After coming face-to-face with a firewall that could have burned down his entire farm during the 37,296-acre Backbone Fire 10 months ago, Steven Krystofiak realized something needed to be done in his congressional district.
This past January, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission adopted new congressional and legislative districts in Arizona. With these new districts, the entire Verde Valley will be placed in the new Congressional District 2.
Larson Newspapers sat down with Krystofiak, a Republican and one of Verde Valley’s two candidates for Congressional District 2 in the upcoming fall election who hopes to replace the area’s incumbent, Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, who lives in the Village of Oak Creek.
There are nine other republican candidates running against Krystofiak to challenge O’Halleran, according to the state’s reported ballots.
Q: What drew you to Camp Verde?
A: It’s a nice small town. This town is, I think, the perfect size. You have everything you really want. I’m a city guy too. I love cities, lived in cities, love visiting cities. I’ve been to over 60 countries. But everything that the city offers, this town pretty much has any ways. And it’s just 6000 people.
Q: What inspired you to run for an office?
A: I’m running for federal office so that the federal government does have to take care of the 42% of Arizona that is federal land, specifically with fire prevention and forest fires. With the fire that happened last year, there was the fire captain out of Sedona who was in charge of that fire. And he did a great job communicating every morning and every evening what was going on with the fire. And he kept saying we were the number one most important fire in the entire country last year at that time.
But we didn’t have enough resources. And I think the federal government’s number one job is public safety. And I think most people would realize that is our military, which I agree with. A lot of Arizonans would agree that is border security, but federal forest fires are not brought up enough as well. That’s public security, public safety. And that’s why I’m running.
Q: What appealed to you about the Republican party and your conservative values?
A: I’ve always been conservative. There are some great things that I think the government should do, but if I get elected to the federal government, I will vote “No,” because I don’t think the federal government should be doing it.
My definition of conservatism is where I disagree with some conservatives is when they want their moral standards, their religious standards enforced on everybody.
My definition of conservatism is if you’re not hurting anybody, do what you want.
Q: What ideology of Camp Verde that you will bring to Washington if you were elected?
A: Hard work. Everybody I’ve ever met in this town is a hard worker. And my campaign slogan, I really kind of came across it thinking of people around here. “It’s not politics if it makes sense.”
I could talk one-on-one with somebody and usually change their minds pretty well. Getting into a group of people, tends to be harder. But if I could just talk one-on-one with people, it’s not politics. It’s just common sense.
Q: And as the 11th largest district in the country, how would you look out for all the other communities and areas in Congressional District 2?
A: Having lived down in Phoenix, I see the difference between small-town rural Arizona versus large city commuting Maricopa County.
Even though we’re a little different, we’re all the same … And being in a rural district like here, small towns, we have similar problems. But you go down to Globe, Arizona, and they’re more of a mining town. So it’s a small town, but their focus is a lot of issues on mining. You come here and it’s a small town, but we really focus on water rights. But it’s still small towns, so small-town values.
Q: What would you want to solve in Washington?
A: [Other candidates] are being disingenuous, by bringing up issues that are not a federal issue. So I think that’s a dishonest maneuver where I’m bringing up issues that I want to actually tackle. Some people actually ask that question a lot … I can’t tell you what I’m going to solve, because that’s not how Congress works. There’s 435 of us, and it’s whatever committee you get put on, that’s where you have your influence.
But if I get put on the committee to oversee NASA, my work ethic is going to be focused on NASA. What I want to do is federal fire. That would be my political answer. But that’s dishonest.
Q: What has your campaigning experience been so far?
A: I’ve raised over $200,000, all from calling people who have known me for 15, 20, 30 years. These were people who were at my baptism when I was a newborn, people I went to little league soccer with.
A buddy of mine gave me $5,800 because I was on the football team in high school. Those are the people who are my campaign. I can tell you every single person who donated money. I’ve been to their weddings. They’ve been to my Christmas. I’ve eaten with them. I’ve had beers with them. I’ve known them for decades. None of my competition and your typical politician can’t say that because they go in that machine route.
I worked my butt off to get my 2,500 signatures. It was me and two volunteers, my best friend and my girlfriend. It was just us three getting 2,500 signatures.
Q: How will you manage your farm and business if you were elected?
A: What’s sad is how little Congress works. If you look at the calendar, they have the whole entire month of August off, which is harvest season. They work four days, Monday through Thursday usually, and then the next Monday through Thursday, and then they usually take like a full week off. And with my farm, I’m growing orchards and crops that are not a constant. I’m doing all the hard work now for my farm. But when you’re doing orchards, there’s a pruning season. It’s two weeks of pruning for all my trees and then I have to do that twice a year. I could work around a congressman’s calendar pretty well and hire help as well.
