Democrat for U.S. Senate Rich Carmona speaking to supporters on Saturday
Former U.S. Surgeon General Rich Carmona, the Democrat currently locked in a neck-and-neck race with Republican Congressman Jeff Flake for Jon Kyl's U.S. Senate Seat, paid a visit Saturday to a Tempe field office for a Q and A with supporters, and Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman was there to document the event.
Carmona answered questions on the Bush tax cuts (he's for temporarily repealing those for the wealthy), immigration (he's for the DREAM Act and a pathway to citizenship), and the deficit, where his answer dealt mostly in generalities about getting rid of waste and cutting it without hurting the middle class and the poor.
I arrived late, so I'm glad Gilman was able to catch this footage. However, for some odd reason, some knucklehead claiming to be from the county Democratic Party gave him grief because he didn't have his press badge on him.
An unfortunate incident, to be sure. I'm not sure why a routine campaign stop would engender such paranoia in this particular individual, who actually briefly laid hands on Gilman, until one of the candidates there indicated that he knew the camera-slinger.
In any case, in the hope of avoiding any future misunderstandings, I include a photo of Gilman, whose Youtube account Humanleague002 is hailed by progressives and hated by right-wingers throughout Sand Land and beyond.
Get a good look at this guy. His work has been praised by the New York Times, he frequently freelances for this paper, and his video and still images have appeared in countless outlets.
If you stand for social justice, economic sanity progressive values, this man is your best friend. If you do not, he can be your worst enemy. And that's whether or not he leaves his press badge at home. So catch a clue Dems, and act accordingly.
