'Who's the real Democrat?' key issue in District 4 primary race

LOU HIRSH
Managing Editor

Just who is the real Democrat?

That seems to be the central bone of contention in the party primary in Congressional District 4, in which voters will decide who gets to take on incumbent Republican Rep. John Shadegg in November.

Competing on the Sept. 8 ballot are Eric Ehst, an aerospace engineer running on the idea that "maybe it does take a rocket scientist" to work effectively in Congress; and Maria Elena Milton, a financial analyst and community activist who is also an unabashed follower of perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

Both candidates say Shadegg needs to be replaced with someone more in tune with the concerns of the average district voter, but the agreement ends there.

In a recent interview with Jewish News, Ehst said he is the only true Democrat in the race, the candidate who stands by the core Democratic platform on issues such as providing affordable health care and increasing educational and employment opportunities.

Democratic Party leaders have left no doubt about where they stand on this primary race. In 1996, the year Milton ran unsuccessfully against Shadegg in the general election, the Democratic National Committee ruled that she was not a legitimate Democratic candidate. And this year, Arizona Democratic leaders gave her the same vote of disapproval, initiating an emergency appeal to raise money for Ehst's campaign to counter Milton's financial support from out-of-state LaRouche followers.

"I represent the Democratic party," Ehst told Jewish News. "My opponent is a one-note candidate. She is completely focused on LaRouche's solutions to everything."

Despite this opposition from party leaders, Milton says her community activism puts her in touch with average Democrats in her district.

"I speak their language," she said, adding that she wants to get the Democratic Party away from the strategies devised by Bill Clinton and his advisers, designed to win votes in Congress, and back to its activist roots.

"I want to get the Democratic Party back to the record of FDR and JFK. This is what they (critics) don't like. Too bad."

But Milton acknowledged to Jewish News that her central campaign platform is tied to the economic theories espoused by LaRouche - principally, the need to head off a looming global economic crisis by changing international monetary policies. The LaRouche ideology includes moving to restore stable relations among currencies, cutting down on financial speculation and directing capital investment back to industrial, agricultural and infrastructure projects.

Milton said she is so supportive of LaRouche's economic theories that she is not concerned about the LaRouche organization's past association with anti-Semitic groups, nor by the 1988 conviction of LaRouche and some aides on mail fraud and conspiracy charges. (Milton claims the anti-Semitism charges against LaRouche, as well as the convictions, are products of a conservative right-wing conspiracy, orchestrated by some of the same people who set out to discredit Bill Clinton as soon as he took office.)

And she is standing by her controversial statement from the 1996 congressional race, in which she equated proposed Republican cuts in Medicare with throwing the sick and elderly into "the gas ovens of managed care."

Milton, who told Jewish News her father's mother was a Sephardic Jew, said she intentionally used the Holocaust metaphor to convey horrors that would arise from the Republicans' "Contract with America," authored by House Speaker Newt Gingrich and fellow conservatives after the GOP took control of Congress in 1994.

"The position of the conservative revolution is to destroy the livelihood of people. It will never work," said Milton. "We said 'never again' (with the Holocaust). This needs to be true for all people."

Ehst, who previously ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature, said the way to get average citizens more of a say in the process, and foster grass-roots change, is through campaign reform. He said he supports a "clean elections" proposal slated for the November ballot, which he said is needed to "level the playing field." He favors banning "soft" money in campaigns, restricting the amount of money flowing into the campaign system, and coming up with more public sources of campaign funding.

In addition to their status as true Democrats, the two hopefuls also differ on how to address the current impasse in Middle East peace negotiations.

Ehst said the United States may need to take more initiative in getting the process moving, including possibly sponsoring another set of talks in Washington.

"It's sad what's happened in the last couple of years," said Ehst. "Anything we can do to get the sides talking is not only in the best interests of the countries in the Middle East, but also best for the world."

Milton said the solution to the logjam is not action by the U.S., but a change of political leadership in Israel. Her choice to lead the Jewish state is the widow of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"I would like the Israeli people to vote for Leah Rabin as president and get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu," Milton said. She added she supports upholding the Oslo accords but agrees with Israel's opposition Labor Party leaders that Netanyahu's actions stand in the way of progress.

Regarding recent U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan, following the bombings of American embassies in Africa, Milton said she does not support the action against the site in Sudan, where reputed chemical weapons facilities were destroyed. She said the U.S. instead should investigate the role played by nations that have harbored or protected Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire whom the U.S. says was involved in planning the embassy bombings.

Ehst said he supports both U.S. actions. "I would hate to be attacking facilities in sovereign countries, but I would not hesitate to do that if it was warranted under the circumstances," he said.

Congressional District 4 encompasses north Phoenix, Paradise Valley and portions of Scottsdale and Glendale.

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'Who's the real Democrat?' key issue in District 4 primary race

LOU HIRSH Managing Editor

LOU HIRSH
Managing Editor