NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday December 14, 2009

Schweikert copies lines from Schlafly; does he share her ideas too?

Right on the heels of Erick Wnuck’s campaign video that copied a motif used by Tiger Woods, Kirk Douglas (“I am Spartacus”) and an Illinois congresswoman, another Republican congressional candidate has done some replicating of his own. But David Schweikert’s new video lifts its text directly from a source with many troubling ideas: Phyllis Schlafly and her extremist Eagle Forum organization.

“It’s a bad sign if Schweikert is copying words from someone like Phyllis Schlafly, and it raises the question of whether he shares some of her other disturbing viewpoints,” said Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. “Schlafly is one of the most regressive, anti-woman voices in the nation.”

His video attacks health reform (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpjt2UmZhgc) and lists “facts” about the bill, all of which have been debunked by the nonpartisan third-party Politifact (see: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/30/e-mail-analysis-health-bill-needs-check-/). Schweikert lifted these falsehoods directly from a Schlafly action alert (http://capwiz.com/eagleforum/issues/alert/?alertid=14283186 ).

Here’s a sampling of Schlafly’s other positions:

•Married women can’t be raped; it’s the husband’s prerogative.
http://www.mainecr.org/pdf/SchlaflyStirsControversy.pdf
•Single moms and feminists are to blame for most of society’s problems.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/29/schlafly-feminism/
•Title 9 equity in sports is a feminist vendetta and should be abolished.
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2009/dec09/09-12-11.html
•The Violence Against Women Act harms families, encroaches personal lives.
“http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/doing-away-vawa”:http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/doing-away-vawa