Jim Sinex, candidate for Ward 6 Council at DGT Salon

by Carolyn Classen, blogger

Political newcomer Jim Sinex, a retired Tucson High School science teacher is also running for the Ward 6 Council seat. He joins the field with 3 other Dems in the August 5, 2025 primary.

“Please join us to hear and question Jim Sinex, candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for Tucson City Council, Ward 6 on May 19th at 6pm on Zoom. Please carefully note that this event will be at 6pm to accommodate the preference of the candidate.

You must register in advance for this event:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ztx0XkytQVGQmvO64rjs6g

Jim says about himself:

I grew up in Tucson and attended TUSD schools White, Wakefield, Pistor and Cholla. I took time afterward working various jobs and going backpacking, until I finished training to become a mechanical draftsman. That led me to Fort Huachuca where I worked with computers within a contract for the US Army. There, I was trained in “Total Quality Management” which was a method championed by W. Edwards Deming. The method, for me, sits on two points: commitment to continual improvement, and the idea that by solving big problems, smaller ones might also be solved.

During this time, I traveled the roads of southern Arizona wondering what to do next with my life. I found that at the center of my concerns was land use. That led to a return to college and a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. There, I began to focus on a lifelong practice of thinking in terms of populations. Then, I became a public-school science teacher.

These experiences led me to an understanding that the way we elect our council in Tucson runs counter to a hope for a “small d” democratic society. Consider, if our state legislature decided that all of Arizona would vote for every legislative district statewide in the general election. Thus, voters in Phoenix would be selecting our representatives. We in Tucson would be quite concerned that we were being disenfranchised, as Republicans could easily take full control of our state government. I believe that is what we do here with our at-large election system. By holding a ward primary and a citywide general election, we allow the majority to select representation for the minority. This has happened three times in Ward 6 in recent memory, where a council seat was awarded to a candidate who had lost our ward. Thus, I seek a more democratic Democratic Party, as well.”

His campaign website, www.jimsinex.org

A 2/1/25 guest opinion by Sinex about why he is running was published in the AZ Daily Star: https://tucson.com/opinion/column/local-opinion-reasoning-on-running-for-city-council/article_2e7094bc-dfe9-11ef-bf37-1f8d8282357f.html

Carolyn’s note: 4 Democrat candidates are running for Ward 6 Council since current Councilmember Karin Uhlich was appointed last year to be a place holder to December 2025. The other three are Theresa Riel on the PCC Governing Board (District 2), personal injury attorney Leighton Rockafellow, Jr., and Miranda Schubert, Operations Manager of KXCI radio who ran for this seat in the August 2021 Dem primary. They have all spoken previously at DGT (Schubert 1/27, Riel 2/17, Rockafellow 3/3).