Campaign season is filled with big promises of sweeping change and lofty but generic goals β the kind of rhetoric that gets supporters energized.
So itβs particularly refreshing to hear candidates speak in specifics about how to be effective in meaningful, doable ways.
This is the mind frame of the candidates the Star endorses in Legislative District 10: David Bradley for Senate; and Stefanie Mach and Kirsten Engel for the House.
Bradley and Mach are incumbent Democrats and Engel, also a Democrat, is running for the first time.
Republican Randall Phelps is challenging Bradley, and Republican Todd Clodfelter is making his third run for the Legislature.
Bradley is running for his second term in the state Senate, and served from 2003 to 2011 in the state House.
His professional experience leading child welfare and family agencies makes him a knowledgeable and much-needed voice for the most vulnerable. He brings real-world practical experience to policy and operational discussions that make him a valuable asset for not only his district, but for children across Arizona.
That work informs his legislative approach. He told the Star heβs learned to focus on βthings that chip away around the edgesβ instead of waiting for massive changes to happen.
Bradley is pragmatic, a desirable quality in an elected official, especially one who is in the minority in the Maricopa County-focused and Republican-dominated Legislature.
Heβs worked to expand community schools, a program that brings social services and sometimes health care into schools. Reinforcing schoolsβ importance in neighborhoods and residentsβ lives helps strengthen bonds between campuses and families, which is to the good.
Mach, who describes her achievements in the Legislature as being βmore behind the scenes,β puts public education and sentencing reform as her top priorities.
We appreciate Machβs ability to frame big issues, such as public education, in a compassionate way that also conveys urgency and knowledge. Relying on crushing loads of homework and teaching to the standardized test doesnβt help students, she said.
βWe need to change our attitude about what is education,β Mach said. βFor example, things like learning how baking cookies is science.β
Machβs focus on criminal justice and prison conditions and sentences makes sense. She wants to address the roots of some criminal behavior, rather than only deal with the results after a person has been arrested, convicted and sentenced. Better and more drug treatment programs, could help people stay out of the court and corrections system in the first place, she said.
βPrison reform is needed not only to save money, but to have a safe system,β Mach said. βEverything is connected.β
All three candidates make the connection between Arizonaβs paltry investment in public education and the stateβs economic health and the number of people living in poverty.
Engel, who is a professor of environmental law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, said she was moved to advocate for public education from early childhood programs through the university level.
Her expertise in environmental and water law will also serve Southern Arizona well because she isnβt motivated by ideology, but by facts and laws.
The conversation about improving education, and the funding for it, often centers around K-12 schools. Engel, however, expanded her target to community colleges and Arizonaβs three state universities. She makes a convincing argument about the necessity of a strong education system.
Engel cited the Legislatureβs decision to end all state funding to Pima and Maricopa community colleges as a particularly harmful decision. Making it more difficult for people, particularly adults, to go back to school for re-training or an associateβs degree damages the economy.
The same is true at the university level, she said. Employers have a hard time finding qualified local employees, companies donβt want to relocate to a state with an anemic education system and recent college graduates have a hard time finding a good-paying job, so they leave Arizona.
Engel said she would close corporate tax loopholes, because βweβre not getting the benefitβ as a lure to companies.
βThe money in the budget is there, itβs a matter of priorities,β she said.
