ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES: Fri., June 12, 2009

Paton's bill to eliminate partisan city elections advances

By Christian Palmer

Partisan municipal elections in Arizona will vanish if legislation by Sen. Jonathan Paton is signed into law, but supporters of the bill say its ramifications would be far greater than just the removal of party affiliations on city ballots. Paton's proposal, S1123, passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8, on a vote of 6-1, without amendments.

On paper, the proposal has statewide consequences. But in reality, municipal elections with clear partisan designations occur only in Tucson.

Jack Camper, president of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, testified in favor of the bill and told the Arizona Capitol Times that Tucson's election system injects useless partisan politics into the most simple local government functions.

“There's no Republican garbage, there's no Democrat playgrounds. There's just trash and playgrounds,” he said. “We don't think it takes partisan politics to take care of our city, to get public safety and economic development going the way it should and to get trash picked up.”

Camper bemoaned the city's combined use of individual ward primaries and general elections that force candidates to compete in the city at large. Paton's proposal also mandates that residents can only cast municipal ballots to elect representatives from their own wards.

The system in use now creates a natural disadvantage for a minority party. Right now, Republicans are outnumbered in Tucson and unrepresented on the six-member council, although Tucson's mayor, Bob Walkup, is a Republican.

“If you're going to run in your ward and then lose citywide, that doesn't make any sense because you can't represent your ward,” Walkup said. “In your ward, as a Republican, you may win the ward, but lose citywide. Or, as a Democrat, you may lose in your ward but then the rest of the city is electing you. Or vice-versa.”

FULL STORY: http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/freestory.cfm?id=11387