Political Notebook: Tucson Dems may have flubbed finding Rep. Cano's replacement

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has received the names of three candidates to replace Rep. Andrés Cano, but questions about the process could delay the selection.

On Saturday, Democratic precinct committee members in Legislative District 20 voted Betty Villegas, Lourdes Escalante and Elma Alvarez as the three people supervisors could consider to carry out the remainder of the term for Cano, who resigned July 4 to go to Harvard.

But the two other members of the state Legislature from that district, Democrats Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales and Rep. Alma Hernandez, said in a letter that they want the candidate selection redone.

Gonzales and Hernandez pointed to inadequate notice of the meeting, the use of Zoom as a way to attend and vote, and the limits on questions by precinct committee members.

“Although we do not have a candidate in this race, as the sitting legislator and senator for this district, we believe it is part of our job to ensure that this is done correctly on behalf of our district,” they said.

In a letter, Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano transferred the three-candidate list to the county clerk on Monday. The letter suggested notification of the meeting was adequate — “sent via email to all the PCs and the email list in LD20” and “added to the LD20 website no fewer than 48 hours before the meeting took place.”

But the Tucson Sentinel reported LD20 Chair Leslie Stalc initially refused to provide journalists the Zoom information to attend the meeting and that Pima County Democratic Party Chair Eric Robbins “acknowledged that the meeting might have been held in violation of public meeting laws.”

When asked if the LD20 meeting will be held again due to open meeting law violations, Robbins said in a text message, “we are waiting to take direction from the (Board of Supervisors). Several potential avenues.”

State law says actions taken at public meetings in violation of open meeting law are “null and void.”

County Administrator Jan Lesher said the board received an email from the county attorney’s office indicating it could not “confirm or deny the allegations” of open-meeting law violations and that “it’s not our place to investigate those questions.”

Lesher said the board’s vote on a replacement will be on its July 25 agenda.

When a vacancy occurs in the state Legislature,

Arizona law holds that the precinct committeepersons of the same political party and legislative district of the resigned member must nominate three qualified replacements to transfer to the Board of Supervisors within five days of the resignation when the Legislature is in session.

Supervisors then vote on a replacement. Villegas received about 26% of the 195 votes cast at Saturday’s meeting. She’s the director of South Tucson’s Housing and Community Development department and formerly served as an interim county supervisor after the death of Richard Elias.

Escalante, who received about 18% of the LD 20 vote, is the executive director of Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, an organization that advocates for indigenous rights and sovereignty.

Alvarez, with 17% of the vote, teaches as an instructional specialist at TUSD’s Miller Elementary School.

Ward-only ballot effort fails

The latest effort to change Tucson’s hybrid election system has failed.

Supporters of the “

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Tucson Election Equality Act“ turned in 313 signatures less than the threshold required to put the act on the ballot, which is 14,826 valid signatures.

The intent of the act was to make city council members be elected strictly by the voters in their wards.

In Tucson’s longstanding system, voters in the individual wards choose the general-election candidates through partisan primary elections. But in the general elections, all of the city’s voters can cast ballots for candidates in each city ward.

The system has been challenged repeatedly in ballot initiatives, in court and in the Legislature, but voters have never approved a change to so-called “ward-only” elections, and federal courts have held that the system is constitutional.

Mailer melee in Tucson Ward 1

Now that ballots are in city voters’ hands, mailers are landing in Ward 1 mailboxes, prompting the traditional disputes over their content and adherence to law.

The contest between incumbent Democrat Lane Santa Cruz and challenger Miguel Ortega produced a flurry of mailers this week, one of which jumped out for its mysterious origin.

A mailer criticizing Santa Cruz for her votes on police funding and this year’s failed Tucson Electric Power initiative, among other things, was labeled as coming from the Arizona Prosperity Initiative PAC.

But the city of Tucson has no record of this political action committee registering with the city as required, or of being sent notice of this expenditure as required. In addition, Santa Cruz said she did not receive a copy of the mailer in advance, an additional requirement.

Ortega, meanwhile, was targeted in a mailer that told him to “leave the trash talk where it belongs.” It was sponsored by the Working Families Party National PAC, and previous pro-Santa Cruz mailers were paid for by Mijente AZ PAC, the political action committee of a group, Mijente, Santa Cruz has allied with.

Ciscomani tops Engel in fundraising

Campaign fundraising got a fast start in the quarter that ended June 30 for the two candidates heading toward a rematch in Congressional District 6.

Incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican, reported raising $815,000 in the quarter.

Kirsten Engel, the UA law professor and Democrat who narrowly lost to Ciscomani last year, reported raising $431,000.

As the Engel campaign noted, this new run was not announced until April 12, after the quarter had already begun.