—–Original Message—–
From: Jack Harper [mailto:jhrtp@msn.com]

Subject: Militant Liberals will stop at nothing to defeat Senator Harper in the Republican Primary.

Friends,

I have heard it several times so far, “I thought your opponent in the debate was a Democrat. He’s a Republican?”

That’s right! If you watched the C.C.E.C. debate between myself and challenger, John Zerby, you would question his registration as well. No one could believe the liberal positions that Zerby was taking. It all comes down to the liberal special-interest groups that Zerby has pledge allegiance to. In the audience was a member of a militant gay and lesbian organization that apparently had coached Zerby on his talking points to oppose the Marriage Amendment. Also in the audience were several union members that supported Zerby’s call for higher taxes and socialized medicine.

As you may have heard, the head of a gay-rights group in Arizona has vowed to defeat the legislators that referred the Marriage Amendment to the ballot. In what appears to a choreographed smear by the Democratic Party, Senator Cheuvront, the only openly homosexual Senator has lodged a partisan complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against me. My opponent and the militant liberal groups that support him will undoubtedly jump on the issue. I am confident that the complaint will be dismissed, as the Republican Caucus Attorney has stated that Cheuvront and Aboud (The only openly lesbian Senator) did not have the right to hold the floor without making new points. They only repeated themselves several time to kill the opportunity to refer the Marriage Amendment to the ballot. This is “dilatory” by Senate Rules, and is not allowed.

Because of the Democratic Party meddling in my Republican Primary election, yet again, the Republican Committee for Legislative District Four endorsed my candidacy at the LD-4 meeting tonight, July 21st. For this reason, and that Zerby has never attended a Republican event and refuses to still, the district committee decided to endorse rather than stay neutral.

The culture war did not end when the Marriage Amendment was referred to the ballot. Are you ready to get involved and make a difference? It is within 45 days of the primary election, and state law prevents HOA’s from banning political yard signs. Can I put one in your yard? Just email back and see how your time sacrifice can push this campaign to victory!

State Senator Jack Harper
623-680-3530

Harper under attack in today’s paper:
Ariz. Dems file ethics complaint over GOP tactic
by Amanda J. Crawford – Jul. 21, 2008 07:32 PM
The Arizona Republic
An end-of-session maneuver that cut short a Democratic filibuster and paved the way for lawmakers to refer the same-sex marriage ban to the fall ballot is now the subject of a rare formal ethics complaint…
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/07/21/20080721ethics0721-ON.html

State Senator
Jack Harper

1) The arizona lehgislature did not act correctly. their constitutents had already rejected the measure. This was strictly for political gain.

2) Marriage is not a sacrament, except inside of churches, and even then, given the divorce rate, it’s only a sacrament for a little while.

There are churches, and a great many more ministers of many denominations, who consider gay marriage a sacrament as well. their beliefs are unimportant, or just wrong? Where is THEIR freedom of religion in this?

Or, since their religious beliefs are clearly in error (when compared to yours), their freedom of religion doesn’t count?

3) Marriage is a civil contract regulated by the state. That is what the AZ legislature is addressing, not sacramental marriage in a church. All citizens should have access to that contract– that is equality before the law.

4) Who is it that is really trying to change the definiton of marriage– those who want marriage open to all citizens who can legally consent to the contraact, and fulfill its rights and benefits and obligations, or those who are trying to redefine it into a strictly religious institution, which it is not and has not been for at least a few hundred years?

5) and ifnally, and most important– this really isn’t aobut marriage at all, is it, at least for the anti-marriage crowd. It is REALLY about how much the very existence of gay people bothers some straight people, as well as some gay-people-who-wanna-be-striahgt-but-they’re-not…

…and how all even pretense to religious or poilitical or constitutional principles really takes second place to that basic prejudice.

This is the sort of thing that George Washington (the only independent president in U.S. history) was warning us about when he criticized the idea of political parties. He worried that they would become more concerned with serving themselves than with serving the country. He was right.

I read once that people who rely on the emotional side of their brains are more likely to become politicians than people who use the logical side. The childish behavior these people displayed appears to prove that.

Marriage belongs to the union of man and woman. Stop screaming for inclusion into an institution and sacrament that requires consumation. Let’s be frank.

They took political action that will result in pain for others. And guilt, remorse, and regret will be their reward.