Tucson is well known for an initiative it took to make access to political participation open to a greater number of its citizens. It has made public matching funds available to candidates. To be eligible for the funds a candidate must first raise 200 contributions of ten dollars or more from contributors who are city residents. After that number has been reached the candidate may continue to raise money from contributors regardless of residence.

The funds that candidates raise will be matched, dollar for dollar, until the total equals 20 cents per registered voter. This sum changes, of course, during each election cycle as the number of registered voters changes.

A major question is:  Exactly what affect will the Legislature’s mandate of non-partisan elections have on public financing?  Will the order to move to ward-only, non-partisan elections destroy public financing? Remains to be seen.

Note: The requirements for mayoral candidates are slightly higher, but the principle is the same. Click

The question of how we will elect our council members is really two questions: The first is the question whether or not we should change the voting and candidacy procedures; the second is the question of who will make that change.

I think there is probably a lot of sentiment (even from Democrats) favoring non-partisan voting by wards, rather than city-wide. Forgive me if I’m skeptical of the Legislature’s pose of benign disinterest and fairness, but I don’t think the change will necessarily get more Republicans on the Council. Politics watchers know who’s who, and folks will be permitted to announce their allegiances on their campaign material.

It’s not clear—at least not to me—what the political parties’ role will be (if any) in get-out-the-vote campaigns and other pre-election activities

Far more important at this point is who should be permitted to make these changes—the citizens of Tucson or the state legislature. Tucson is a Charter City. Our Charter is something like our constitution, setting out the rules and regulations by which we govern ourselves. There is more to it than simply how we elect council members.

Should we permit the legislature to dip down into the charter and change the manner in which we elect the members of our governing body? Certainly not, and the Council would be well advised to to take vigorous legal action. Otherwise, what else might the Republican legislature be tempted to change?

If we want change we should be the ones to do it, not Maricopa County. (Read the Charter)

The Republican dominated legislature has ordered Tucson to change the way it elects its City Council.

If the Legislature’s mandate survives a possible court challenge (the Council will decide on a challenge at its August 6th meeting) the elections will become ‘non-partisan.’ There will be a primary election in each ward, participated in by the voters of that ward. The top two vote-getters will face one another in the General Election. If a primary candidate receives 50% of the vote plus one vote more, that candidate will be elected.

The big change is that we will no longer vote city-wide for our council members in the general election. Under our present system we go to the polls and vote for six candidates…one from each ward whether we are residents of that ward or not. This frosts the Republicans who claim that even though the majority of voters in a ward are Republicans the Democratic majority my elect a Democrat as their council-person.

Under the new rules if there is a contest in any ward only the voters in that ward will vote in the general election.

No one will run as a Democrat or Republican or a Green. But of course we’ll all know. Although you must appear on the ballot with no party designation  your campaign material can still identify you: “Vote for Peter Pol…independent Republican.”

It’s at this point that the whole electoral process becomes a jungle of ambiguity. The way things are now you get on the primary ballot by submitting petition signatures proportional to the number of votes your party gave to the mayoral candidate in the previous election. For instance, in Ward 3 a Democrat would require 219 signatures, a Republican 106, a Green 5 and a Libertarian 4.

Of course under the new system there are no party primaries. So how many petition signatures will be required to run as a ‘no party’ candidate?

Here’s what the City’s candidate information pamphlet says:

The number of valid signatures on the “Nomination Other Than by Primary” petition must be equal to at least three percent (3%) of the total number of registered voters who are not members of a qualified political party.  For Council Member candidates, the total is calculated using the total number of registered voters in the ward for which the candidate is seeking office.  According to State law, the number of valid signatures required on Nomination Other Than by Primary petitions will be based on the voter registration figures for the City of Tucson as of March 1, 2009.  The City Clerk will provide signature requirements after this date.

Clear? Sure it is. Things get worse, as you’ll see in Part Two