Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 11

.12 The Arizona Republic Friday, August 26, 1994 I h. I 94 fenfck campaiginis as fe always las 1 1 J''-' Democratic Senate hopeful Cindy Resnick meets informally in Coolidge with City Manager Marty Colburn. Resnick, a state legislator for 13 years, has always used the same campaign strategy: visit with small groups and take notes on their problems. Paul F. GeroThe Arizona Republic RESMICIC from page A I So far, Resnick's campaign has taken her from Naco, a community of 800 along the Mexican border, to Bullhead City, up near Nevada, to meet with small groups of voters.

The campaign is low-budget and' low on hype: no balloons, no bumper stickers, no paid staff to distribute "Rcsnick for Senate" buttons. The campaign device Resnick thinks will put her over the top cost less than two bucks: a pastel-pink legal pad. Everywhere she goes, Resnick scribbles notes during quiet, heart-to-heart talks with potential constituents. It's a strategy that has gotten her elected five times to the Arizona Legislature and one she believes will take her to Washington. Low-key, low-cost campaign Resnick estimates her all-volunteer campaign will cost less than a third of those of Dick Mahoney and Sam Gppcrsmith, two well-financed opponents.

And Resnick needs to cut corners. Emily's List, a women's political-funding group, has chosen to ignore Resnick's requests for money. In the past, most of her support has come from non-profit health and social-service organizations. "We're at the tail end here, the tail of the dog that gets wagged," one Casa Grande social worker grumbled at a meeting in July with Rcsnick and her pink legal pad. It was a sweltering day in central Arizona.

President Clinton was on the hot scat that morning for hinting that he would accept a hcalth-care-rcform package excluding 5 percent of the population. The Casa Grande meeting room was packed with health-care workers who serve the poorest of the poor. All were suffering under budgets that had been cut to the marrow. All were venting their frustrations at Resnick. But Resnick wasn't sweating.

She was nodding sympathetically, agreeing that the problems were terrible and scribbling notes. By the time she left, people in the room were smiling. Resnick's quiet campaign style comes as no surprise her family, friends and longtime supporters. They remember her as a shy child who preferred intimate chats with friends to pep rallies, and books to student politics. Aloof to some Resnick had no interest in student Cindy Resnick Party: Democratic.

Born: July 31,1 949; Three Rivers, Mich. Residence: Tucson. Occupation: State senator. Education: Graduate, Rincon High School, 1967 Working on bachelor's degree in history at University of Arizona. Family: Married 26 years to Bernie Resnick.

floor in a suit from Saks. A typical outfit may be a $39.99 dress from Loehmann's, a jacket she made herself and a Disney watch. "I've seen people at the Legislature get really self-important, but that's when they lose touch," she said. "That's why I wear my crazy buttons and watches. I look down at my wrist, and there's Snow White." Resnick also hasn't forgotten what it's like to be young, poor and uninsured.

Once, Bernie was between jobs when their youngest daughter, Sarah, developed a severe ear infection. "We had no insurance and no money to pay a doctor," Cindy recalled. "I jusfremember holding her and wondering what we were going to do." They borrowed money from Relatives for Sarah's treatment, but the experience left Rcsnick with deep compassion for people who can't afford health care. "What about the people who don't have family to borrow from?" she asked. Party volunteer When her children went to school, Resnick started volunteering at the Pima County Democratic Party headquarters.

She worked on a couple of local campaigns and; in 1980, lost her first try for a seat, in the House by nearly. 4,000 votes out of about 73,500 cast for four candidates. But the campaign did connect her with a mentor, the late Clare Dunn. Dunn was a socially minded state representative and a Catholic nun. She asked Resnick to help her run a petition drive to force the state to accept Medicaid funds and develop the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

After Dunn was killed in a car accident in 1981, Resnick continued her mission. Today, Resnick often is described in news articles as "Arizona's unchallenged expert on AHCCCS." When the 1982 election rolled around, Resnick was ready. She got demographic information about her district from a local bank and tailored her campaign pitch as she went from neighborhood to neighborhood. Her strategy was the same as it is today: visit with small groups and take notes! on their problems. The system worked: Resnick won by less than 20 votes out of about 50,000 cast for four candidates.

Juggling familydistrict For the past 12 years, Cindy Resnick has spent four nights a week in Phoenix; Bernie watched the children. During the day, she juggled hourly calls from her children with those from constituents. At night, she retired to the San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix with a carry-out hamburger and a book. "The idea of going to a reception, walking around with a glass of 7-Up and talking with lobbyists bores me," said Resnick, who, despite her liquor-wholesaler roots, regards drinking alcohol as a waste of time and money. Rios, a supporter, said he had a tough time convincing other Democrats that Resnick should be Senate minority leader.

They feared she lacked the finesse to schmooze opponents and would spend too much time "bickering" over trivia. "That didn't turn out to be the case," he said. Four children: David, 24; Leslie, 23; Sarah, 20; and Michael, 18. Politicalcommunity highlights: Arizona House, 1983-1990; Arizona Senate, 1990-present; Senate minority leader, 1992-prescnt; chairwoman, National Conference of State Legislators' Health Committee, 1992; served on four-member committee appointed by the National Conference of State Legislators to advise the White House on health-care reform, 1993.. control.

She stopped talking only after fellow Democrats dragged her away from the podium. She had developed heart palpitations and was gasping for breath. "The filibuster really gained Cindy a lot of respect from the other legislators," said Sen. Pete Rios, D-Hayden. Friends say Resnick always has been an achiever.

During her junior year at Rincon, she enrolled in a work-study program that allowed her to leave school early to work at a bank. Although Resnick was an honors student, she never considered college. College was to come later, after she got into politics. "In those days, if a woman went to college, it was either to become a teacher or a nurse," Resnick said. "I didn't want to do either." Resnick's parents, Bill and Mari-dean Gordon, were liquor wholesalers when they reared Cindy.

Since then, they have invented a margarita mix called Casa de Gordon, which they market to Arizona grocery stores. Political education A year out'of high school, she married Bernie Resnick, a bank teller 12 years her senior. Bernie recalls that at 19, his shy wife was starting to develop the outspoken streak that later would land in the Legislature. When Cindy found out that Bernie was making more money than she was, she marched in and asked her boss for an explanation. The two had been at the bank the same length of time.

"They told me he deserved more because he would have to support a family someday," Cindy recalled. She quit The couple had four children, and Bernie went to work as a used-car salesman. They moved into a tract home in east Tucson, where they still reside, and found creative ways to live on a shoestring budget. Family outings were to anyplace that was free. If Cindy took the children to McDonald's, they divided orders of hamburgers and fries.

"She had four kids, and I had CINDY RESNICK ON THE ISSUES CRIME: Resnick proposes the abolition of all plea bargaining. She believes that Congress should reconsider the mandatory sentences given to drug offenders, because drug criminals should be in community service, not filling prison space. She also supports making it illegal for juveniles to carry firearms. ECONOMY: Resnick believes the tax code must be changed to encourage businesses fo hire workers full-time and give them benefits. Incentives for employers to hire part-time workers need to be eliminated, along with incentives now in law that she believes encourage U.S.

corporations to 'move production overseas. Congress puts too much emphasis on the needs of large corporations and has developed an ethic that is anti-small business, Resnick says. She would seek to change that three, so we would go to the park and out to lunch' together," recalled Marsha Silverman, one of Cindy Resnick's campaign volunteers and a friend for more than 20 years. The two met in an obstetrician's office and discovered they were members of the same Jewish women's club. A few months later, both gave birth to boys they named Michael.

"Through all these years, she had always taken the time to call and say 'When are we having Silverman said. Bargain hunter Resnick may not socialize much, but she devotes time to bargain hunting. Bernie got her interested in antique toys, and she developed a passion for antique Santa dolls. The Santas stare out from a china cabinet in a master bedroom the Resnicks recently added to house more of their toy Cindy also loves bargain clothing. She's never been seen on the Senate PUT All END TO THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL Committee, which deals with Res-nick's pet interest.

But Day says Resnick "keeps to herself." "I have some really good friends who are Democrats, but I haven't had much contact with Cindy," Day said. "Adjectives that come to my mind are 'hard working' and I don't think she's good at small talk." Unless you know Resnick well, there are only two ways to get her gabbing. Then she will go non-stop, seemingly without taking a breath. One way is to ask her about her favorite topic: health-care reform. Last year, she was one of four state legislators nationwide selected to advise the White House on the issue.

The other is to talk politics. Gambling filibuster She loves to talk about her filibuster in March 1993, when Senate Democrats opposed a Republican proposal to ban gambling on Indian reservations. After a long night of bargaining and bantering, Resnick took the floor at 1 a.m. She yakked into a microphone for four straight hours, knowing that if she left, even for a sip of water, the Republicans would take 838-1234 said. "And I don't see her out much." Still a bookworm, Resnick spends weekends and evenings reading.

She's too busy for fiction, prefering arcane books, on political philosophy and textbooks she has studied since enrolling in college in 1988. She is majoring in history, working on a degree bit by bit by taking classes at Pima Community College, Phoenix College and the University of Arizona. Student of Machiavelli Her favorite author is Niccolo Machiavelli. After her election to the state Senate in 1992, she sent its president, John Greene, R-northeast, Phoenix, a copy of the Italian Renaissance statesman'sThe Prince. It's hard to know Greene's reaction.

He didn't return phone calls or a faxed request to talk about the gift. "I think he was flattered," Resnick said. "It's one of my favorite books. "The term 'Machiavellian' is misused. It is used to refer to people who have a touch of evil.

But Machiavelli simply said we need to define who is on our side, who is the enemy and who is in the middle." A Tucson Republican who would be expected to know Resnick is Sen. Ann Day. Day heads the Health A revolutionary way to sell real estate. For more information call 271-8906 WITH government when she attended Tucson's Rincon High School. She wasn't even an officer in a high-school club.

Close friends, like state Rep. Hcrschclla Horton, a fellow Democrat from Tucson's District 14, describe Rcsnick as smart, issue-oriented and fiercely loyal to family and friends. Acquaintances describe her as reclusive; enemies find her aloof. Sen. Jan Brewer, R-Glendale, might be expected to know Resnick well.

Although Brewer is a member of the political opposition, she and Resnick were elected to the Legislature the same year, in an era when few women held state office in Arizona. Brewer said she has become close friends with many female legislators, including Sen. Pat Wright, R-Glcn-dalc, chairwoman of the Finance Committee. "I don't see Cindy having that kind of relationship with anyone," Brewer Baseline anil agg I I PHONE CENTER The Arizona RemiNicThe Phoenix Gazette MOBILE W41IWI1XRI 7 rtl ill lit JnlnlHl LLY SUNDAY II ahere'? MONSTER out front) BE ON TOP AND IN TOUCH WITH YOUR BRAND NEW NOKIA 100! $29 INCLUDES BATTERY CHARGER MAKE A GREAT DEAL EVEN BETTER ajq, NOKI-CLAqJO CIGARETTE LIGHTER ADAPTER FOR THE NOKIA 100 (SAVE $20) 906-0049 9602 N. METRO PKWY WEST (Ned to Sporti Authority).

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