AZ Illustrated Politics: Friday, March 28, 2014

Play the video above to see these stories on AZ Illustrated Politics for Friday, March 28:

Host Jim Nintzel sat down with Republican Christine Jones to talk about why she’s running for governor.

Jones said she would have established tighter limits on Medicaid eligibility if she had been governor last year when Gov. Jan Brewer pushed through the Medicaid expansion. She said if she were elected governor next year, she would work to reduce eligibility for the program because she feared that the state would not be able to afford the program.

Jones said she was opposed to the Common Core learning standards because she will believe they focus too much on testing and not enough on other skills.

On the topic of marriage equality, Jones said that she believed marriage was a matter to be decided by the church rather than the state.

Ninzel also sat down with National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Daniel Scarpinato and Democratic political strategist Rodd McLeod to discuss this year’s congressional campaigns in Southern Arizona.

McLeod said that this week’s news that 6 million people have signed up for private insurance through the Obamacare exchanges showed that the law was working.

Scarpinato said the wave of private insurance cancellations showed that the law remained flawed and added that voters remained upset about the implementation of Obamacare, which he said should be repealed.

On immigration, Scarpinato said that the comprehensive plan passed by the U.S. Senate last year was too complicated and should be rejected by the House of Representatives. He said that this week’s push to force a vote on the Senate proposal through a discharge petition was likely to fail.

McLeod said that House Republicans were blocking the Senate plan even though it has bipartisan support including the support of Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake.

AZ Illustrated Politics is produced by Jim Nintzel. Contact him at jnintzel@azpm.org.