Do Independent voters vote for Independent candidates? About 29% of the registered voters in Pima County are now declaring No Party/Independent/Other affiliation (see Pima County Recorder’s Office website by clicking here.)

For the first time (as far as I know) there were more Independent candidates in a legislative race (LD 28 Senate) than candidates from the major parties. There was one Democrat (the incumbent), one Republican, and two Independents running in that legislative race.

But it seems that Independent candidates don’t receive a lot of votes.

November 2006 General Election: Jay Quick ran as an Independent in CD 8 House, and got 1.68% of the vote (3523 votes). This past August, 2010 he ran again for CD 8 House as a Republican in the primary, and received 2.29% of the vote (1648 votes), slightly more percentage wise.

November 2008 General Election: Ralph Nader ran for U. S. President as “Nonpartisan” and got only 0.51 % of the vote in Pima County (1995 votes). He formerly ran for President as a Green Party candidate.

November 2010 General Election: Harley Meyer just ran in CD 7 House as an Independent, and got 2.83% of the vote (4506 votes).

In LD 27 Gene Chewning just ran for State House as an Independent & got 6.46% of the vote (4,114 votes). He ran before for the same seat as a Republican in November 2006, and got 19.54% of the vote (11,327 votes)– which shows that major party affiliation does help.

And in LD 28 Senate, Ted Downing (formerly a Democratic legislator) got 6.25% of the vote (3,085 votes) running as “Nonpartisan and Independent”, while Dave Ewoldt as an Independent (formerly with the Green party) got 2.86% of the vote (1,414 votes). Final tallies are not complete for these two races either.

Downing ran for this same seat in the September, 2006 Primary as a Democrat and got 45.71% of the vote (7746 votes). He only got 3085 votes this time in the 2010 General Election, so leaving the Democratic party seems to have lessened his chances of vote-getting.

Running as an Independent frees the candidate from a Primary Election challenge, but they don’t have a political party “machine”/resources to help them get out the vote, nor a political party platform to assist the voters in deciding what these candidates stand for. Being “independent” minded may not be enough for today’s discerning voter.

And I suspect that voters who choose “Other/No Party/Independent/Non partisan” status do so as they want to avoid party labels (or are unhappy with their former party), the closed Primaries, and want the freedom to pick & choose between all the Political Party candidates (Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent, etc.) in the General Election.

Time will tell if any independent/non partisan candidate will win a seat in Southern Arizona in the future.

UPDATE: Only Independent politicians in Southern AZ have been Ward 2 Councilmember Carol West (who changed from a Democrat), and District 3 Pima County Supervisor Ed Moore (who changed from a Republican).

Three debates are scheduled between 2 term Democratic CD 8 Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her two challengers, Republican Jesse Kelly (project manager for family contracting business) and Libertarian Dr. Steve Stoltz (an engineer at Raytheon). The events are listed below, followed by the candidates’ campaign websites & photos.

1) AZ-08 General Election Debate hosted by the Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA) in partnership with KUAT and Cox Communications. Panel of Journalists to question the candidates: Christopher Conover, Arizona Public Media; Dan Shearer, Green Valley News & Sun; Jim Nintzel (Tucson Weekly), and Emily Fritze of ASUA.

Monday, October 18, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)

University of Arizona – Student Union, 3rd Floor Grand Ballroom, 1303 E. University Blvd.

Arizona Public Media will air the Arizona Congressional District 8 Debate live at 7PM on PBS-HD Channel 6, NPR-KUAZ 89.1FM/1550AM, and online at http://ondemand.azpm.org

2) AZ-08 General Election Debate hosted by the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce

Wednesday, October 20, 5:30 p.m.

Buena High School Performing Arts Center

5225 E. Buena School Road, Sierra Vista, AZ

3) AZ-08 General Election Debate on KUAT’s Arizona Illustrated (www.azpm.org)

Friday, October 22, 6:00 p.m.

The debate will air Friday evening for one hour as part of the regularly scheduled Arizona Illustrated program on KUAT Channel 6.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITES:

Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords (D): www.gabriellegiffords.com

Jesse Kelly (R), www.votejessekelly.com

Dr. Steve Stoltz (L): www.stevestoltzforcongress.com

CD 8 registered voters at time of 8/24/10 primary:
Democrats 139,982, Libertarians 2826, Republicans 157,327, Greens 832, Others 120,772 for a total of 421,739 registered voters. Update of # of voters for General Election not available online from Sec. of State’s website.

CD 8 encompasses all of Cochise county, and parts of Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties (see wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona%27s_8th_congressional_district)

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Jesse Kelly

Steve Stoltz

Two CD 7 debates are scheduled for the evening of October 13, and it will seem the candidates are in two places at about the same time, here in Tucson.

The first CD 7 debate between Democratic 4 term Congressman Raul Grijalva and his 3 challengers– Mortgage loan servicer George Keane (L), physicist/rocket scientist Ruth McClung (R), and former math teacher Harley Meyer (I) will be at 5:00 to 6 p.m. at Pima Community College Desert Vista Campus, 5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz, Pueblo Building cafeteria.

This event is co-hosted by the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Public Media, ASUA, and Pima Community College Desert Vista Campus. FREE and OPEN to the public, so show up to ask your questions of the candidates.

Campaign websites:
Congressman Raul Grijalva (D), www.grijalvaforcongress.com
George Keane (L)
Ruth McClung (R), www.ruth4az.com
Harley Meyer (I), www.harleymeyer.com

Also on Wednesday, October 13, Arizona Illustrated at the UA will televise a forum with Congressman Grijalva, Keane, McClung, and Meyer. They will tape this interview earlier in the day. You can then watch it at 6:30pm on Channel 6 KUAT. Or online at www.ondemand.azpm.org/ usually a few hours prior and thereafter.

CD 7 registered voter totals (from Arizona Sec. of State’s office after the 8/24/10 primary):
Democrats 142,283, Libertarians 2740, Republicans 75,437, Greens 674, Others 103,750 for a total of 324,884. An updated count for the General Election is not available online as yet.
Congressional District 7 encompasses parts of five Arizona counties: La Paz, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, and all of Yuma County.

Congressman Grijalva has served this new district since January, 2003 and it was created in time for the November, 2002 election, based on the increase in population in Arizona from the 2000 Census.