Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Goddard Forgets Attorney/Cross-Examination Rules Applies To Campaigning: Don't Ask Question If You Don't Know Answer And... (TWITTER EDITION)

(Update, 11:50am: Goddard just Tweeted his "Happy to hear it" response, and tried to turn the attention to issues that he better knew her positions on: SB1062 and HB2305.
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Oops! Terry Goddard, the Democratic nominee for Secretary of State, thought he might score a few points on Twitter this morning off of a Howard Fischer news article talking about Republicans who might try to block registered independents from voting in future GOP primaries.  Unfortunately, GOP nominee Michele Reagan immediately responded that she has always favored the open primary and added a zinger.

Goddard, an attorney, violated one of the key rules of cross-examining a hostile witness, that also applies to campaigning: don't ask a question that you do not know how the witness will answer!  The 2nd rule is you should do your research beforehand and know how the witness/opponent will answer.

Goddard hoped to hang Reagan with a position that is sure to be unpopular with the voters who could make the difference in the Secretary of State's race.  However, he should  have checked her clearly-stated positions before engaging in deates (Twitter or otherwise).

Reagan answers clearly, eight minutes later, and adds the hashtagged zinger "#RetireAlready". (Ouch!)


Here is Reagan answering questions for the Small Business Alliance - in a process that Goddard also participated in - on YouTube:  "I really, really, really have been encouraging people to vote in primaries. I don't care what party you are, or if you're no party...."



Here's the link to the rest of the Small Business Alliance videos of Reagan (and other candidates) in case someone (hint, hint) wants to view them. 




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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michelle Reagan, the Republican who has lead her party's efforts to make it more difficult for Arizona citizens to vote and engage in the electoral process and mount citizen's referendums and recalls, co-authored HB 2305, also known as the "Voter Suppression Act." When thousands of Arizona citizens signed petitions to prevent HB 2305 from becoming law via ballot referendum, far exceeding the required signature threshold, Reagan and her cronies who do not believe citizens should be able to hold Legislators accountable, prevented the referendum from making it to the ballot.

The idea of Michelle Reagan being elected and paid to manage our state's electoral system ranks up there with Tom Horne being responsible for upholding the rule of law and Russell Pearce being paid $85,000 by the Maricopa County Treasurer's Office to help poor, elderly people.

Mitch M. said...

Thanks for commenting, Anon! I don't think that'll all fit in one Tweet, Terry, but maybe you can break it up into a few. ;-)