duty to control.

So that would be definitely that one of the first issues that we're going to tackle.

Also keeping our security and our safety.

The border is in a crisis.

And I know the border, as I mentioned, I immigrated here from Mexico.

So I know the process well.

Trade and commerce is what I've done in my career.

And security is where we live here.

And the border has always been an asset for people living in this county and in southern Arizona.

But it's become somewhat of a liability in some area, especially around the area of fentanyl, the human trafficking.

These are all issues that need to be tackled immediately There is no border security right now.

There is a border crisis and this administration is paying no attention to it.

So let's talk about the border.

Obviously, a big issue for southern Arizona Border Patrol.

Everybody knows the numbers of apprehensions are up this year.

What can a congressman do or Congress as a whole do to deal with the border?

Well, a couple of things.

First of all, the money bills, the funding bills start in the House.

And this is one area that we need to invest in, in border security.

So we have to have more boots on the ground.

We have to hire more Border Patrol agents instead of hiring more IRS agents to go after our own citizens.

We have to hire more Border Patrol agents and has the technology on the border as well.

These are all three elements that are very important, along with the right policies.

That makes sense.

For this border region.

The other area where Congress has has a duty is to hold the administration accountable oversight over these agencies that are responsible for this.

Hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable for the failed leadership in this area.

So these are all things where Congress can definitely put some pressure and cause some pretty immediate change.

Let's talk about Border Patrol agent.

You said more boots on the ground.

I've been here long enough.

I've heard multiple presidents, starting with President George W Bush, come to the southern border in Arizona and say we need more Border Patrol officers.

Yeah.

We haven't seen it happen.

Looking at the numbers about 19,000 for the last six or seven years is the average number of Border Patrol officers.

How do we get more officers?

Well, we have to understand that part of the challenge here is the training that these officers go through from the hiring point of saying you're in and then you go to the academy and you get the training.

It can be up to about 23 months.

An average of an officer going from you're hired to here's your badge and your your on the ground.

So it does take a while so we can make some changes in this process.

To be able to speed it up in a safe way to put it through maybe having military experience count towards this.

Credit for for these hirings.

That's part of it.

However, one thing that we can also do, which is why it's not one issue alone, it's not just boots on the ground, but it's boots on the ground with the enhanced technology as well.

These are all things that can complement each other.

And when you have more technology on the on the border with sensors that can differentiate between the movement of an animal and a human and all these things that we have the infrastructure to do that, that it was just halted by this administration as soon as they came in.

These are all things that can partner per se with our border agents to not necessarily have to fill it all with agents.

We'll never going to have enough agents, I'll tell you that.

But we can enhance it with technology.

You brought up energy a few minutes ago.

We've seen gas prices go up.

We've seen them come down.

They're maybe going back up again.

It's hard to tell as you're driving to work every day.

On your website, you talk about US energy independence.

How does that get accomplished?

Well, let me tell you, the prices on gas are definitely going up.

I'm tracking that in spite of us driving a minivan.

We can we can still and I'm acknowledging that in TV here, we drive a minivan, that the prices are going up and families like mine that are young families that are growing up.

I have six kids, as you know, three boys, three girls, oldest is 13, youngest is three.

We're in the nick of going to a football practice or, you know, ballet and all the different activities and school and driving is not driving is not an option in our region, obviously.

So that's we're feeling the pinch.

And then you've got families that are on fixed incomes that are past the raising kids, of course, but now they're on fixed income.

So all these families are feeling the rising cost in not only gas, but in groceries and energy bills, utilities all these things continue to be on the rise for us.

So as I was mentioning, one of the things we need to do is when this administration came in place, they halted the the Keystone pipeline.

They have pretty much halted all permitting.

And the leasing has gone way down, making it very difficult.

And the bureaucracy continues to increase.

These are all things that we need to re-energize and our domestic supply of energy.

We have to have reliable, affordable and clean energy.

And that's what we can find here domestically.

Arizona's never been an oil state.

There's always been a little of it, but but not enough to to call us an oil state by any means.

Do you want to see more renewables?

Because we certainly have a lot of sun.

300 plus days a year, though.

We get odd rain in October this year.

Yeah.

Is renewable something for Arizona to help contribute to that?

Well, we need all of the above.

We need all all sorts of energy sources in order to be able to meet our demands.

And we have them all.

Not every region of the country has them all.

But within our country we do and that's what we need to prioritize, not instead of going out to other countries looking to be supplied by oil or other energy sources as well.

We have them here and we need to prioritize our American energy.

Let's talk about water.

We're in the midst of a huge drought, historic drought.

We're now taking cuts along the Colorado River more are expected.

What's the role of the federal government in this?

Obviously, you can't legislate more water.

Well, that's absolutely true.

The water issue will always be an issue here in this state.

I was meeting with some farmers and ranchers yesterday with the Farm Bureau.

This is a number one issue when we meet with developers.

That's the number one issue.

Our district now also includes Graham and Greenlee counties.

So mining industry there is very important as well.

You meet with the tribes, whoever you're meeting with, water is a number one issue that our state has and an issue that is not always brought up in campaigns, which I'm glad you brought it up because this is the lifeline of our state.

And I'm also very impressed and happy of the way that Arizona has managed water throughout the years.

This has been an issue that I think both sides have put party partisan aside and actually focused on real solutions.

How else could you build the fifth largest city in the country in the middle of the desert and Phenix and Maricopa County growing the way it is and also in Pima County?

So so these are all ways that we know that we've done it well.

Our farmers and our ranchers have done a really good job of being responsible as well.

Now we're losing using less water now than we use.

Back in the 1950s with 19 times the size of the economy, five times the size of the population.

These are all good signs that I have confidence that we're going to be able to manage our water.

One of the risks regarding water is California's misuse of water and of course them then being the last one to take a cut.

At any point, we're going to need a fighter in there in Congress that will fight to make sure that we don't take the cuts that California is causing on us as one of the lower basin states that we are here.

One of the big issues that's talked about, it seems like all over the TV every time I turn it on.

Campaign's talking about abortion.

The Dobbs decision came down a little more than 100 days ago.

Democrat want to codify Roe v Wade.

Republicans less so it seems.

Where do you stand on that?

Well, first, let me tell you that I will never do anything to jeopardize a woman's health.

That, for me is one of the core principles of how I approach this issue.

I have three daughters.

I am pro-life, and that's on my website as you've looked at my website.

And and that's what I believe.

Now, when I have when you have three daughters, you think of this issue in a very unique way also for them and for all the women out there, that we want them to have the right choices.

So my position is pro-life, with exceptions, common sense exceptions, where the majority of the country is.

This is how I approach the issue the difference is my opponent, she has a position that has no exceptions and supports abortion all the way up to birth with on demand.

That's that I have a problem with.

So my position is that I will never do anything to jeopardize a woman's health.

All right.

Well, thanks for spending some time with us.

Absolutely.

Thank you for the invitation.

For more than a decade, the district, which is now the Sixth Congressional District, has been one of the most competitive in the nation due to its voter registration The most recent voter registration numbers from the Arizona secretary of state's office show that once again, the 500,000 voters are nearly evenly split between Republicans, Democrats and voters with no party affiliation.

Republicans do have a slight lead in registration, but the successful candidate must win over those no party voters.

The secretary of state will release final voter registration numbers the week before the election.

Earlier in the program, we met Republican candidate Juan Ciscomani Now, Christopher Conover is joined by Democratic candidate Kristin Engle Chris.

Thanks, Lili.

I think the best place to start with this is kind of the 10,000 foot level.

You were in the legislature for a long time.

Why run for Congress?

Well, Chris, first of all, thank you so much for happening, for having me.

You know, I'm a mom, I'm a teacher, a teacher here at the University of Arizona.

I'm also a water and environmental attorney.

And as you mentioned, I'm a former state senator and I love Arizona.

And I often say that when my husband and I got jobs here in Arizona when our daughter was was just an infant.

She's now a high school student here in Tucson.

That we had, you know, hit a home run out of the park.

But, you know, that's not true for so many in Arizona.

You know, they don't feel like they're being heard.

They feel like they're struggling.

Their rights are being taken away and they're worried about their future.

You know, quite literally looking at, you know, whether they have a future here in Arizona.

So I want to work for the people of Arizona.

You know, be their voice in Washington and protect their rights.

This is really a key issue right now, protecting women's reproductive health care rights.

And also, you know, roll up my sleeve and use my experience, you know, as a mom, as a teacher, as somebody who knows something about water law and has been in state government to work on Arizona's challenges, you know, whether that's education, health care, the economy, There's there's a lot that's at stake.

And what I'm finding is that, you know, the Republicans are running for office, including my own opponent, are are just too extreme.

They're out of the mainstream.

They're bringing us backwards.

I want to bring us forwards.

I want to renew the American dream.

And I'm ready to work for the people in this district.

You said your opponent and many of the Republicans are too extreme.

They're running ads that say the exact same thing about you, that you're too extreme for Arizona.

You mentioned in broader terms some of the bipartisan things you did So what are some specifics on bipartisan things you did that could counter the you're just a rubber stamp for Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi?

Education funding is absolutely critical in this state and especially in areas where there's a lot of agreement, where districts have really had trouble making ends meet, such as special education.

So I would go back to that.

You know, I introduced a bill that was passed through committee in the Senate, and later that funding was included in the budget for increasing special education, working on issues of water money for water conservation.

I worked on including money for water conservation in that drought contingency plan.

Issues of water and the environment I think so many of us, you know, really value that here in Arizona.

We know how critical it is to our future here.

You know, we live in a desert state and that this is something where, you know, we need to protect our environment.

It's critical to our economy and to our future.

And also, many, many of the things that we were able to do to help make housing more affordable, put money into low income tax credits to encourage more affordable housing supply here in the state and helping small business.

You know, I encourage, you know, that investment and and help for small businesses, small business loans, micro-loans.

I think there's a lot of these were all bipartisan bills about a hundred days ago, a little more than a hundred days ago, the US Supreme Court issued the Dobbs ruling, which struck down Roe versus Wade.

You've alluded to this a little bit in our discussion.

It's also been part of your campaign ads, the abortion issue.

What does the federal government need to do in your opinion, about this issue?

Well, Chris, this is a really a top issue.

It's a top issue in the minds of voters.

It's a top issue in the minds of women.

It's a top issue in this election because the differences between myself and my opponent could not be more clear on this issue.

This is very personal to me as a woman, as a mother of a teenage daughter.

You know, I am really outraged and frustrated that she is now looking at growing up and living in a world in which she has fewer rights than I did.

Fewer rights than her grandmother did.

You know, the issue about whether or not to to go forward with a risky or an unwanted pregnancy is a is an intensely personal issue.

You know, these are health care issues.

They're personal issues.

And I respect the right of women to make that decision themselves, make it themselves with their doctor, their family, you know, with their minister, their rabbi, their their their faith adviser.

This is not an issue for politicians to grandstand on and take that those these this fundamental decision of health care away from women.

And my opponent is extreme on this.

You know, once this company cheered the repeal of Roe versus Wade, he cheered lifting that floodgate, the protection that we had against these draconian state laws that take away these health care decisions.

And we know here in Arizona, you know, what could possibly come into effect?

It has been in fact, it's now in the courts again is a pre statehood law.

You know, times of, you know, it was developed at a time of horse and buggy before women even had the right to vote.

That bans abortion with no exception for rape or incest.

And, you know, that is what my opponent cheered.

And that is what I am totally against.

We have to leave these decisions with the women themselves to make with their doctors.

And in Congress, as you've asked and as you have asked.

You know, I will be a proponent of that.

I feel that we should codify Roe versus Wade and the case law that came after that to protect this fundamental freedom of women to to determine their own future.

Let's switch topics to one that, of course, is very close to Arizona, the border.

As we sit here in Tucson, depending on where you are in town, 60 miles or closer to the border, apprehension numbers, according to the Border Patrol way up this year.

As long as I've been here, I've heard three presidents say we need more Border Patrol agents on the ground.

What can Congress do to make a change at the border?

Well, this is an issue where I have to say, you know, Washington has failed.

Arizona and it doesn't matter if it's been a Republican administration or a Democratic administration.

I don't think that Washington has listened to Arizona sufficiently.

You know, we do need to secure our border.

We have drug smuggling mostly through our ports of entry.

And we have human trafficking and that criminal that criminal activity we have got to get on top of.

And that is going to require more manpower, better use of the manpower that we have, more technology so that we are not we do not only rely on more border patrol agents.

But, you know, as I've always said, we we also have a humanitarian crisis.

You know, thousands of people that are coming to our border you know, seeking refuge here from violence, from, you know, horrible situations back home.

We need to have an orderly asylum process And I find it outrageous that, you know, it takes a long time to file that claim and a long time for it to be adjudicated.

So we need to have a more orderly process.

And finally, you know, we need comprehensive immigration reform in Congress.

Congress has to stop kicking the can down the road and and work on its immigration.

Let's switch gears to water.

As you mentioned, you're a water attorney, among other things.

What can the federal government do to help, especially right now, our farmers who are taking the big cuts?

But if cuts continue, eventually it's going to be municipalities.

I'm on record being disappointed in the Biden administration, which told the states that are the Colorado River Basin states that we had to come up with a plan for reducing our reliance on the Colorado River by two to 4 million acre feet a year.

And Arizona put in some plans.

We are subject to the drought contingency plan right now, mandatory cuts.

But the states did not come up with a plan and yet the Biden administration did not actually follow through on making a plan for the state.

So we need to have that federal pressure We also need federal investment.

So our agricultural sector is the source of a lot of use of our water but there's a lot of things that we could be doing in terms of helping conserve water, make it use more efficiently on our farms.

Gravid drip irrigation that we could invest on our farms, creating markets for less water intensive crops here in the southwest storing our water.

You know, we have these fabulous monsoons, but a lot of that water is running off and we could store that water for use during the dry periods and, you know, making sure that, you know, we are cleaning up our water contamination.

I know that you've done some reporting on our PFOS and PFAS contamination prob So we have to make sure that we're not losing our future water sources to contamination so a lot of this will require federal investment and help and expertise technology that the federal government can be very, very vital in terms of helping us with.

It sounds like when it comes to the drought contingency plan, maybe you want the federal government to be a little bit more of a parent and say this is the cut because the states couldn't come up with that.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Yes, we need the federal government is you know, at the end of the day, the federal government is the sort of special master on the Colorado River.

It is a interstate water body it's not just Arizona, California and California.

California, frankly, is a big user of Colorado River water.

So one of the things that the federal government can do is put that pressure on a state like California, whereas we in Arizona just can't do that.

So we do need the federal government's help here to make sure that every state is doing its part in terms of reducing their water use so that we all have a future here in the West All right.

Well, thanks for spending some time with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks to Congressional District six candidates Kirsten Engle and Juan Cisco money for coming in to talk with us.

For more information on all of the candidates, be sure to visit the election section of our website as part of our your vote.

2022 coverage AZPM is doing fact checks when the candidates for Arizona superintendent of public instruction met for a debate.

They both level attacks against their opponents former superintendent and challenger Tom Horne pointed to a standardized test scores, while current superintendent Kathy Hoffman mentioned a link between her opponent and a disgraced former member of the state legislature.

So how true are those accusations?

Here's Steve Jess, host of AZPM's Fact Check Arizona podcast.

When I completed eight years, the first time I was superintendent, Arizona proficiency rates were over 60% for meth and over 70% for reading under Kathy Huffman even before COVID.

Those rates were 42% and 42% a grade drop.

While Horn's representation of test scores is accurate.

He did not mention a major change that occurred between the end of his two terms in 2011 and the start of Hoffman's in 2019 Under Horne, students took the Arizona instrument to measure standards or AIMS test.

The state made the switch to the current AzMERIT test in 2015 scores dropped by about half when that switch happened in 2014.

Ames test results showed 63% of students were proficient in math and 78% in reading in 2015 A-Z merit results showed 34% in math proficiency and 35% reading.

Multiple media outlets reported that drop was based on AC merits ties to new higher standards known as the Arizona College and career ready standards.

In response, Hoffman leveled an accusation of her own.

What I think is more deeply concerning to Arizonans is that Mr. Horne has been soliciting work from David Stringer on his campaign And and we know from David Stringer's record that he made publicly made racist comments about Arizona children, along with his history of being accused for having sex with for paying minors for sex.

It's deeply disturbing for Arizona.

David Stringer represented the Prescott area in the Arizona legislature He resigned in 2019 while facing two ethics complaints, one related to racist comments he made at a public event on the Arizona State University campus.

The second related to court records that showed Stringer had criminal charges related to sexual conduct with minors expunged from his record in 1983 Hoffman alleged that Stringer worked on Horn's campaign, but campaign finance records show that the extent of his connection to the campaign was an in-kind donation.

Horn told ACP PM that Stringer paid someone to put up campaign signs and that he refunded the contribution.

Stringer was never paid by Horn's campaign but state law says that an act such as Stringer is not a contribution unless the donor coordinates with the campaign to do it.

You can hear more of this fact check and other looks at candidates statements from the AZPM Fact Check podcast.

It is available on our website, iTunes, Spotify and where ever you get your podcast from.

New episodes are added every week.

Next week we will introduce you to the candidates in the Seventh Congressional District.

As always, visit our website for all the latest election news.

I'm Liliana Soto.

Thanks for joining us.