Candidates for AZ State Treasurer
Doug Ducey, Barbara Leff & Thayer Verschoor

     

Over the last 20 years, Doug Ducey has been a business leader and a business builder. Through his innovation, team-building skills, and results-based managerial style, he has created thousands of jobs in America and worldwide, helped hundreds to realize their dreams of business ownership, and created a culture of accountability and a mission that has become a model of business best practices.


Doug Ducey was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. His dad was a policeman and his mom stayed at home with his brother, his sister, and him. When Doug came to Arizona in 1982 to attend college, he didn’t know a single person. That soon changed, and four years later, when he graduated Arizona State University with his Bachelor of Science in Finance, Doug Ducey had begun to develop deep roots in the community. He had grown to love the Western spirit and Arizona. Arizona is Doug's home. It’s where he met his wife of 20 years, Angela and where he has raised his three sons. It is also where Doug built and developed two businesses that created jobs for Arizonans across the state.

While majoring in Finance at ASU, Doug worked for Hensley & Co., the local Anheuser- Busch distributorship. Upon graduation, he joined Procter & Gamble and began a career in sales and marketing. There he was trained in management, preparing him for the next step in his entrepreneurial journey back to Arizona. Motivated by Fresh Ideas, Business Sense, and Accountability Doug is an optimist and a doer. Yet he has found himself increasingly disappointed in our government and our leaders. In so many ways they have seemed out-of-touch, arrogant, and wasteful. Just look at our current financial state. Our budget is structurally broken, and the financial state of affairs is a mess.

If Doug is elected, he will spend the majority of his time working in two areas: First, being a good manager of the state’s money and ensuring the Treasurer’s office is professionally and competently run. That’s the primary focus. And second, he wants to make himself available to whoever
is the next governor – whether he or she is a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent – to help lead the charge in bringing new jobs to the state. Doug knows a little about creating jobs; he knows how entrepreneurs think; and he can add value to whoever leads our state for the next four years. We’ve got to create jobs and get this economy back on track. The State Treasurer can be a vocal and integral part of that.

Based on every conversation Doug has had with Arizonans, he's found they want an end to the non-stop partisan sickering, and they want elected officials who consider themselves Arizonans first. We need a team of leaders in state government who can work together and put the interests of the state first.

Barbara Leff is the State Senator from Legislative District 11. She served three terms in the House and is currently in her fourth term in the Senate. Barbara is the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Chairman of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee, Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of the Health and Rules Committees.


Barbara graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor's Degree from Boston University. She also has a Master's Degree in Social Work from Simmons College. Barbara's work experience includes being a Medical and Psychiatric Social Worker for the Veteran's Administration, a Certified Community
College Instructor for the Maricopa County Community College System and the owner of a small retail sporting goods business in Scottsdale. Barbara also has years of experience in the volunteer sector, including running a program that resettled Russian refugees in the Valley. Her focus was to create
and run a program to help the refugees be successfully employed and therefore, self-sufficient. Barbara's work and volunteer experiences led her to the world of politics. She volunteered on Jon Kyl's first campaign for the United States Senate, spending many hours working on his behalf.

Barbara has been married to Dr. Edmund Leff for 40 years. They have two children. The Leffs have lived in Paradise Valley for 30 years.

Barbara’s legislative achievements include sponsoring bills which improve the quality of health care; prevent frivolous lawsuits; protect social security numbers to prevent identity theft; put felons in jail for life with a third felony conviction; allow people to ship wine to Arizona and to order wine
directly from small wineries; educate children on the prevention of skin cancer and make sure tobacco taxes are used for their intended purpose which is to help people stop smoking. Barbara was also the sponsor of “The Teenage Driver Safety Act,” which places reasonable restrictions on new teenage drivers.

To strengthen Arizona’s economy, Barbara has worked on policies to lower taxes, reduce red tape and encourage entrepreneurship, including her "angel investor" legislation to promote investing in small Arizona technology companies. In 2009, Barbara sponsored successful legislation (SB 1403) that will bring high paying jobs to Arizona by providing tax incentives for renewable energy manufacturing, research and development and headquarters facilities to locate in Arizona. Arizona should be the leader in the rapidly expanding solar industry and this law will give us the tools we need to accomplish this goal.

In 2010 Barbara successfully sponsored legislation (SB1189) that changes the standard used in both civil and criminal actions regarding the admissibility of expert opinion testimony. Arizona will now use the Daubert Standard instead of the Frye standard. This finally gives defendants protection from the admissibility of junk science and raises the level of expert opinions to those with a true scientific basis.

Thayer Verschoor was born right here in Arizona in 1961, the son of a mechanic and a school teacher. Thayer's father worked at the Yuma Proving
 rounds, and his mother was his 7th grade Civics teacher. Growing up in Wellton, about 30 miles east of Yuma, Thayer lettered in football, tennis, and
track in high school, and was elected president of the Science Club. He graduated from Antelope Union High School in 1979.


After high school, Thayer worked for Yuma News Inc. and then for the Wellton Mohawk Irrigation District until beginning his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1981. After serving his church in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, Thayer joined the U.S. Army in 1983. Between 1983 and 1986, Thayer served as a Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) Specialist; a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Ft. Bragg,
NC; and attended the Jungle Operation Training Center in Panama. Between 1986 and 1992, he served in the active Army Reserves as the Assistant NBC Noncommissioned Officer in charge of NBC training.

Thayer attended Mesa Community College from 1987- 1989, and was elected Student Body President and Chairman of the College Republicans Club. In 1993, Thayer earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from Arizona State University. Thayer has been a Precinct Committeeman in District 30 (now LD22) in Gilbert/Mesa since 1987. He also served as Vice-Chairman and as State Committeeman. In 1997, the Thayer was elected Chairman of District 30 (now LD22). Under his leadership, the district saw an increase in Precinct Committeemen of over 100%, and substantial growth in the district treasury.

Thayer and his wife Carla, have been married for twenty years, and have 5 children, ages 17-25. Their 3 sons served missions one in New Jersey and two in Spain.