Richard Carmona, former Bush surgeon general, best hope of turning Arizona blue, Democrats say

[alp227]

Richard Carmona, the Democratic candidate for senator from Arizona, had a rough childhood in New York City. His Puerto Rican parents had drug and alcohol problems, and he was homeless for a time. He dropped out of high school and went to Vietnam, where he won two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars.

When Carmona came back, he put himself through college and became a police officer. He once rescued a man on a cliff by rappelling from a helicopter. Another time, he saved a woman from an assailant and then shot and killed the man when he fired at Carmona.

In his spare time at college, Carmona earned a medical degree. In fact, he served as surgeon general during George W. Bush’s presidency.

Carmona has yet to leap a tall building in a single bound, but Democrats here are counting on him to provide some political heroics: They’re hoping Carmona will not just take a Republican seat but also give President Obama the boost he needs to win Arizona, the one red state his campaign thinks can be turned blue this year.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/richard-carmona-former-bush-surgeon-general-best-hope-of-turning-arizona-blue-democrats-say/2012/04/28/gIQA4XnJvT_singlePage.html

[gateley]

1. What do you think, Arizona DUers? Is there some buzz about this man? nt

[Confusious]

2. Never heard of him. nt

[gateley]

3. It said Obama asked him to consider running. Might be worth looking into -- replacing

Kyl with a Democrat would feel SOOOOO good!

[Wait Wut]

8. I need to learn more about him, but...

...from what I scanned over, he's worth the time to get to know better. It will be a blessing to AZ to get rid of Kyl, but replacing him with Flake would be another curse. I'd vote for my dog if it meant we'd keep Flake out and get a Dem in.

I became so disgusted with AZ Democrats over the past few years that I'm a little gun shy about supporting any candidate here financially. I threw a lot of money towards Rodney Glassman and he didn't get a damn bit of help from the AZ Democratic Party. They let McCain walk with that seat. I wasn't too pleased with my county party, either.

/sigh But, if this guy can turn Arizona blue, I'll dig up some change. And...I'll even start writing irritating emails to the Democratic Party again.

[gateley]

10. Why do you think the Dem party is so lame there? I can understand

your feelings! But you guys sure deserve a break!

[Wait Wut]

17. I don't know about the state party...

...they had no intention of going up against McCain, so they let Glassman fight for himself (with the help of some dedicated Democrats here).

The county party I have to give some leeway to. They majority are all retired and fairly wealthy. Great people, but they're also very cliquish. They treated Glassman like a total stranger when he was here because they were too busy fawning over Ann Kirkpatrick (blech). Despite my begging and pleading, they still hold all of their meeting in the middle of the afternoon on weekdays. Like I said, they're retired. My husband and I are still working. When they do have events on weekends or weekday evenings, they're special events that normally cost upwards of $50/person. We can't afford that. Very nice people and our new chair is just a doll, and he's been listening to some of our concerns. He admits that he can't get the rest of the local party to change the schedules.

I tried a couple of years ago to get our county party to contact and work with our local Young Democrats group and they just rolled their eyes at me. "They don't want to hang out with us old folk."

[gateley]

19. I guess money does strange things to us all, Republicans OR Dems. I'll let you know if I ever

find out.

How frustrating for you! I hope somehow this guy gets some press and support. He was the Surgeon General, FFS, that's got to impress them! AND the military service!

Hoping the best for you!

[alp227]

14. Then get active within the party.

That's how the tea party took over the GOP, such as the Concord Project:

[Wait Wut]

18. I tried.

See my reply above to understand why it's been difficult. They said I could go "door to door", but I have health and chronic pain issues and our damned roads are friggin' mountains. We do what we can, when we can. I've tried getting them more active online, but they weren't receptive, at all.

[GoldenOldie]

15. Dr. Richard Carmona established the first Trauma center in Southern Arizona

He established and was head of the only Trauma Hospital, Tucson Medical Center in Southern Arizona. He formed an A-One trauma team and he personally rappelled down a snow covered mountain near Safford, Arizona to rescue one of his trauma team members, after their helicopter had crashed during a patient flight from Safford to Tucson Medical Center. Dr. Carmona lost close members of his team during this flight, and he wasted no time getting to the scene to aid those still alive and bring the bodies home to Tucson.

Dr. Richard Carmona stepped on some delicate toes to bring Trauma Care, to all Southern Arizona and when he finally succeeded, those jealous of his success, soon began the fight to unseat him and take over. My daughter who was born in Tucson, grew up along the AZ-Mex border, is now an RN, Flight Nurse, who transports critical patients to the Tucson Hospitals.....the same routes that Dr. Carmona's trauma team once flew.

You may never have heard of Dr. Richard Carmona, only because you are fairly new to Southern Arizona. Get to know him, you will like him.

[marybourg]

4. I sent him a contribution

last month.

[gateley]

12. How/where did you hear about him? Some others haven't. nt

[marybourg]

13. I get mail/e-mail from the AZ

Dem establishment. I may have even read about him here on DU.

[gateley]

16. Thank. Well I hope he becomes more well known. It's always a surprise to me when

there's such a political figure that people on DU are unaware of.

[Robeysays]

5. Never heard of him either.

??? He just move here to retire or something? like maccain?


what we need is another hyden, macfarland or udall. a real arizonan cowpuncher. none of these retire here become a "cowboy" senator.

[freshwest]

9. Been there since 1998 at the least:

He has also earned a masters of public health from the University of Arizona (1998).

http://www.hhs.gov/about/bios/sg.html

Found this as well:

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Monday received an endorsement from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Flake is running against businessman Wil Cardon in the Republican primary for the Senate seat that will be vacated by the retiring Jon Kyle (R). The winner of the primary will face former U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nod.

Charlie Leight / The Arizona Republic

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/arizona-senate-race-heats-up/2012/05/01/gIQAs668uT_gallery.html

I have to say that Flake the GOP candidate looks like a handsome devil, but apparently is just a devil seeing his resume there. Endorsed by DeMint?

You guys need to get behind the Democrat as he is the only one they're running.

[Robeysays]

6. I will say though he does sound like a badass

STill though just asked my brother, hadn't heard of him either.

[gateley]

11. Hopefully that will change, and we'll ALL be hearing about the AZ race! nt

[DCKit]

7. A self-made man, just like Mittens.