Arizona State Senator Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix), who is running for re-election in the 4th Legislative District, unveiled on Tuesday her new “Drain the Marsh” campaign against her opponent, State Senator Christine Marsh (D-Phoenix).
“Whenever we’ve tried to solve an important problem, Christine Marsh is there to block it with progressive ideology,” Barto said in a press release. “We’re facing rising crime, but Christine Marsh voted against giving our police effective tools to crack down on drug dealers.”
The Drain the Marsh website outlines Marsh’s past Senate voting record, statements, and endorsements, which paint the picture of someone Barto called “too progressive for LD4.”
🚨NEW #LD4 SITE ALERT🚨 Christine Marsh isn’t who she pretends to be. She’s a progressive activist and too extreme for LD4.
It’s time to expose her extreme record for LD4 residents to see.#DraintheMarsh
Check out https://t.co/5BPSJOFKr8👇
— Nancy Barto (@NancyBarto) September 20, 2022
Anti-Parent and School Transparency
One of the significant issues Barto outlined on the website was Marsh’s multiple attempts to oppose curriculum transparency and parents’ access to the curriculum being used to teach their children. Marsh voted against Senate Bill (SB) 1211, sponsored by Barto, which would require district and charter schools to publish a listing of learning and teacher training materials for parents to view on its website. Another bill Marsh voted against was House Bill (HB) 2495, sponsored by State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Maricopa), which would bar public schools from referring students to or using sexually explicit material in any manner unless the material is educationally valuable or a parent signs a permission slip.
During the bill’s third reading, Marsh argued that everyone understands exposing children to pornography is bad, but HB 2495 would burden teachers and is a local-level issue, not the job of legislators to handle.
“Parents want to be engaged in their children’s education. But Christine Marsh has a track record of being an obstacle to parents at every step, even trying to stop them from accessing their child’s school medical records,” Barto said.
Marsh also voted against HB 2853, sponsored by State Representative Ben Toma (R-Maricopa), which was recently signed into law and allowed anyone in Arizona with a school-aged child to access an Empowerment Scholarship Fund (ESA).
Anti-Law Enforcement
Marsh has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, an organization that requires all endorsement recipients to reject any funding from law enforcement.
Furthermore, Marsh voted against HB 2253, sponsored by State Representative Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert), which would establish a statutory drug threshold amount of nine grams for fentanyl which could help law enforcement prosecute fentanyl peddlers.
In a statement made in 2020, Marsh said she would work to stop “state-sanctioned violence” by ending the collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE.
Pro-Abortion
Marsh voted against Barto’s SB 1164, which banned abortions after a preborn baby reached 15 weeks, except to save the mother’s life.
She also voted against SB 1457, sponsored by Barto, which would prevent a physician from performing an abortion knowing it is sought based on sex, race, or genetic abnormality.
“We have big problems facing the people of LD4. Christine Marsh continues to make herself part of the problem and hurt the very people we should all be fighting to protect. She was an activist long before she ran for office and her voting record is just an extension of that activism,” said Joanna De La Cruz, Barto’s campaign spokeswoman.
For Barto’s complete list of accusations against Marsh, visit the campaign site here.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Nancy Barto” by Sen. Nancy Barto. Photo “Christine Marsh” by Arizona State Legislature. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
