Democrat House of Representatives challenger Eric Kurland’s letter in last week’s Times (“Leadership”) was typically long on attack and short on policy and facts.

Kurland’s campaign strategy of constant attacks brings to mind the words President Theodore Roosevelt articulated in his famous “The Man in the Arena” speech. Roosevelt said "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…” Representative Jay Lawrence and I are in the arena and we have done much to help individuals, families, schools and businesses cope with COVID-19.

Policy-wise, Kurland takes no position on school reopening, gym closures or anything else for that matter – he avoids the arena. In addition to being short on policy, Kurland is also short on facts. Kurland says that the governor and legislature have “avoided responsibility” and that we have no interest in “finding solutions.” I guess Kurland also did not know that the legislature appropriated $50 million in COVID relief funding on top of the millions we received from the feds.

Kurland says he was shocked that we did not call Mayor Dickey to see if Fountain Hills needed COVID aid, but Governor Ducey gave Fountain Hills $2.9 million in COVID aid funding. Fountain Hills was fine.

Kurland also said we have not helped schools with COVID sanitizing assistance but we did not have to allocate funds because schools already receive full reimbursement for those expenses from FEMA and DEMA. I guess Kurland also did not know that Arizona schools and colleges have received $930 million in additional funds since COVID struck.

Kurland doesn’t even know where the arena is.