Questions for Sharron Angle: We asked, she wouldn’t answer. So we asked anyway
Sharron Angle refused to be interviewed for this story.
And we really tried, too.
After trying unsuccessfully to e-mail, telephone or otherwise convey messages to Angle's campaign Press Secretary Jerry Stacy, we met with two of Angle's newer staffers, Communications Director Jarrod Agen and Deputy Communications Director Ciara Matthews. We explained all the reasons Angle should agree to be interviewed, not least of which was the fact that she's asking Southern Nevadans -- you readers -- to make her their United States senator.
Another month passed with no word. Finally, on Sept. 10, Matthews gave us the oh-so-polite "thanks, but no thanks."
So instead of bringing you Angle's answers to our questions, we can only bring you the questions. Think of it as a list of things we think you might like to have known before you go to the voting booth.
Because that's really what's happening here. Angle and her staff didn't just refuse to meet with the editor of CityLife, or the I-Team political commentator of 8NewsNow. They refused to sit before every reader of CityLife, every viewer of 8NewsNow and anybody else who might have benefited from the exchange. By passing on a chance to talk to those audiences, she's saying she doesn't really care about them in the first place. It's an unfortunate attitude for somebody who, at the same time, is seeking your vote.
If you happen to run into Angle on the campaign trail, or get invited to one of her events, feel free to ask some of these questions. Maybe you'll get an answer.
Good luck.
Prohibition, personal morality and pistols
In 2006, as Angle was running for Congress against then-Secretary of State Dean Heller, she was interviewed by a libertarian-leaning magazine called Liberty Watch. (The publication has since gone out of business.) She was asked about medical marijuana, and her answer strayed from the topic at hand somewhat.
"My greatest problem with marijuana is that it's illegal, which gives Nevadans a false sense of security in this whole thing," Angle said. "If the DEA has the manpower and wanted to go after this, there is no place in Nevada state law that can protect people because federal law supersedes state law."
Her opinion, though, ignores states' rights and individual freedom. Also, Angle's faith quickly surfaced, extinguishing her argument that she disapproves of medical marijuana primarily on the elementary premise it's illegal.
"I would tell you that I have the same feelings about legalizing marijuana, not medical marijuana, but just legalizing marijuana," Angle offered. "I feel the same about legalizing alcohol.
"The effect on society is so great that I'm just not a real proponent of legalizing any drug or encouraging any drug abuse," she continued. "I'm elected by the people to protect, and I think that law should protect."
The natural question that arises -- Do you really believe alcohol should be made illegal, the way marijuana currently is? -- has never been addressed by Angle or her campaign. In his one and only interview with CityLife, shortly before the primary, campaign spokesman Stacy at first offered a dumbstruck, "That doesn't sound right," when the quote was first read to him. He then said firmly Angle wasn't in favor of a return to Prohibition. (Stacy's style when flacking for the press-averse Angle is often to tell reporters she meant the precise opposite of what she actually said, in the hopes they'll simply believe it.)