Residents of Legislative District 2, which includes South Tucson, Sahuarita, Green Valley, Santa Cruz County and runs south to the border with Mexico, face a complex set of challenges that include economic development, suburban expansion into rural areas and deficient infrastructure.
The district has been represented by Democrats Sen. Andrea Dalessandro, Rep. Rosanna Gabaldon and Rep. Daniel Hernandez and all are campaigning for re-election. Republican Anthony Sizer is also running for the state House.
Based on the field of candidates, we believe LD 2 would be best served by retaining Hernandez and adding Chris Ackerley in the House and Shelley Kais in the Senate.
Ackerley, a Republican, served a term in the state House from 2015 to 2017. He is a public school physics and math teacher and has led the state teachers’ union, the Arizona Education Association.
Ackerley brings direct knowledge from inside the classroom to the Legislature, a necessity in convincing Republican lawmakers that public education is not a solely Democratic issue. He took days off without pay to join the RedForEd educators’ walkout in the spring.
“It was a powerful movement,” he told the Star’s Editorial Board. “It brought legislative leadership and the governor to the point where they recognized the extent of the problem.
“I am troubled by how partisan the debate has become,” Ackerley said. “The underlying structure of public education is broken and for the last 30 years we’ve put patch over patch.”
Shelley Kais, also a Republican, is a business and training consultant who ran unsuccessfully for the Legislature two years ago. Today, she is a much stronger and more knowledgeable candidate who has clearly studied LD 2 issues and thinks in a big-picture way. Kais, when asked how she views public safety, answered in a comprehensive way. “Public safety starts when you wake up in the morning,” she said, citing a reliable electric grid, confidence that the 911 system will work if needed, and more. “It’s why we all sit here in confidence.”
Kais said education is a necessity for prosperity, as did all the candidates, but she set the issue in a larger context. “We can invest in education or populate a prison,” she said, adding her concern that Arizona has failed to think about education and the school system strategically.
We recommend Daniel Hernandez for another term in the state House based on his practical approach to legislation, which, because he was in the minority party, required a bipartisan approach.
“It’s about trying to find that common ground,” he said, acknowledging that sometimes teaming with more moderate Republicans to kill bad bills from right-wing Republicans is a win in its own right.
Hernandez, a co-founder of the LGBT Caucus, has served on the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board, so he also brings a public-education perspective to the Legislature. He’s been endorsed by both the Tucson Metro Chamber and the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona.
The Star endorses Chris Ackerley and Daniel Hernandez for state House, and Shelley Kais for state Senate in Legislative District 2.
