Republican – Legislative District 4 House

Phone: (602) 769-0854

Age: 59. (01/30/55, Phoenix, AZ).

Arizona since: Birth

Occupation: Insurance agent, Powers-Leavitt Insurance, since 2000; AZ Senate, 2000; A-1 Homes 1998-99; Maricopa County Public Safety, 1997-98; AZ MVD 1985-96; AZ Dept of Corrections, 1982-85; Rural Metro 1981-82; Florence PD, 1980-81; Springerville PD, 1979-80; Dysart Schools, 1978-79; Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, 1977-78; Buckeye PD, 1975-77; AZ Dept of Economic Security, 1974-76.

Marital: Divorced

Children: 1

Education: 90 semester hrs, administration of justice, various schools; Phoenix Police Academy, 1976; Buckeye Union H.S., 1972.

Political experience: Buckeye Elementary School District Governing Board since 2007; committee for numerous Buckeye Union H.S. District, BESD bond and override elections since 2000; Ruth Fisher School District Governing Board, 1987-88.

Interests: Sports, especially girls and women’s baseball, photography, fishing and hunting.

Two biggest issues: Education: equal funding for public and charter schools. Economy: incentives and income tax elimination to attract new jobs.

Budget priorities: Education funding, public safety. Stop the frivolous spending on pet projects. Only spend on necessary programs. Eliminating income tax will increase revenues and economic development.

Fiscal philosophy: Fiscally conservative, but willing to tax for necessary services.

Common Core: Standards in themselves are a necessity, but Common Core has too many ancillary problems, such as data mining, unsecured personal information, the sharing of the info, the selling of the info. A very few people are set to make billions of dollars from our taxes on this.

Gifts to elected officials: There is nothing wrong with accepting a ticket or dinner from a friend that you give an extra ticket to. It is wrong to accept anything other than incidental food and beverage during a meeting, for instance. Gifts should be prohibited.

Transparency in government: 100% transparency must be the norm, not the exception, with meaningful penalties for violations. Public records must be shared without lawsuit. Executive session abuse needs to stop.

Pro-life / pro-choice: It is the law of our land. My personal belief is that once the fetus becomes viable and can survive outside the womb, it becomes murder. I absolutely object to partial-birth abortions, as that is murder.

Public policy advice: Friends, family, experts in the field, research the issues myself.

Hopkins, Richard

Share this: