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Kirkpatrick Endorses Term Limits in New Ad

Arizona Democrat criticizes John McCain for prolonged Senate tenure

Ann Kirkpatrick has said senators should only serve two terms while House members should only serve three. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Ann Kirkpatrick has said senators should only serve two terms while House members should only serve three. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Arizona Senate candidate Ann Kirkpatrick released a new ad that endorses term limits and attacks her likely Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for being in Washington for too long.  

The ad  opens with photos of the Democratic congresswoman’s family with Kirkpatrick  saying her father was a Democrat who ran a country story and her mother a Republican school teacher.  

“I learned that both parties have good ideas but that’s not how Congress works anymore,” she says, before switching to footage of McCain with on-screen text saying that “33 years in Washington” have changed him.


 

“Career politicians put themselves ahead of what’s best for the country,” she said. “Things have gotten so bad that I’m convinced we need term limits.”   

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Roll Call’s 2016 Election Guide: Senate

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Kirkpatrick endorsed  the idea in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic last week, saying that members of the House should only serve three terms and senators should only serve two terms. She also called for strengthening rules against lawmakers becoming lobbyists.  

But McCain spokesperson Lorna Romero pushed back on Kirkpatrick’s ad.  

“It is laughable that a liberal incumbent Member of Congress running her sixth political campaign in the last decade would begin her Senate campaign calling for term limits,” Romero said.   

Kirkpatrick is running unopposed in the August 30 Democratic primary. McCain faces a challenge from former state Sen. Kelli Ward in the GOP primary, but a recent internal poll  gave the five-term incumbent a comfortable lead. The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report /Roll Call rates this race as Republican Favored.


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