Democrats score a stealth attack on Rep. Juan Ciscomani and his veterans council

You’ve got to marvel at Arizona Democrats and the little commando raid they ran on Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani.

A group of liberal activists and Democratic Party loyalists put on their camo and war paint and pretended to be typical U.S. military veterans who are shocked — shocked, they tell us — that Ciscomani had failed to fully diversify his new veterans advisory council.

Ciscomani, a moderate Republican and Latino who represents Arizona’s 6^th Congressional District in southeastern Arizona, had recently announced his council of 13 veterans, which so far includes one woman and a few people of color.

Ciscomani's critics aren't just 'veterans'

Soon after, four women representing themselves as “veterans of the Army, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Air Force” and “constituents of Rep. Ciscomani” complained in an op-ed in the Herald/Review in Cochise County that Ciscomani “really did a mediocre job of choosing a council that accurately reflects the veteran community.”

Wrote the group, “In Ciscomani’s district, there are almost 70,000 veterans and more than 7,400 of them are women. They represent a wide variety of racial, religious and ethnic groups, and almost two-thirds of them served after 1990.

“We think it’s shameful that he only chose one woman.”

To my ear, that sounds suspiciously like liberal Democrats, who drink deeply from the chalice of identity politics and obsess over racial/ethnic/gender quotas and set-asides.

It took about a five-minute search on Google to realize that the four authors, besides being U.S. military veterans, are steeped to their eyeballs in left-wing and Democratic Party politics.

In fact, the first signed name on the op-ed is a woman named Shelly Goode, who is identified in the op-ed as a U.S. Army veteran.

Skip on over to the left-wing Blog for Arizona and you’ll read that a Shelly Goode-Burgoyne, a former “Army officer and combat veteran,” in December 2022 took over as executive director of the Pima County Democratic Party. On the party website she goes by Shelly Burgoyne.

Hmm.

Those are some strong liberal opinions

Jo Mendoza, who is listed as a co-author of the Herald/Review op-ed and Marine Corps veteran, was in June inviting readers of X (formerly Twitter) to join a group called Common Defense or Vets vs. Trump.

She wrote, “(The group) is the largest grassroots membership organization of progressive veterans standing up for our communities and against the rising tide of racism, hate, & violence. ... Join us.”

As for the third name on the op-ed, Sue Ritz, who is described as a member of the National Guard, you can find her political contrails in a June 11, 2022, op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star railing against the U.S. Supreme Court and specifically Justice Samuel Alito.

“Women have fought for decades to be seen by Veterans Affairs. Now they face a new hurdle: Alito and the ‘conservative’ Supreme Court’s attack on women. They’ve empowered Republicans to push to make abortion a federal crime.”

Ciscomani relaxes his stance: On abortion to avoid a shutdown

Ritz is obviously entitled to her opinion, but her Star op-ed is industrial-strength liberalism:

“Imagine a young woman choosing to serve her country in a time where her government will treat her like a second-class citizen. Imagine being one of the 25% of women who experience a sexual assault in the military, only to be told that she can’t seek treatment because some male politician who has never held a rifle in service of his country wants to push a Taliban-like agenda to control American women.

“It speaks to the deep misogyny of the military and political system. We do not swear an oath of allegiance to any leader, overlord, king or queen. We swear an oath to the Constitution.” 

Democrats take a punch ahead of 2024

Starting to get the picture?

The Herald/Review op-ed is essentially a thinly disguised left-wing hit piece on a Republican congressman who is an up-and-comer in the GOP and was chosen to deliver the Spanish-language GOP rebuttal to the State of the Union in February.

It’s essentially the Democrats softening up Ciscomani for 2024.

Think of it. Have you ever heard of people getting this worked up about a veterans advisory council?

Well, yes, and not so long ago.

In 2021, the Democratic Party decided to destroy Kyrsten Sinema because she would not help nuke the legislative filibuster and allow the party to run the table with all of their far-left, big-spending policy initiatives.

They eventually used veterans to help push Sinema out of the party.

1 critic did the same with Sinema in 2021

That brings us to our fourth signatory on the Herald/Review op-ed — Sylvia González Andersh, described as an Air Force veteran. Just another “constituent (of) Rep. Ciscomani.”

Yes, she is that.

She is also one of the veterans who turned on Sinema in a big way in 2021, appearing as the central figure in a nationally publicized ad produced by Common Defense.

In the ad, she says, “Dear Senator Sinema, as members of your veterans’ advisory council we feel we are being used as a window dressing for your own image.”

So, the Democrats and progressive left have devised a new tactic using their veterans to attack and soften up their political opponents.

It’s cunning. It’s contrived. And it’s comical.

How Ciscomani should respond

Ciscomani’s office responded diplomatically to the liberals with a statement:

“The congressman looks forward to building out on the diversity and expertise in this group and partnering with them to fulfill the council’s mission to improve the lives of our veterans.”

If Ciscomani really wants to take the advice of liberals and create an advisory council that strictly adheres to the demographic cross-section of veterans nationally, he might want to begin with Gallup polling.

For instance, one Gallup poll shows that veterans of the volunteer U.S. military are overwhelmingly Republican, particularly the younger vets.

In diversifying his council, Ciscomani will want to make sure Republicans are represented in their inordinately large numbers.

Thank you, Democrats!

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Democrats score a stealth attack on Rep. Juan Ciscomani