- I am sitting here with Pamela Powers Hannley,
the representative for District 9 here in Arizona.
Thank you for sitting with us today.
- Well thanks for inviting me.
- What do you have to say to young people
who feel totally frustrated and disenfranchised
with the partisan divide in politics?
- I think that they need to look at the issues.
A lot of candidates who are realizing that they have to
be out there on the issues,
they have to say this is what I stand for
and seek out candidates who are open
and forthright about where they stand on immigration,
or where they stand on women's rights,
or where they stand on poverty.
But there's too much money in politics,
especially too much money that can't be traced.
As a member of the House of Representatives,
we are elected across the state obviously,
we don't have gerrymandering and so I'm here down in Tucson,
and for four to five months of the year I'm up in Phoenix.
We hear different bills that are proposed by other members.
We debate them, we hear 'em in committee,
we debate 'em on the floor, we vote on them
and hopefully make good decisions for the people of Arizona.
- What are the most pressing issues you have
found for the constituents of District 9?
- Biggest challenge for our district is to tackle poverty.
I'm a Progressive Democrat and so I'm also a ranking member
on the Health Committee,
and I'm on the Banking and Insurance Committee.
There are a lot of public health issues
that go through the Health Committee
and so my plan is to fight for the people.
- Can you tell us a bit about what got you into politics?
- I grew up in a Union household up in Northern Ohio,
my dad was in the United Steelworkers,
and I see the benefits that our family had
that the workers of Arizona don't have today.
I wanted to go and to fight for workers,
and say you know we need better wages in this state,
we need equality, we need to ratify
the Equal Rights Amendment.
The other part is I have a background in public health,
I have a master's in public health from the U of A.
I see the legislature far too often making decisions
that give them a short-term economic gain.
It saves them money in the short term
but it costs money and lives in the long term, often.
I have a background in journalism.
I have a degree from Ohio State in journalism,
and so I'm a very skeptical and questioning person.
I was a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control.
I traveled around the country doing speaking engagements,
and so the questioning,
the ability to explain things to people.
We have so many different bills that are going on,
and they're often not well explained in the newspapers.
I started doing these one-minute updates from my desk
in the legislature on video
and I thought well maybe people would be annoyed
by all this video, no, they loved it.
- How do you work to represent the diverse interest
of your constituents?
- I believe that my policies cross party lines
and cross demographic lines.
I talk about funding the people's to-do list, right?
So that's public education, it's healthcare,
roads, and safety and security,
and those are the things that I try to focus on
and those things help the general public.
I have proposed bills to add funding back
to Pima Community College.
I have proposed getting rid of some of the tax giveaways
in order to fully fund the university system again
and fully fund public education.
We have had victories, way more than we thought.
- Could you talk a bit about healthcare?
- A year ago I held a healthcare forum down here in Tucson.
I'm up in the legislature,
I hear what the lobbyists want me to hear.
We had 75 people come to the microphone
or fill out surveys, or write their stories out,
and what we heard one after another was that healthcare
was too expensive, the health insurance was too expensive,
the drugs were too expensive,
and it was too hard to access these things.
The Opioid Epidemic Act was one really good example
of how Republicans and Democrats could work together.
The other thing that we passed at which a very
good access to care bill which was bipartisan in 2018,
was the expansion of dentistry to include dental therapy.
We've made strides on health in the state of Arizona.
The majority party tells us that we don't have any money,
that we have to live under austerity
and what I was saying was that we had the money,
we were giving it away.
When the first tax giveaway went down, I was shocked.
I mean I thought I was going to be the lone person
in the wilderness saying end corporate welfare,
and we took that bill down and then I realized
that there were people on both sides
of the aisle who don't like giving the taxes away.
What started out as an outlier suggestion,
then became sort of the the mainstream,
and with the Red for Ed movement, they put that
in their demands, they said give no more tax giveaways
until the schools are funded.
Arizona had 40% women, which is the highest percentage
in the country and they tried to shut us up
and it didn't work.
We used our voices to speak for the people
and to debate and we killed some things,
which was a really good idea.
Progressive Democrats of America has been very active
in the Tucson area and all over Arizona since 2011.
PDA Tucson had the highest per capita membership
of any PDA chapter in the whole country
next to New York City.
- Could you give us an example of a bill
that you have written, sponsored or co-sponsored
that you feel the most proud of?
- I have been pushing for passage of
the Equal Rights Amendment since before I got into office,
so, it's not very long, it's only one sentence long,
but Arizona is poised to be the 38th state in 2019.
If we get enough Democrats elected we could be
the last state to ratify the ERA,
to go from Sandra Day O'Connor to 2019,
it's time to pass that in the state of Arizona.
I have talked about women's rights and the ERA,
and the Me Too movement and sexual harassment
in the workplace, standing up to some of
the stuff that's gone on in the legislature,
we expelled a representative in 2018
for sexual harassment.
- What is the best advice that you have ever received?
- Be authentic, was one of 'em, right?
Make sure your last name is as big as possible
on your sign is another one.
(laughs)
Women candidates, democratic women candidates,
our signs are being stolen left and right.
I put two hundred signs out for the primary
and they're all gone.
I photograph every location I put my signs up.
I photograph every location, so I'll drive around
and I'll see, wait a minute I think I had a sign there,
and I look in my phone, I could see it,
and then I can see whose sign went up
when my sign went down.
- What is the last TV show that you binge watched?
- The one that I started binge watching at the end
of the session was Hitler's Circle of Evil,
but then it was like, too realistic for today.
and I had to stop.
I was like oh my God.
- Who's your favorite Arizona sports team?
- The Wildcats.
- Who's your favorite female artist?
- Barbara Kingsolver.
She lived here in Tucson for many years,
I think she's back in her home state of Kentucky now.
- Favorite place in Arizona?
- Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon is a beautiful area.
- Who is a politician that is currently running
who inspires you?
- The Red for Ed teachers.
- Favorite president, alive or dead?
- They all have their feet of clay unfortunately,
you know me, I like Bill Clinton, but he had issues,
and I like Thomas Jefferson and he had issues too,
and I like Barack Obama, and he kind of had issues.
- Thank you so much for sitting with us,
this was a pleasure, hearing about you
and what you're passionate about.
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