On Saturday August 27 the northwest Tucson office of the Pima County Democratic party held its grand opening. The office is located in the shopping center at the southwest corner of Oracle and Magee. Among those attending were Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who represents Arizona’s CD 1 and is now running against John McCain for his Senate seat; Tom O’Halleran, who is running for Ann’s seat; candidates for the district 11 seats in the state legislature, Ralph Atchue (Senate) and Corrin Hammond (House), and Brian Bickel, who is running for Pima County Supervisor in this district.
Both CD 1 and LD 11 are geographically large districts, with CD 1 extending from the northwest suburbs of Tucson all the way to the Utah border, including Flagstaff and the Navajo reservation, and LD 11 extending from the northwest Tucson suburbs to the Phoenix suburb of Maricopa City. Both are largely rural districts. These suburbs are the northern boundary of Pima County.
Saturday’s event included pizza, brief speeches by the candidates as well as the county chair, Jo Holt, and the field staff that will be manning the office. There was also a canvass afterwards. The phones were not in yet, so there wasn’t a phone bank; the phones should be installed this week. I met some interesting people including a woman I met two years ago volunteering for that election.
I had interviewed both Ralph Atchue and Corrin Hammond for the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona blog, and met them at another event. I was especially pleased to have the chance to talk with Tom O’Halleran. CD 1 was designed to be a swing district — our redistricting commission designed the state to have four Republican, three Democratic, and two swing districts, and although the Republican don’t like the commissions, the courts have upheld this map. Ann has represented it since 2012 and several very right-wing Republicans are vying for the seat this year. On the Democratic side, there are two candidates, O’Halleran and Miguel Olivas, both of whom are recent additions to the party. Olivas ran in the past as a Libertarian, and no one seems to know why he is running as a Democrat this time around. His website includes a paragraph about how President Obama has ruined the country’s freedom, and he aims to win it back. Strange, no?
O’Halleran, on the other hand, is a former Republican member of the state House of Representatives. When I was checking his background I found a few disturbing votes for anti-choice measures like parental consent, and I wanted to discuss this with him. On Saturday I introduced myself to him and told him I blog for PPAA, and looked at his voting record — and he said, “And you wondered about those votes.” He pointed out that PP had always given him decent ratings, and when he voted for the parental consent law he was thinking of his own family and what he would want to know about his children. He has since then learned that there are families that are quite different, and he wouldn’t vote the same way now. He said his wife and daughter raked him over the coals for that vote. We discussed the problems with legal workarounds. This year he is generally considered to be pro-choice.
He is certainly not a liberal, probably not so different from Kirkpatrick, who is supporting him. Yet she has surprised me in a good way upon occasion, and after meeting him and talking to him I feel better about voting for him.
One notable thing at the office opening was the optimism. All the candidates were talking about working as a team, and there is a real feeling that we can turn the state blue this year.
Tomorrow, August 30, is the state primary. If you haven’t already voted, be sure to vote.