Gorman recently quit her post as house majority whip, and then apparently disappeared on what was referred to as a "Midwest vacation," where she couldn't even be reached by GOP leaders to discuss the budget negotiations.
While Gorman was gone, she was one of three Republican holdouts to a 1-cent sales tax increase, and with her support, the budget problem could have been solved.
In her email to reader Jonathan Mamat, Gorman says that criticizing elected officials for taking vacations is unfair.
"We are a part-time legislature making $24k a year and have never in the history of AZ been in session still in August," she says. "As such, it is completely appropriate that members spend a little time with their kids before they go back to school."
Where do we start? By pointing out to the senator that a lot of people out there don't have a job to at all (part-time for $24,000 sounds pretty good to us), or that the reason the legislature is still in session in August is because it couldn't get its job done on time?
The $24,000 it is.
We the taxpayers, pay Gorman, the senator, $24,000 a year to do a job. If you were to give someone $24,000 to paint your house and they painted half of it, and then took a "Midwest vacation" seven weeks after it was supposed to be done, you'd probably be pretty pissed off.
Senator Steve Pierce has postponed his summer vacation twice because the job taxpayers pay him to do isn't done; perhaps Gorman, and a few others, should have followed suit.
Gorman's missive didn't end there.
"Be careful when you ask people to do things you wouldn't do (like work 60 hour weeks at the federal poverty level) and then bash them for defending their right to be with their families for a few brief days or for putting in a few hours at their "other" job that pays their mortgage," Gorman scolds. "You sound like a fool when you do."
Does she campaign on this platform?
Actually, "Pam Gorman for State Senate (so long as it doesn't affect her vacation schedule or mortgage payment -- and by the way, voter, you're a fool if you criticize her)" does have a nice ring to it.
