My vision of the state of the telecommunications industry in Arizona is one of rigorous competition in both the business and residential sectors. I'd like to see several broad-based competitors and a healthy number of niche service providers. I will fight for a regulatory environment that is friendly to new entrants and not unduly burdensome to honest businesses, but that remains capable of adequately protecting consumers against illegal, unethical or predatory business conduct.

To start, I will work toward developing a venture capital program that nurtures growth among Arizona's high tech businesses, as well as other small and growing firms. Next, I will work with our state's universities to ensure that they are hotbeds of research and have the flexibility needed to develop technology transfers. We must also ensure that our state's tax structure is low, fair, and equitable and is one that enables businesses to flourish. Similarly, our state government must be one recognized for valuing Arizona's high tech businesses. As Governor, I will ensure that we are by naming a high tech liaison who will work with me to communicate with high tech businesses and to work with them to foster the sector's expansion. In this way, we will grow the high tech industry and reward Arizonan's with stable, high paying jobs.

In order to develop a technology literate workforce we must ensure that we have a world-class education system. Currently, we do not have such a system. Arizona routinely ranks at the bottom of nearly every educational benchmark. As Governor, my top priority will be to turn our education system around. We must ensure that every Arizona classroom is, at the very least, on par with the national averages for instructional spending. At present, only 58 cents of every dollar is spent on classroom instruction while the national average is approximately 62 cents. I will call on school districts to close this gap. I will work to ensure that we are recruiting and retaining qualified teachers, and will ensure that early literacy is the focal point of our teacher certification process. Studies show that children who read at an early age succeed at a higher rate than those who don't. They are also far less likely to drop out of school. Ensuring that our teachers are prepared to teach reading is the first step toward achieving broad educational success for our children. Early childhood development, moreover, is the first step toward ensuring that our children have the tools they need to become technology literate. As children progress, however, we must demand that technology training and computer literacy are central to their later education. As Governor, I will work with local school districts to assist them in procuring technology for the classroom and will strive to connect Arizona's rural classrooms to the information superhighway.

At a minimum, the State can and should help coordinate the approaches taken by counties and local communities to develop high capacity telecommunications infrastructure. Inconsistent approaches by various communities increase the cost of businesses seeking to enter telecommunications markets, which in turn increases the costs to consumers. As Governor, I will work with businesses, counties, and local governments to develop a consensus on statewide standards for high technology telecommunications infrastructure.

Publicly-sponsored incentives must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to ensure they are cost effective, and even ones that are initially implemented should be subject to follow-up review to determine whether they continue to serve their intended purposes effectively. For the telecommunications industry, I will specifically look at incentives to ensure that high technology infrastructure reaches all of Arizona's communities. In the absence of such incentives, I am concerned that remote and/or low-income areas of the state may be left behind, and that the income and technology gap between the affluent and the poor will widen.

I agree there is a disparity in the availability and quality of advanced telecommunications facilities and services across the state, and strongly believe this should be addressed by both policy-makers and the industry if Arizonans are to succeed collectively in the 21st Century economy. Although the state cannot force companies to extend all of the latest technology to every household, we must ultimately be sure that all Arizonans have some form of access to crucial new telecommunications technologies. At a minimum, our public libraries should be equipped with such technologies, and I will explore ways to encourage the private sector to make such technologies available at community centers and other areas where low-income and rural Arizonans can have access.

As a former U.S. Attorney and current state Attorney General, I've had substantial first-hand experiences that illustrate both law enforcement's need to collect certain electronic data and the legitimate privacy concerns arising from unauthorized use of personal information. In addition to prosecuting a number of internet scams, I drafted Arizona's Security Enhancement Act, which, among other things, expands the government's ability to collect data on certain money transfers (such as those conducted by the 9/11 hijackers). On the other hand, I also led the fight to get Qwest to change its policies selling customers' personal information to other businesses without their consent. Consumers should not have to affirmatively "opt out" to avoid having their personal information sold on the open market. These issues will become more prominent in the coming years, and Arizona will need a Governor with my experience in dealing with e-commerce businesses, computer and other high technology manufacturers, and consumers. Finally, because e-commerce is a national or international phenomenon, Arizona should attempt to coordinate its policies with those of other jurisdictions, including the federal government, so as to minimize costly and conflicting regulations.

I strongly support efforts to shine more light into the workings of state government, and agree that the state should afford reasonable and appropriate electronic access to public records. Although the state's current budget crunch limits its ability to upgrade its technological capacity, ultimately the price of allowing members of the public to do their own searches for public documents may be less than the cost of government workers' time spent searching for requested documents. As Attorney General, I have implemented a document retention policy that specifically includes archiving state-related e-mails, and as Governor, I will work to ensure that all state agencies adopt and adhere to sensible document retention policies.