Napolitano lays out the issues

JANET NAPOLITANO

"Political Voices" gives congressional and gubernatorial candidates the opportunity to express their views on issues affecting the Jewish community.

There are several issues in the governor's race that I believe are of particular interest to the Jewish community. I will address four of them here.

Hate crimes

Over the past 12 months, we have witnessed a disturbing and dramatic increase in anti-Semitic activity worldwide. The recent success of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the right-wing French bigot, and the wave of anti-Semitic violence that swept through Europe earlier this year are particularly alarming. According to the American Jewish Committee, nearly 200 anti-Semitic incidents occurred in July 2002 alone.

Arizona is not immune from this cancer. Just last year, Dennis Mahon, a leader of the White Aryan Resistance, announced that he was moving to Arizona from Oklahoma. The notion that Mahon viewed our community as potentially receptive to his vile message of hate is horrifying.

I want the Jewish community to know that if I am fortunate enough to become governor, I will continue my vigilant efforts to eliminate hatred and promote tolerance. I will renew my fight for meaningful hate crimes legislation and work with law enforcement to confront and subvert anti-Semitism.

My extensive record of combating hate crimes is unparalleled in this race. As attorney general, I created the first-ever toll-free civil rights hotline to facilitate the reporting of hate crimes, and I proposed legislation to strengthen our civil rights laws. During my tenure as United States Attorney for Arizona, I supervised the prosecution of over 6,000 criminals - more than any other federal prosecutor in Arizona history. Many of those crimes were motivated by hatred. In one, my office doggedly pursued three young white supremacist gang members who burned a cross in an African-American family's front yard. I am proud to report that these thugs - who had anti-Semitic messages tattooed all over their bodies - were convicted and sent to prison. In part because of my work on this case, I garnered a national reputation as a prosecutor with no tolerance for intolerance.

Separation of church and state

I am a firm proponent of the constitutional mandate to separate church and state and believe such separation strengthens our religious institutions. Indeed, I agree with James Madison, the father of the United States Constitution, that "the (religious) devotion of the people has been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state."

As a direct result of this First Amendment protection, Americans enjoy unparalleled religious freedom. Government has no business imposing religious beliefs upon anyone.

Trade with Israel

Israel is a powerful ally with a tremendous amount to offer Arizona. In the first quarter of 2002, Arizona exported $63 million worth of goods to Israel. That constitutes a 239 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2001. As governor, I would welcome and encourage further expansion of the trade relationship between Israel and Arizona.

Education

There is no more important issue than the education of our children. Well-educated children are less likely to become bigots and more likely to become social, political, economic or scientific leaders. For many years, Arizona has ranked near the bottom of nearly every educational benchmark, plagued by one of the highest dropout rates in the country and by dismal student-teacher ratios.

The details of my education plan are available at www.gojanet.org, but the core principles are simple: the education budget must be immune from further cuts; we must immediately reallocate existing spending to bring Arizona at least to the national average of 62 cents per education dollar going into our classrooms; we must redouble our focus on early childhood literacy; we must follow through with rigorous academic curriculum and meaningful testing; and we must have excellent universities and community colleges capable of generating our future leaders.

Napolitano is a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. For more information, visit her Web site www.gojanet.org.

Other gubernatorial candidates are Republican Matt Salmon, Libertarian Barry Hess and Independent Richard Mahoney.

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