Editor:
The question "Who is the real Jon Kyl?" will be asked a number of times between now and the November election. The column by C. Kevin Graham (Sept. 2) carefully evades much of Congressman Kyl's record and invites voters to ignore that record in November.
Not so fast, Mr. Graham! Indeed the most interesting fallacy of your column is that Jon Kyl is more representative of Arizona voters than any of his Democratic opponents. The election will remove any need for guesswork on that but some hard evidence is already well-known. Where Congressman Kyl has done far more to restrict the choice of women to have an abortion than just vote against poor women, a strong majority of Arizona voters have voted against severe restrictions.
Many Arizonans, of all parties, consider themselves environmentalists and conservationists. The groups are scrupulously non-partisan Ä just ask one of the hundreds of Republicans in the local Sierra Club chapters. With a zero from the League of Conservation Voters you can bet many will not be voting for Jon Kyl.
An example of brazen efforts to escape his record occurred when Kyl had the gall to run, on local television, his pro-victim, anti-criminal as the very day he voted to block passage of an anti-crime bill eight years in the making. Later he flip-flopped and voted for its passage, presumably so he can work all sides of the issue in coming weeks.
This is not a strawman, nor is it a straw-record. Whatever puffery is put in a costly television ad-campaign, Arizonans will have a real choice in November.
John Crow
Second-year law student