On this date in both 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen, who twice was appointed or won office after another Arizona Republican shuffled off their mortal coil in an equestrian accident. Sylvia Allen is a theocratic dunce who has called for laws to be passed to make church mandatory, has stated the Earth is only 6,000 years old during a debate about mining rights, wants to drug test welfare recipients, and has warned gay marriage will threaten not just national, but global security. She’s also a big fan of conspiracy theories, trying to block the adaptation of the United Nations’ 1992 Agenda 21 treaty because she thought it was a “Communist manifesto for the 21st Century”, voted for HB 2173, another one of those bizarre bills from Republicans who want to allow gold and silver to be accepted as legal tender, and actually hosting a town hall to allow wingnuts in her district to discuss Chemtrails. Allen also tried advocating for the law to be changed to investigate prison sexual harassment, not coincidentally after her son, a corrections employee, was being investigated for trying to bribe female inmates with packs of cigarettes in exchange for oral sex. So that’s a nice show of priorities from ol’ Sylvia.
In the meantime, Allen is still in charge of the state’s Education Committee, which is still troubling, because she wonders why she even bothers putting any money towards public education, at all. For those scoring at home, Arizona ranks 48th in public school spending, and if you ask Allen, that’s still two places too high. Now, the bad news we have is that Sylvia Allen was re-elected in 2016, narrowly edging out Democrat Nikki Bagley with 52% of the vote. The good news, however, is that Allen is term-limited in 2018, and this kook will have to creep off to never darken the door of the Arizona State Capitol with any of her Creationist lunacy again.