Tucson elections case goes to trial January 19

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last year Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-LD 30), the wannabe dictator of Tucson, shepherded a special bill through the Arizona Legislature designed to punish the "liberal bastion" of Tucson by using state law to override the Tucson City Charter and dictating to Tucson that its elections engage in the fiction of being nonpartisan, and requiring council members to be elected by ward only, rather than Tucson's unique system of being elected city-wide. Paton's partisan reasoning was that this would improve the chances of Republicans running for city council if they did not have an "R" behind their name, and would improve their chances of capturing Wards 2 and 4 on Tucson's eastside where Republican voter registration nearly equals that of Democrats.

Of course, Sen. Paton's specious logic is not supported by the history of Tucson elections, nor the results of last year's city council election. He is not the brightest bulb. Republicans captured one council seat, and almost succeeded in capturing a second council seat. Republican Mayor Bob Walkup is serving his third term.

Had Paton's ward only elections law been in place, the contest would not even have been close. The Democrats would have won their Ward seats in a walk. Steve Kozachik would already be Steve who? And the current recall effort by Humberto Lopez would be a complete waste of time and money. (It still is).

Tucson filed a legal challenge to Paton's punitive law on the grounds that there is legal precedent in Arizona that the city charter of an incorporated city controls its elections, and Paton's fiction that his law applies to all incorporated cities in reality was a special law that only affected Tucson elections. There are other communities in Arizona that would like to ditch the fiction of nonpartisan elections in favor of returning to partisan elections, which makes this case worth following.

The trial is scheduled to get underway in Pima County Superior Court on Tuesday, Jan. 19. The case will be argued in front of Judge Michael Miller in Courtroom 672 at 1:30 p.m. (Case No. C20097207 – Special Action).

Whichever party prevails at trial, you can be certain that the losing party will file an appeal. Election law cases tend to be litigated in court for years.