Following the news that Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) will retire, I am rolling out the first of several more endorsements. Until today, Democrat Bob Lord had been preparing to face off against Congressman Shadegg in the Arizona 3rd. Now, with Shadegg's retirement, Lord will face an as of yet unknown Republican candidate. Given the caliber of Republican congressional candidates as of late, I believe it is likely that Bob Lord will be the overwhelmingly superior candidate in the district, and worthy of our support.

Bob Lord has been mentioned on this website before. He was first brought to my attention by Markos as a possible "libertarian Democrat" and I am happy to say that this is one Democrat Markos favors that I also find to be appealing to libertarians. As Markos said:

Lord is essentially calling himself a Libertarian Democrat. He's socially liberal, but as a tax lawyer, he's promising to clean up the tax code to make it more business friendly. He's not an anti-immigrant zealot, unlike just about the entire Arizona Republican delegation except for Sens. Kyl and McCain (who are now persona non grata in many GOP circles).

The CQ article on Bob Lord is down, but earlier he was described in a CQ article:

But Lord argues that his background and a political philosophy that he described as “close to libertarian,” make him an acceptable choice for district Republicans. Twenty percent of his donors have been registered Republicans, he noted.

"I’m not what many would call an ultra-liberal Democrat. I’m a tax lawyer, I’ve represented business interests and real estate developers for 25 years, I understand the tax code, I know that it needs to be simplified for the benefit of business and won’t hurt ordinary taxpayers in the process of doing so,” he said.

Socially, Lord’s views are less conservative. He supports funding stem cell research and is pro-abortion rights, and said Shadegg’s stance on those issues — as well as on minimum wage — make him out-of-step with the district’s voters.

Lord supports “comprehensive immigration reform” that would secure the border but also include a guest worker provision, and decried as draconian recently passed legislation in Arizona that establishes aggressive sanctions against employers who utilize illegal immigrants.

“I’m concerned that if we take action either to enforce the border or to go after employers without at the same time implementing a workable guest worker program, we’re going to take entire industries and shut them down,” Lord said.

There is more on Bob Lord at his website, which hosts a U.S. National Debt Clock that links to Lord's views on the importance of restoring fiscal responsibility to our federal finances.

The national debt, today, stands at over $9.1 trillion. It's expanding by $1.4 billion every day, nearly a million dollars every minute. It was $5.7 trillion when Bush took office, and it's projected to exceed $10 trillion by the time Bush leaves office. The government is doing nothing to stop its constant growth, and it's wreaking havoc on the economy.

It affects the average American every day. Every tax-paying American has to spend his or her hard-earned cash to pay interest on the government's expenses-this year, interest on the national debt comes to a whopping $239 billion dollars, enough money to give 10.2 million students a college education. Because of this "debt tax," the government is forced to waste taxpayer dollars and spend less money on education and national defense.

Not only does the debt take taxpayers' dollars today, but it risks worse in the future. As the Baby Boomer generation retires, increasing Social Security and Medicare costs will put more demands on the government's resources. If the national debt continues to grow, the government will have no choice but to raise taxes, deny healthcare to millions of retiring Americans, or both. Also, the government may see the debt roll over to higher interest rates, multiplying this undue burden on the American taxpayer. And on top of it all, because an increasing percentage of national debt comes from abroad, we risk our national security doing so.

In 2008, we have a chance to stop this nightmare from coming true-by electing leaders who promise not to spend money we don't have. While John Shadegg pretends to be a fiscal conservative while supporting Bush's out of control spending, Bob Lord will do everything he can to stop us from sliding down the slippery slope of unsustainable national debt and to make sure that the government does not waste hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

When is the last time you heard a Democrat talking about government wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars? One final press release from Bob Lord's campaign caught my eye:

Today, Democratic congressional candidate Bob Lord endorsed the bipartisan legislation introduced earlier this week by U.S. Reps. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) and Ron Paul (R-TX) that would block the automatic pay raise of nearly $4,400 members of Congress are set to receive next year.

"Most Americans don't get to vote themselves a pay raises like Congress does," said Lord. "In tough economic times, I don't see how members of Congress can insist on voting themselves a pay raise. I strongly support the Mitchell-Paul legislation to block Congress's pay raise."

"Having voted to raise his pay 8 times, Congressman Shadegg should give the taxpayers a break this time," said Lord. "Shadegg should co-sponsor this legislation and vote for passage."

"In the real world, people get pay raises for doing a good job," said Lord campaign manager Andrew Eldredge-Martin. "On Congressman Shadegg's watch in the last seven years, he racked up $3.5 trillion more in national debt; gave President Bush over $485 billion for the war in Iraq; allowed 8.5 million more Americans to go without healthcare; and stood by while total U.S. household debt went up 36% to $9.5 trillion. Congressman Shadegg deserves a pink slip, not a raise."

In his career, Congressman Shadegg has voted to raise his own pay 8 times, totaling over $31,600 in raises. He now makes $168,330 per year.

Bob Lord will have to refocus his attacks on another Republican, but I do like the stance he took here in support of fellow Arizona Democrat Harry Mitchell and our libertarian hero Ron Paul.