Republican Patrick McGuinness is supposed to be running against Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, in November. But for his first major position paper, he seems to be trying to run against city council instead,
Before council passed its Arizona travel ban and divestment proposal yesterday, McGuinness issued a press release calling the measure “an over-reaction and a diversion from the real business the city council should be attending to.”
The city’s action is a reaction to Arizona’s arguably unconstitutional Senate Bill 1070. McGuinness claimed they are damaging the economy to make a political point and added, “Much criticism of the Arizona law has been based on misinformation.” So, if anyone wants to really brush up on the law, might be a good idea to read the ACLU of Arizona‘s point-by-point analysis of the grandstanding redundancies and flat-out illegalities of the law.
McGuinness has branded himself as “a consistent conservative.” However, it will be interesting to see the response of libertarians to his stance on the Arizona bill in relation to the Fourth Amendment‘s protections against unreasonable searches: “As a matter of public safety, any Austinite flying anywhere has to supply their identification at the Austin airport, so there is no additional burden to any city employee flying to Arizona in terms of complying with a request for identification.”
Er, what if they drive?
This article appears in May 14 • 2010.
