Republican Leah Campos Schandlbauer has become the ninth person to announce a candidacy for Arizona's newly formed Ninth Congressional District.
According to her campaign announcement, Schandlbauer's a Scottsdale resident, Hispanic Republican, and a former CIA operations officer. Her campaign says she resigned from the CIA to enter this race.
For those keeping score, there are only eight people left after Maricopa County Supervisor Dan Stapley's brief candidacy, but that's still a healthy crowd of candidates.
Paradise Valley Councilman Vernon Parker hopped into the race last week, adding to the GOP field that already includes Wendy Rogers, Travis Grantham, and Martin Sepulveda.
The Democratic roster in the race includes David Schapira, Andrei Cherny, and Kyrsten Sinema.
Browsing through her campaign website, Schandlbauer appears to be, well, a Republican.
Government's too big, Ronald Reagan's awesome, Barack Obama's making everything awful, the so-called Obamacare sucks, and protect the border.
"I have spent my professional life thinking about and working around the world for the security of our country and our way of life, and I can tell my fellow Arizonans something in all confidence: Without freedom, security is an illusion," she's quoted as saying. "It has been correctly said that a government big enough to give you everything you want is powerful enough to take away everything you have."
On the issue of national security, however -- which would seem to be her forte -- Schandlbauer doesn't seem too war-happy.
Providing for our country's security is the Federal Government's main responsibility. Our military and intelligence services must be well funded and able to confront the varied threats we face. That said, I believe that all parts of our federal government, including the Defense Department and the intelligence sector, have grown without adequate controls and could stand budget cuts without undercutting our security.
Committing our troops to war is the most important authorization the US Congress makes, and must be approached with seriousness and discernment. Congress cannot continue to cede this constitutional authority to the Executive Branch. I subscribe to the Weinberger Doctrine, which stated that any commitment of US military force must meet the following conditions: 1) Any troop commitment must be vital to U.S. national interests; 2) we must be committed to using full and overwhelming force to achieve our stated goal; 3) there must be a clearly defined and achievable military and political objective prior to authorizing the use of force; 4) use of military force should be considered only as a last resort - but should always be kept on the table.
We may be moving toward the capacity for candidates in CD9, as pretty much the only person who's shown interest in the race but has yet to declare is Scottsdale Councilwoman Lisa Borowsky.
We'll let you know if we get any additional information on Schandlbauer.