The excitement over the presidential election is past, but Arizona’s voter-registration numbers continue to climb.

From last November’s election through April 1, voter registration rose by more than 100,000 people, or 3.4 percent, according to figures from the Arizona Secretary of State.

In all, Arizona had 3,087,996 voters.

Republicans continue to dominate the voter rolls, with 1,137,262 voters, but the party posted the smallest percentage gain, up 1.7 percent.

Democrats were next, with 1,046,140 voters, up 2.3 percent.

The largest percentage gain was among Libertarians, who posted an 11.6 percent gain in registration, for a total of 20,256 voters.

The Green Party, which gained ballot status last year, boosted its numbers 5 percent, to 4,210 voters.

Voters who are unaffiliated with any party continue to be the third-largest voting group in Arizona, with 880,128 voters, a 6.8 percent gain from November.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said the numbers show strong growth, and his office will continue to do voter outreach even though this is a non-election year.

The last day to register for the general elections in South Tucson, Marana and Sahuarita is Monday.

Elections will be held May 19 in Marana and South Tucson, and between April 16 and May 19 in Sahuarita, where ballots will be mailed, the Pima County Recorder’s Office said.

People who have moved or changed their name since their last registration must fill out a new form.

Forms are available at the recorder’s office, Arizona Motor Vehicle Division branches, post offices, libraries, political party headquarters, city and town halls and on the recorder’s Web site, www.recorder.pima.gov.

Voters in Marana, Sahuarita and South Tucson cast ballots for municipal council members Tuesday in nonpartisan primary elections.

To be elected in the primary, candidates must receive votes equal to more than 50 percent of the ballots cast. If all of the seats aren’t filled, a runoff election will be held May 19. The number of candidates to advance to the runoff is equal to twice the number of unfilled seats. In other words, if there are three seats left to fill, the top six candidates advance to the primary.

Primary results

South Tucson (Vote for 3) total votes: 323

Paul Diaz* 26.9%

John Felix 29.4% in runoff

Ildefonso Green* 30.0% in runopff

Herman Lopez 26.0%

Carlos Salaz 66.2% elected

Pete Tadeo* 67.5% elected

Marana (Vote for 4) total votes: 2,998

Patti Comerford* 52.3% elected

Herb Kai* 64.2% elected

Kelle Maslyn 48.9% in runoff

Carol McGorray* 48.9% in runoff

Jon Post* 42.6% in runoff

Larry Steckler 37.1% likely in runoff

Bret Summers 36.9%

Sahuarita (Vote for 3) total votes: 3,164 Duane Blumberg 43.6% in runoff

Kara Egbert 36.0% in runoff

Rosanna Gabaldon 33.7% in runoff

David Gifford 23.2%

Alex Jacome 27.8% in runoff

Roger Minor* 26.5% in runoff

John Sullivan* 39.3% in runoff

*Denotes incumbent

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a constitutional challenge to a key component of the Voting Rights Act, the main federal law for ensuring access to the polls by minorities.

The justices said they will review a lower court ruling upholding a provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires all or parts of 16 states with a history of racial discrimination, most in the South, to get approval before implementing any changes in the way elections are held.

In 2006, Congress voted overwhelmingly to extend the measure for another 25 years. The law was designed to prevent governments from making it harder for minorities to vote.

The high court has upheld earlier extensions of the provision that calls for either the U.S. attorney general or a court to sign off in advance on changes to requirements to hold office, polling places and other issues involving the conduct of elections.

The justices will hear the case in April, against the backdrop of a presidential election that was unimaginable when the law was enacted in 1965.

“The elephant in the room is what to make of the Obama election,” said Nathaniel Persily, professor of law and political science at Columbia Law School. “Does the election of the first African-American president undermine the central justification for parts of the Voting Rights Act?”

The latest challenge comes from a local Texas government that says it was created in the 1980s, has no history of discrimination and shouldn’t be subject to what it calls “the most federally invasive law in existence.”

Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, a government board formed to provide local services to about 3,500 people, sued following the 2006 extension. The board asked the court to exempt it from the law and said Congress had no constitutional right to pass a bill that tried to remedy past discrimination.

Eight states are covered in their entirety: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. In Virginia, all but 15 cities and counties must comply with the measure.

Parts of California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota.

The case is Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Mukasey, 08-322.

Arizona Democrats outraised Republicans, leading to rout

Republican congressional candidates in Arizona found themselves relatively unpopular and underfinanced, leading to their worst showing at the polls in decades.

Boosted by a $2 million early advantage in special-interest funds and help from their national party, congressional Democrats raised more money than the GOP and collectively won more votes in Arizona for the first time since 1978. They also won more seats on Nov. 4, five to three, for the first time since 1964.

The Democrats had success despite a GOP presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, at the top of the ballot. The results helped further establish Arizona as a traditionally Republican state that is increasingly friendly to Democrats running for federal office.

“We had hoped because of the presidential ticket that we might do better in Arizona,” said Terry Carmack, political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which helps pay for House races across the country. “We had a bad environment.”

“Clearly (McCain) had no coattails in his own state when it came to the congressional races,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “We were very pleased with the results from Arizona, especially in a year where the Republican candidate for president was at the top of the ticket.”

In state government, the GOP tightened its grip on the capitol by unexpectedly picking up seats in the Legislature. Also, voters passed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a signature conservative issue.

But this year’s congressional races built on a voter shift that began in 2006, when Democrats picked up two seats and made up half the state’s delegation. Before that, Arizona Democrats often lost all but one race.

From 1984 to 2004, Republicans won 52 of the state’s 67 congressional races.

One difference this year was help from the Democratic Party, which has built on its “50-state strategy” intended to make the party more competitive in regions where it hasn’t fared well.

The DCCC spent at least $2.7 million in Arizona, largely targeting two House seats held by Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a political watchdog organization. Democrats won one of them, the 1st Congressional District in central and northern Arizona, and lost one, the 3rd Congressional District in central Phoenix.

By contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committee invested nothing in Arizona’s House races through mid-October, the center reported. In all, the NRCC spent about $200,000 in Arizona’s races, almost all of it in the final days, Carmack said.

“If we had played earlier, we would have run out of money at the end, and that’s a crime in politics,” he said. As it was, congressional Republicans nationwide lost fewer races than expected, in part because of strategic decisions about where to spend, Carmack said.

Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said Democrats in Arizona benefited from the continued fallout from President Bush’s unpopular administration. And the legal troubles of Rep. Rick Renzi, who did not seek reelection in the 1st District, extended the 2006 “sense that the Republican Congress had been a place where special interests had run amok,” he said.

The Democrats’ funding advantage was significant. Two groups traditionally helpful to the party gave heavily to their campaigns.

Through mid-October, labor unions gave more than $1 million to Arizona’s Democrats and nothing to GOP candidates, the center reported. Lawyers and lobbyists gave Democrats at least $883,000, twice as much as they gave Republicans.

Democrat Harry Mitchell’s victory in the 5th District, which includes Tempe, is an example of how the GOP struggled to keep pace.

Two years ago, Mitchell had a $1 million fundraising deficit but narrowly won his seat over incumbent Republican J.D. Hayworth.

Running as the incumbent this time, Mitchell outraised his Republican opponent, David Schweikert, by more than $1 million, campaign-finance records show. Contributions from political action committees, which legally advocate for special interests, were a big factor.

Mitchell collected nearly $800,000 from PACs through mid-October. The funds were divided among business interests, labor unions and those with left-leaning ideological agendas.

By comparison, Schweikert took in $63,000, mainly from business and right-leaning PACs in the same period. The DCCC also blanketed the area with $670,000 in ads hammering Schweikert’s tenure as Maricopa County treasurer.

“It was a tsunami of money,” Schweikert said of his defeat. “There was no cash to throw around. . . . How do you compete with that? We think we did really well given the resources we had.”

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Follow the money

Democratic congressional candidates in Arizona raised more money than their GOP opponents. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outspent its Republican counterpart.

• Gabrielle Giffords held her 8th District seat in Tucson for Democrats by the same 12-point margin she had two years ago.

She defeated Tim Bee, the state Senate president, with a broad fundraising network that drew heavily from sources usually more friendly to Republicans.

She collected more than Bee from agricultural businesses, communications firms, financial services and defense contractors, all of which gave more to the GOP candidates in other races. She also received more than $200,000 from labor unions and nearly as much from lawyers and lobbyists, the center reports.

It helped give her more than a $1 million financial edge over Bee. The DCCC chipped in with at least $187,000 in ads against Bee, one of which Giffords to ask her party to pull the ad.

• In the 1st District, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick won the seat that Rick Renzi, the Republican awaiting trial on federal racketeering and extortion charges, is vacating.

Kirkpatrick raised $1.7 million through mid-October, about triple that of her GOP opponent, Sydney Hay.

The $107,000 she received from EMILY’s List, a political action committee that helps Democratic women who support abortion rights, was the most in among those running for the House this year. She took in at least $119,000 from donors to ActBlue, a Democratic PAC that helped revolutionize online contributions.

The DCCC spent another $1 million in ads against Hay. The National Right to Life and the National Rifle Association chipped in for Hay with less than $30,000, according to records from the Center for Responsive Politics.

• The DCCC spent $1 million in an unsuccessful effort to oust Republican John Shadegg in the 3rd District. Conservative groups spent at least $139,000 to support Shadegg.

But the seven-term incumbent, who considered retiring from his seat early this year, outraised his Democratic opponent, Bob Lord, by $720,000. Records show Shadegg took in at least $443,000 from business PACs. Lord collected less than $7,000 from such business groups and $138,000 from labor unions.

Those with ties to MJKL Enterprises, the restaurant group headed by Phoenix businessman Jason LaVecke,gave nearly $30,000 by mid-October. Donors to ActBlue were Lord’s biggest supporters, giving him at least $323,000.

PHOENIX – Nearly 8 out of 10 registered voters in Arizona cast ballots in the general election, the second-highest turnout in the state’s history, Secretary of State Jan Brewer said Monday.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Terry Goddard and Ruth V. McGregor, chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, joined Brewer to approve the official canvass of results from the Nov. 4 election.

The state had an all-time high of nearly 3 million registered voters for the election. Of those registered voters, 77.7 percent – about 2.3 million – cast ballots.

Brewer called it the most successful election Arizona has seen in years, in part because the state added about 300,000 registered voters and because of a program by her office to attract volunteers to staff polling places.

Brewer’s office had predicted a turnout topping 80 percent, which would have challenged the record 80.1 percent in 1980, when Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter. The turnout was slightly higher than the 77.1 percent in the 2004 election.

This year’s canvass fell on the same day that Obama announced Napolitano, a Democrat, as his choice to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano gave a high five to Brewer, a Republican in line to become governor if Napolitano is confirmed, when the governor-to-be pledged to work with the Legislature to provide action on the state budget.

Yavapai County had the state’s highest turnout percentage, at 84.9 percent. Apache County had the lowest, at 60.1 percent.

Maricopa County, which is home to about 1.7 million of the state’s registered voters, had a turnout of 79.8 percent. Pima County, which has the state’s second-highest number of registered voters at nearly 500,000, had a turnout of 80 percent.

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ON THE WEB

Secretary of State’s Office:

www.azsos.gov

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TURNOUT

Here are official voter-turnout figures for each Arizona county during the Nov. 4 general election, according to the official canvass released Monday by the Secretary of State’s Office:

• Statewide: 77.69 percent

• Apache: 60.13 percent

• Cochise: 69.84 percent

• Coconino: 78.54 percent

• Gila: 72.97 percent

• Graham: 70.42 percent

• Greenlee: 68.43 percent

• La Paz: 69.2 percent

• Maricopa: 79.76 percent

• Mohave: 65.52 percent

• Navajo: 62.13 percent

• Pima: 80.03 percent

• Pinal: 72.82 percent

• Santa Cruz: 63.62 percent

• Yavapai: 84.85 percent

• Yuma: 65.74 percent

Poll: Crossovers cite anti-abortion stance; Napolitano lauded

McCain

PHOENIX – A Cronkite/Eight Poll released Tuesday found that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won the presidential race in Arizona in part by attracting conservative, evangelical Democrats.

Twenty-three percent of those who voted for McCain said they did so because of reservations about Obama, 22 percent said they saw McCain as more experienced or qualified and 21 percent said they admired McCain’s conservative values, particularly on abortion.

When asked why the Republican Party didn’t do well in the presidential election or in elections deciding control of Congress, 22 percent cited the policies and performance of President Bush.

Fourteen percent cited the economy, and 11 percent cited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sixty-four percent rated Bush’s performance as poor or very poor, while 34 percent rated it good or excellent.

The poll found that most Arizonans approve of Janet Napolitano’s performance as governor. Forty-seven percent rated her good and 29 percent excellent. Fourteen percent rated her poor and 2 percent very poor.

Respondents had difficulty giving opinions on Secretary of State Jan Brewer, a Republican who is in line to become governor if Napolitano joins President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet. Fifty-seven percent said they couldn’t rate Brewer. Of those who could, 69 percent rated Brewer’s performance as good, 13 percent excellent, 13 percent poor and 5 percent very poor.

As for Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat, 48 percent rated him good, 15 percent excellent, 6 percent poor and 1 percent very poor. Thirty percent said they couldn’t rate him.

Adding to the bleak outlook for holiday sales, the poll found that more than half of Arizonans expect to spend less than last year.

“Our poll really bears out some of the nervousness and some the fear that people are going through,” said Tara Blanc, the poll’s associate director.

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they are likely to spend less than they did during the 2007 holiday season.

“It’s obvious to us that people really are concerned about what’s going on, and when people get concerned, they stop spending money,” Blanc said. “People have taken a wait-and-see attitude.”

The result was sharp increase from a Cronkite/Eight Poll last holiday season in which 31 percent of respondents said they planned to spend less.

Bruce Merrill, a retired Arizona State University professor who directs the poll, said the jump is a reflection of the state’s sagging economy.

“A lot of families are really having a hard time,” Merrill said. “It doesn’t bode well for the merchants that depend so heavily on the holidays.”

It also doesn’t bode well, he said, for the state budget, which already is reeling from a big drop in sales tax revenues.

“If half the people in Arizona spend less than they did last year, that could put an enormous hindrance on the state’s budget,” Merrill said.

The poll, conducted Thursday to Sunday by Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and public television station Eight/KAET, involved 780 registered Arizona voters. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

McCain

PHOENIX – Sen. John McCain said Tuesday that he intends to seek a fifth term in the Senate in 2010 and looks forward to resuming his duties in Washington.

McCain said he looks back on his losing presidential campaign with pride and will make a formal announcement of his re-election bid in the future.

“The decision I am basically making is to be able to continue to serve in the state of Arizona and my country,” said McCain, who has two years left in his term.

His agenda includes battling wasteful government spending, trying to overhaul the country’s immigration policies and making trips to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Another duty that McCain promised to carry out is seeking the Senate confirmation of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as President-elect Barack Obama’s homeland security chief – should she be formally nominated as expected.

McCain said Napolitano, a governor versed in border security, is highly qualified for the job. “We all know that we face challenges from Islamic extremists throughout the world, and I believe that she will do an outstanding job,” said McCain, who spoke with Napolitano about the prospect of her landing the position.

Though no potential challengers have yet officially stepped up, McCain says he expects a tough race in two years. McCain has never lost a statewide election in Arizona and won his last two re-election races with more than two-thirds of the vote.

Though he lost the presidency, McCain easily won his home state earlier this month, capturing 54 percent of the vote, compared with Obama’s 45 percent.

Before she became Obama’s top homeland security pick, Napolitano was mentioned as a possible Senate challenger to McCain. Her term as governor is set to end in 2010.

Napolitano

WASHINGTON – Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, President-elect Barack Obama’s top pick for Homeland Security secretary, heads a fundraising committee that collected thousands of dollars from special interests and gave money to Democratic House campaigns nationwide for the fall elections.

Napolitano is honorary chairwoman of the Competitive Edge PAC, which took in at least $390,000 in the 2007-08 election cycle. Its fundraising includes about $315,000 from individuals and $65,500 from political action committees.

Competitive Edge resembles the so-called leadership PACs maintained by many members of Congress and used to further their political careers. Such PACs help politicians build name recognition, broaden their fundraising reach and strengthen support for themselves within their party, in part by making campaign contributions.

The term-limited Napolitano was considered a possible Obama running mate this year and has been viewed as a potential candidate for Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s seat when he retires.

Napolitano spokeswoman Shilo Mitchell said the PAC’s officers asked Napolitano to get involved with the organization, which was created to support candidates and elected officials “who have shown an interest in the competitiveness agenda that the governor championed” as chair of the National Governors Association.

The PAC is run by consultants and has no office or employees, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.

The PAC’s donations include $2,500 from Pinnacle West Capital Corp., a federal contractor whose Arizona Public Service Co. subsidiary operates the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, the Palo Verde complex in Arizona. The three-reactor plant has drawn frequent scrutiny and criticism from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. APS is state and federally regulated.

Also giving were PACs for federal contractors Aramark, a Philadelphia-based food services, facilities management and uniform company; the Virginia-based MAXIMUS government operations and consulting firm; and Level 3 Communications, a Colorado communications services company whose clients have included the Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Security Administration.

Napolitano’s committee received $5,000 each from PACs representing financial services interests including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America, $4,000 from the Arizona Bankers Association PAC and $1,000 from the American Express PAC. Railroad company Union Pacific’s PAC gave $5,000.

The PAC collected $5,000 from Greenberg Traurig, a nationwide law and lobbying firm that has lobbied Arizona’s state government for a variety of businesses. PACs for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, International Association of Firefighters and Teamsters gave $5,000 each.

Four Arizona Indian tribes with casinos contributed. The Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community and the Tohono O’odham Nation gave $10,000 each. The Ak-Chin Indian Community and the Yavapai Apache Nation each donated $5,000. The tribes’ casinos are regulated by the state and the federal government.

Several past and present Arizona lobbyists donated. Washington contributors include airline lobbyist Linda Daschle and her husband, former Sen. Tom Daschle, a public policy adviser at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird and Obama’s choice to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Other Washington donors include Dan Glickman, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, and Broderick D. Johnson, a lobbyist and chairman of Bryan Cave Strategies. Johnson’s firm is an affiliate of Bryan Cave LLP, which has lobbied in Arizona for Union Pacific and BHP Copper.

The PAC was formed in mid-2007, about seven months after Napolitano won her second term. For her 2006 re-election bid, she turned away most private money in favor of about $1.5 million from Arizona’s Citizens Clean Elections Commission. Participating candidates may raise only limited individual donations and cannot take PAC money. Napolitano collected $46,440 from individuals for the race.

Competitive Edge has donated mostly to congressional candidates. It gave at least $49,000 to Democrats nationwide, including successful Senate candidates Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Warner of Virginia, both former governors.

House candidates in at least 19 states received donations. The PAC gave $1,000 to former Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney in September, before news broke that he had cheated on his wife. Mahoney later admitted to multiple extramarital affairs. He lost re-election this month.

The bulk of the PAC’s spending, about $147,000, covered operating costs such as fundraising and legal compliance. It had about $186,000 on hand as of mid-October, its most recent FEC report.

Many in foothills, NW, East sides cross party lines to vote for Dem

Pima County voters crossed party lines and showed an independent streak in voting booths Nov. 4, the official precinct-by-precinct canvass of votes shows.

To find out how your precinct voted for president, Proposition 102, Congressional District 8, and your precincts voter registration, go to tucsoncitizen.com/electionmap.

In state Legislative District 26 on the Northwest Side, voters sent stalwart conservative Republican Al Melvin to the state Senate and liberal Nancy Young Wright to the state House of Representatives.

Voters in precincts across Congressional District 8 picked John McCain for president but sent Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat, back to Congress for a second term.

And in an election that was about change, voters here stayed the same.

Melvin’s victory means he will take over what had been a Democratic seat. It was the only partisan switch county voters chose to make in what was a Democratic year across the country.

McCain fared no worse here than George W. Bush in 2004. Both lost by a 52-46 margin in Pima County.

But Giffords appears to have solidified her support among voters in the Northwest Side and in the lower Catalina foothills.

She beat Republican state Sen. Tim Bee in Pima County by the same 14-point margin she enjoyed in 2006 over Republican Randy Graf.

It’s what Giffords’ campaign counted on as it planned her re-election effort.

“The voters of (Congressional District) 8 vote for the person,” said Giffords campaign manager Zach Wineburg. “People in the district split their vote all over the place.”

More than 1 in 4 voters in Pima County do not belong to either major party and those were the people that Giffords went after, Wineburg said.

That’s why her campaign poured resources into the independent-minded precincts of District 26, which covers the eastern half of Marana, all of Oro Valley and the western half of the Catalina foothills.

Obama carried just one Northwest Side precinct north of Ina Road. Giffords won 44.

She also outperformed the top of the ticket in the foothills and on the East Side of Tucson.

Pima County Republican Party Chairwoman Judi White said Giffords did a good job of establishing her image with voters.

“She did a good job of selling herself as a moderate,” White said. “Even though she voted most of the time with Nancy Pelosi,” the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Independent voters tend to vote for things they like about the person, rather than choose candidates based on a menu of issues, said Republican pollster Margaret Kenski.

And Giffords had some star power.

“She’s been in Congress for two years and she’s been highly visible,” she said. “When you ask people what they know about (Giffords), they say she’s married to an astronaut.”

That worked for Giffords, Kenski said.

She said future efforts to oust Giffords would be “an uphill battle,” in part because she has proved to be a Herculean fundraiser, raking in more than $3 million for her first re-election bid. And she still has $700,000 left over for the 2010 campaign.

“You practically need to find someone who can self-finance a race,” Kenski said.

But Democrats did not rule the day in Pima County, despite Giffords’ success.

She shared victories with Republicans Melvin and incoming state Rep. Vic Williams in District 26. Frank Antenori and David Gowan cruised to wins in Legislative District 30, encompassing the far East Side and Green Valley.

Federal races and gubernatorial battles tend to reflect voters’ studied preferences, but they decide down-ticket races by either party affiliation or name recognition, Kenski said.

That helped political opposites Young Wright and Melvin score wins from the same batch of voters in District 26, Kenski said.

Young Wright had been active in Northwest Side politics for years and Melvin had run unsuccessfully in 2006.

“You can break the tendency to vote party line when voters don’t know anything else about you by having a huge campaign budget or having name recognition,” Kenski said.

Melvin belonged to the right party. Young Wright had name recognition. Giffords had the budget to sell herself and sculpt her message.

Also, the Pima County Democratic Party devoted time and effort to the usually hostile Northwest Side, said county Democratic Party Chairman Vince Rabago.

“When you look at it geographically, it helps to have Democrats working together in certain areas,” Rabago said.

However, Rabago said he was disappointed the Republicans picked up seats in the state Legislature, when Democrats thought they could take back one or both houses.

“It seems like there were McCain coattails,” Rabago said. “The race seemed to tighten in the last days of the campaign and that drove out Republicans to the polls who would have stayed home otherwise.”

The tightening race did not inspire Democrats the same way, Rabago said.

East, W. Side voters sink TUSD override

The map is unmistakable. Voters in the central part of Tucson Unified School District voted for a budget override in the Nov. 4 general election. Voters on the East and West sides of the district opposed it.

The question is, why?

The override, which would have lowered kindergarten and first-grade class size to 18, added an award-winning fine arts program to more schools and garnered money to attract math, science and exceptional education teachers, failed by a 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent margin, or 2,055 votes out of 172,141 cast.

Neighborhoods near Rogers, Corbett and Wrightstown elementaries, schools up for closure last year, were in the huge East Side area that voted against the override.

Those schools remained open.

Community activist John Kromko, leader of the opposition to the override and a retired teacher, former legislator and president of the Pima County Taxpayers Association, said the map is just what he expected.

“Midtown has always been that way,” he said. “Midtown residents are more progressive and less concerned about the property tax.

TUSD spokeswoman Chyrl Hill Lander said that other than the Rogers and Corbett areas, she didn’t know why there was such a division of views between midtown voters and those on the East and West sides.

“I tried to look at a map of charter schools, to see if there were more in the areas against the override, but they’re all over,” Lander said.

And so are TUSD schools. “We had plenty of schools on the East Side, so it’s not like those households aren’t getting exposure to TUSD schools. And we have plenty of schools on the West Side, too.”

Ann-Eve Pedersen, a TUSD parent and one of the organizers of the override drive, said the map was similar, but not identical, to the one of the 2004 override, which was defeated by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent.

“It looks like we did better this time in moving support farther west and east. However, the lack of support last time was also concentrated on the far west and far east,” she said.

Paul Eckerstrom former Pima County Democratic Party chairman who is spearheading the next TUSD override push, said people who live outside the city limits historically are more anti-tax. “You live outside the city limits for a reason. You want to get away from city taxes.”

Data reporter Eric Sagara analyzed the canvass and created the precinct maps for this story.

To find out the voter registration make up of your precinct, click on the link below for an interactive map.

To find out how your precinct voted on Proposition 102, click on the link below for an interactive map.

To see how your precinct voted on Proposition 403, click on the link below for an interactive map.

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Interactive maps online

To find out how your precinct voted for president, Proposition 102, Congressional District 8, and your precincts voter registration, go to tucsoncitizen.com/electionmap.

By Blake Morlock, Mary Bustamante

McCain

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain, whose presidential bid was snuffed out two weeks ago by President-elect Barack Obama, is setting up a political action committee as a first step in running for a fifth term in the Senate.

A McCain spokesperson says the 72-year-old senator decided with his senior advisers Tuesday night to set up the fundraising PAC. The spokesperson spoke anonymously because the decision had not yet been made public.

McCain’s term ends in 2010.

• Andrea Dalessandro, who lost her bid to represent District 30 in the state House of Representatives, did not pay for a political ad for her campaign that ran locally on CNN shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday. Dalessandro has not seen the ad and does not know who paid for or produced it, she said.

• A chart on Page 1B Thursday contained an incorrect breakdown of the Democrats and Republicans in the next session’s state Legislature.

Though a few races still have not been decided, it appears there will be 25 Democrats and 35 Republicans in the state House of Representatives, and 12 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the state Senate.

Sandra Kennedy,

Dem: 865,503

PHOENIX – When experts finally determine what decided the race for Arizona Corporation Commission, it could come down to a stronger message, commercials, funding and strategy.

But no one is arguing this point: It doesn’t hurt to be a Kennedy, or to be named Paul Newman.

“When a major actor dies who shares the same first and last name as you, of course you will have an advantage in the election,” said state Rep. Marian McClure, R-Tucson, who was running last among six candidates for three seats on the commission.

She was speaking of the other Paul Newman, the Cochise County supervisor who, along with fellow Democrat Sandra Kennedy, was comfortably ahead of the pack and already planning for his term on the Corporation Commission.

“Many Arizona voters think Sandra Kennedy is a part of the presidential Kennedy family; in actuality, she is no relation,” McClure said late last week.

Sandra Kennedy said she found it comical for McClure to suggest that sharing a last name with a political dynasty put her ahead in the race.

“I served in the Legislature for 12 years and have been around this state, and people know who I am and what I am capable of,” Kennedy said.

Paul Newman acknowledged the benefits of his name but said that isn’t the only reason for his success.

“I have done a lot over the years in Arizona, and people recognize me as an able and experienced government leader,” Newman said.

Newman said he spent more $1 million on advertisements during his political career, which should have helped the public differentiate him from the actor.

Nick Dranias, director of the Center for Constitutional Government at the conservative Goldwater Institute, said the candidates’ names influenced the outcome.

“When you see the names Kennedy and Paul Newman on a few thousand signs, you’re going to get some votes,” Dranias said.

William J. Dixon, a professor and head of the University of Arizona’s political science department, said the packaging of the Democrats’ names played a major role.

“The Democrats, including Kennedy and Newman, got a lot more bang for their buck since they took their names and presented it in one package,” Dixon said.

Another familiar name in the race belongs to state Rep. Bob Stump, R-Peoria. Bob Stump was a longtime Republican congressman from Arizona; the Corporation Commission candidate is no relation.

Stump trailed Democrat Sam George by a mere 900 votes Thursday for the third seat open on the commission as counties continued tallying tens of thousands of ballots remaining from election day. Most of those ballots were in Maricopa County, where Stump outpolled George.

Stump didn’t return phone messages but sent an e-mail saying, “I’m confident that outstanding ballots in Maricopa County and elsewhere will lead me to victory, and I’m very grateful to Arizonans for the opportunity to serve.”

Republican Barry Wong was about 22,000 votes out of third place, and McClure was 32,000 votes out.

The winners will replace William Mundell, Lowell S. “Mike” Gleason and Jeff Hatch-Miller, all Republicans, on the five-member commission. Continuing on the commission are Republicans Kristin Mayes and Gary Pierce.

Paul Newman,

Dem: 865,446

Sam George,

Dem: 774,983

Barry Wong,

GOP: 751,724

Bob Stump,

GOP: 774,074

Marian McClure,

GOP: 741,948

———

ACC VOTE TOTALS

Here are vote totals in the Arizona Corporation Commission race as of Thursday evening. The candidates are vying for three open seats:

By Andrew J. Shainker, Mike Martinez

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio had comfortable victories, but ones suggesting limitations to Thomas’ electoral appeal and the end of Arpaio’s status as a larger-than-life political figure and force.

Thomas’ margin of victory was less than the Republican registration advantage, suggesting limited appeal to independents or crossover Democrats.

Arpaio ran ahead of the Republican registration advantage. But his 56 percent of the vote trailed the 61 percent and 59 percent Janet Napolitano and Terry Goddard racked up in Maricopa County’s last election, despite a large registration disadvantage.

Arpaio, who heavily outspent his opponent, barely matched the performance of Jon Kyl in Maricopa County, who was substantially outspent.

Sheriff Joe has become a mere political mortal.

Tuesday’s general election went more smoothly than the Sept. 2 primary election in Pima County, but was far from perfect, county Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said Friday.

Procedural changes begun after the primary addressed some major issues encountered at the polls and the county’s vote tabulation center, Huckelberry said in a memo.

Those changes included a more rapid delivery of electronic vote-scanning devices and touch-screen machines to the county’s tabulation center, 1301 S. Mission Road, that resulted in quicker vote results released to the public.

The county still lagged the rest of the state’s 14 counties in getting results tabulated and released, due mainly to the discontinuation of transmitting results from each of the county’s 373 polling places and physically delivering them to the Mission Road complex. That was done because of concerns that a third party could intercept results sent over telephone lines, change them and send bogus results to the county.

Huckelberry described the conduct of Tuesday’s election as “efficient, effective and secure.”

Here’s what didn’t work so well, according to a performance evaluation released by his office.

• Additional ballots were delivered to at least one precinct to avoid a possible shortage.

• On two occasions, officials at churches used as polling places removed election directional signs. The signs were replaced.

• Aging vote-scanning devices broke or showed discrepancies in ballot counts and had to be replaced on Election Day.

• A polling place official forgot a door key and a delay of 20 minutes beyond the 6 a.m. precinct opening time occurred.

• A “relatively high number” of paper jams occurred with optical scanning devices, resulting in 21 being replaced.

“While this failure rate is relatively small, it is significant and undesirable,” Huckelberry said.

• Power failures were reported with the scanning devices due to bad connections between the machines and power sources. That caused the devices to operate on battery power and run down.

• Some on-site ballot-printing devices failed. The county will review whether the vendor met county specifications for quality control and paper quality.