David Garcia

UPDATED: Meet Newly Appointed Tucson City Councilor Rocque Perez, May 26th at Noon on Zoom

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UPDATE: You can meet and question Council Member Perez on TheDGT.org’s weekly Zoom show on May 26th at Noon! Sorry, this event has been cancelled due to the councilmember’s availability. We will reschedule this event soon. You must register in advance for this event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/I0oicNYJTa-wts4gqUDQWQ Ward 5 Councilman Richard Fimbres, in his 4th term, retired … Read more

Five men apply for vacant Ward 5 Council seat

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The deadline to apply to be the place holder for the vacant Tucson Ward 5 Council seat was today at 9 a.m. The Tucson City Clerk has listed five applicants: 1) John Alan Adkisson, accountant2) David Garcia, owner of Barrio Restoration Inc.3) Gabriel Holguin, Ward 5 Council Aide 4) Robert Jaramillo, retired US Navy, Sunnyside … Read more

Maricopa Democratic Chair Steve Slugocki on the End of One-Party Rule

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Maricopa County Democratic Party Chair Steven Slugocki

The 2018 Midterm elections were good for the Democrats in Arizona, especially if you were a woman in a state or citywide race whose first or last name began with a “K.” With the final results now determined, Kyrsten Sinema (United States Senate), Katie Hobbs (Secretary of State), Kathy Hoffman (Superintendent of Public Instruction), and Sandra Kennedy (Corporation Commission) emerged victorious in their statewide races. With a first-place showing in the initial round of the Phoenix Mayoral Race, Kate Gallego seems well positioned to win the runoff election in March over Daniel Valenzuela. Democrats also gained four seats in the Arizona State House making that chamber the closest between the two parties since 1966. Many Democrats also performed well in races for local school boards, judgeships, justice of the peace, and local constables.

Maricopa County Democratic Party Chair Steve Slugocki, in the middle of preparing for the annual reorganization elections for the county party, offered his perspective on the 2018 election results and where the party will go from here. The questions and responses are below:

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Is there a voter crisis in Arizona?

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Recently in July 2018  the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy issued a report  entitled “Arizona’s Voter Crisis”.

Here’s the report funded by the Citizens Clean Election Commission (CCEC) and on their website:

https://storageccec.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/public/docs/312-Voter-Crisis-Report-FINAL3.pdf

I attended a recent Tucson town hall on October 24 hosted by these 2 entities in which Joseph Garcia of ASU (director of communication & impact/co-author of the report) and Tom Collins E.D. of CCEC reported that  2.1 million or 45% of Arizona’s “potential voters” in 2016 (General) didn’t choose to exercise their fundamental right to vote.  They reported on the nationwide trend in erosion of voter participation & on groups which aren’t voting in high numbers:  youth, less educated, and Latinos.  Moreover, Independents have a lower voter turnout due to not voting in primaries (don’t feel that they belong to either party or don’t know they can vote in the primaries by requesting a party ballot), and also don’t feel part of the electoral process.

In August 2018, the voter turnout statewide (of registered voters) for the Arizona Primary was: 33.26%

In the Arizona Mid-term General Election 2018 the voter turnout statewide was:   64.33%.  And higher in Pima County: 70.55%

So the big question in the report was “Why Don’t More People vote?”  (see page 15). There are a myriad of answers including “too busy” “out of town”, etc. but a main reason seems to be lack of information on the candidates and voting process.   So that means better ways to reach voters needs to occur, along with more information.  We here at Blog for Arizona do our best in that regard.
Local reporters after the recent elections were saying that negative campaigning suppresses the vote, or backfires against candidates doing negative campaigning.

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Alison Jones will Include Community Groups as Pima Democrats Chair

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP8f1Pvubys

Alison Jones, a Democratic precinct committee person and activist, promises to reach out to progressive community and labor groups that have been shut out the Democratic party, if she is elected Pima County Democratic Party Chairperson.

“If we can collaborate all these groups, we will be a force to be reckoned with,” she said. “We have got to reach out to these marvelous organizations that share our values and want the same things we want,” naming Arizona Ground Game, Labor, Mi Familia Vota, Justice Alliance, Planned Parenthood, YWCA, and AZ Blue 2020. We need to be working with these groups and using the best ideas.”

She announced at the LD9 Democrats meeting on October 23 that she is challenging current Chair Jo Holt, who has held the position since November 2015. The new chair will be elected by precinct committee persons at a mandatory meeting on Saturday, Dec. 15.

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