Navajo woman fails in leadership campaign

by The Associated Press on Nov 08, 2006, under Elections, Local

WINDOW ROCK – Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. won a second term Tuesday, handily defeating a challenger vying to become the first female leader of the nation’s largest Indian reservation.

With all of the tribe’s 110 chapter houses reporting results, Shirley had 34,813 votes to Lovejoy’s 30,214.

No Navajo leader has served back-to-back terms since 1982, when Peter MacDonald left office after serving 12 years.

Shirley, 58, told supporters, “Some people may disagree but the majority know we’re leading a nation in the right direction.”

Lovejoy, a former New Mexico state lawmaker and a member of the Public Regulation Commission, had hoped to pull off an upset in unseating Shirley, a former tribal council delegate who has guided the Navajo Nation for four years.

Conceding defeat Tuesday night, she congratulated Shirley on stage and said she hoped to work with the president. She said she hoped he would incorporate some of the ideas she broached on the campaign trail, including greater openness in government, into his second term.

Her own candidacy, she said, was ground-breaking.

“It sure opened up opportunities for women that didn’t think this was ever possible,” she said.
Your voices: Election 2006

Your Voices: Election 2006

Tucson voters speak.

Producer: Tucson Citizen

Slide 1 of 15 [Next | Previous].
Audrey Gamez, 64: "She has done a good job with more money for schools and student vocational education," said Gamez of Gov. Janet Napolitano. "It's important because if you have a trade, you have a head start so you can move on to college if you want to."
Source: XAVIER GALLEGOS/Tucson Citizen

Slideshow #2

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ELECTION RESULTS

• Statewide and local election results

• Proposition election results

• National
election coverage

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• Arizona’s new look

• At a glance: Four key issues

• Judge overturns election map

• Precinct 25 seen as Hispanics’ bellwether

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• Smoking, eminent domain take hits from voters

• Navajo woman fails in leadership campaign

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Online poll: What election result most surprised you?

Gov. Janet Napolitano's win: 2%

Sen. Jon Kyl's win: 17%

Gabrielle Giffords' win in Congressional District 8: 10%

Proposition 107, "Protect Marriage Arizona": 44%

Proposition 207, eminent domain: 7%

Propositions 201 and 206, the smoking bans: 16%

681 users voted

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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