OPINION — I’ve never seen an election cycle in which the gulf between real policy choices and campaign messaging was wider. Based upon campaign messaging, you’d think that the biggest issue confronting the state and nation is pedophilia.
I don’t mean to discount the savagery of pedophilia or the importance of the laws against it. However, I think we can stipulate that no major candidates for public office in Arizona support pedophilia or want to coddle or protect pedophiles.
To the extent there are disagreements about specific laws dealing with pedophiles, they are rooted in concerns about precedents and unintended consequences — not sympathy for abusing children. Yet charges of being soft on pedophilia were a significant theme in numerous races in Arizona, with both Republicans and Democrats being the target of the slung mud.
