‘Paton’s Law’ before the Arizona Supreme Court today

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Jonathan "Payday" Paton, the wannabe tin horn dictator of Tucson, lost at the Arizona Court of Appeals on "Paton's law" in the case of City of Tucson v. State of Arizona and Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Senator Jonathan Paton (2 CA-CV 2010-0083). "Paton's law" would force the City of Tucson to have non-partisan, ward only elections.

Today, Arizona Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne will argue City of Tucson v. State of Arizona and Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Senator Jonathan Paton before the Arizona Supreme Court at 2:00 p.m., at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale.

Tucson official called the law an overreaching attempt by state Republicans to interfere in local affairs, and the Court of Appeals agreed. I suspect the Arizona Supreme Court will affirm the Court of Appeals for a definitive final decision.

As I posted previously, Payday Paton already has a "Plan B" should he lose in court. About that 'tyranny of the majority' thing – A state initiative to strip Tucson of its right to govern itself:

So what are our evil GOP overlords from the state of Maricopa and the wannabe tinhorn dictator of Tucson, Jonathan "Payday" Paton, going to do now? They have filed an initiative to change the Arizona Constitution to do away with partisan elections and to impose a "top two" open primary system. Open primary system would kill Arizona's sole municipal partisan race – East Valley Tribune:

A proposed initiative to create an open primary system for statewide, congressional and legislative races would also wipe out the state's only municipal partisan race in Tucson.

If approved, city primaries would allow all registered voters to select among all candidates regardless of political affiliation. Then the top two vote getters would face off in the general election.

State lawmakers voted last year to ban partisan city elections, a move that sponsors conceded would affect only Tucson.

That law, however, was overruled earlier this year by the Arizona Court of Appeals. The judges said the state Constitution gives charter cities like Tucson broad authority over matters that are solely of local concern.

That ruling, however, would be overridden if voters approve the initiative next year, as it would amend the Arizona Constitution.

So our evil GOP overlords from the state of Maricopa want to give all of Arizona the right to decide how the citizens of Tucson are to conduct their local elections. Now that is the definition of a "tyranny of the majority." So much for the "small government, local control" rhetoric of the GOP. Our "big brother" colonial overlords want to crush the right of self-determination and the freedom of the citizens of Tucson to govern themselves. They would appoint Jonathan "Payday" Paton the viceroy of their colony of Tucson if they could.

The Arizona Daily Star published an editorial opinion on November 27 critical of Payday Paton's attempt to dictate the electoral system of Tucson to its residents, Tucson's city election system works pretty well:

Tucson's charter says candidates run exclusively in their ward during the primary but citywide in the general election.

The idea is that ward voters will screen primary candidates, to advance those they believe will represent the ward's interests. But at general election time, candidates must prove that they'll also look out for the entire city, not just parochial neighborhood needs.

There are pros and cons to Tucson's method, but voters have the power to change it and they haven't chosen to do so.

* * *

In the end, we believe voters should have considerable discretion is deciding the structure of government. That may not be what happens in Tucson, though. The state Supreme Court recently agreed to consider a challenge to Tucson's ward-primary, citywide general election system, as well as the partisan nature of Tucson elections. (We're the only city in the state that has partisan races.)

For better or worse, Tucsonans chose this system, and it's a decision best kept local.

I would argue that Payday Paton has earned himself the top spot on the Tucson Weekly's annual "Get Out of Town!" feature, but editor senior writer Jim Nintzel has designated Payday Paton his GOP talking head at his weekly gig on Arizona Illustrated on PBS, so that now appears unlikely for all the wrong reasons.

David Fitzsimmons sent this "Fitzmas" card to Payday Paton and Jodi Bain, John Munger's attack dog on the Rio Nuevo District Board the other day. For the background story, see The GOP 'troika' behind Rio Nuevo.