With early voting already underway for the primary election, we wanted to take a look at what is just over the horizon.
Don’t get us wrong — we’ve still got our eye on contested statewide and legislative primaries, as well as council races in Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita and South Tucson.
We’ve got a lot of things coming your way over the next five months, and we barely even know where to start.
Sign vandalism is becoming the norm on Tucson streets as we inch closer to the July 21 primary, despite the fact that you can face jail time if you’re caught defacing signs.
CD6 race has already started
At this point, the primary races in Congressional District 6 are just a formality.
With massive, multi-million-dollar war chests, national super PACs buying thousands of TV ads and impressive lists of political endorsements, the race is between incumbent Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and Democratic challenger, Marine JoAnna Mendoza.
It’s not lost on us that both Vice President JD Vance and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were scheduled to come to CD6 last week before canceling.
Buttigieg was expected to endorse Mendoza at a rally, while we can only guess that Ciscomani (and other Republicans) would have wanted to share the stage with Vance for a photo-op.
We know how much the two-term congressman loves that photo in the Oval Office with his wife Laura, President Donald Trump and the giant photo of the Gulf of Mexico.1
The real start of the race came this week, when both Mendoza and Ciscomani released ads on TV, social media and, presumably, streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.
Ciscomani for Congress released “Toxic” a few days ago, repeating Mendoza’s answer during a 2020 Arizona Daily Star interview on the proposed Save Women's Sports Act, which would have banned transgender girls from participating in girls' sports. Mendoza said the legislation2 was harmful and toxic.
For the record, only 16 trans students played public school athletics in Arizona from 2017 to 2022, out of 170,000 student athletes.
Mendoza’s ads were more restrained this round, with neither mentioning her would-be opponent by name.
Instead, the 30-second spot "Heat" has her saying she will go after unnamed politicians “who cut our healthcare to fund billionaire tax cuts.”
It’s not hard to guess who she’s talking about.
This ad doesn’t need a fact check, as Ciscomani has proudly talked about supporting the "Big Beautiful Bill," while every county, city and town in CD6 is bracing for major cuts to healthcare in the coming months.
Don’t forget the ballot questions
Sure, there are going to be up to a dozen statewide questions on the ballot, thanks to the Legislature’s 10 referrals and community groups who are pushing two citizen initiatives.
But there are also a few local questions headed to the ballot worth mentioning.
Justice for All, a ballot initiative that would give a public defender to anyone in Pima County facing detention or deportation, is expected to drop off its signatures on Thursday.
One of the group’s leaders, Margo Cowan, said the group is sorting signature sheets ahead of the Thursday deadline. She is optimistic that the group has the approximately 60,000 signatures it needs to qualify for the ballot, but she is asking all volunteers to return their signature sheets today.
And Pima Community College is asking voters to approve a $250 million bond — its first in 30 years — to address a long list of deferred maintenance, as well as build new Centers of Excellence at various campuses and a new police headquarters at the downtown campus.
The Pima Joint Technical Education District (JTED) is also asking voters to approve a $250 million bond to expand its campus and fund upgrades to its highly technical training programs.
And the Tucson City Council referred Tucson Electric Power’s franchise agreement to this fall’s ballot.
The agreement is largely similar to the existing agreement, although TEP is asking voters to approve the franchise agreement at the same time it’s asking the Arizona Corporation Commission for a rate increase.
The two things are unrelated, but TEP is going to have an uphill battle convincing voters to approve the agreement, especially if the Corporation Commission allows TEP to hike its rates before the November general election.
The race for Tucson mayor
It might be a relief that Tucson is on a different election cycle. An off-cycle election means there is one less major race to keep track of as federal, state and local candidates all vie for your attention, your money and your vote.
However, the race for mayor has already begun, with one Republican announcing his bid earlier this year.
And the Democrats of Greater Tucson asked Councilman Paul Cunningham in May about rumors that he will be running for mayor next year. Cunningham didn’t formally announce, but said he wants to run.
“My plan is to run for mayor. It is a lifelong dream of mine,” Cunningham told the DGT crowd.
What complicates this race is whether Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is being actively considered by Gov. Katie Hobbs for the lieutenant governor spot this year. The Arizona Agenda, our sister publication, mentioned Romero yesterday as a contender for Arizona’s number two spot.
Hobbs is expected to make an announcement in late July or August.
Leaving it for later: In case you missed it, the Arizona Legislature almost reconvened for a special session this week, per the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy. GOP lawmakers were on the verge of striking a deal on school voucher reforms, which would have kept a measure backed by a teachers union off the November ballot, but the plan was scuttled at the last minute when GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Andy Biggs inserted himself in negotiations. The next question is whether the hundreds of thousands of signatures that the Arizona Education Association gathered will withstand scrutiny and get the measure onto the ballot. Those signatures are due tomorrow.
Still at the bargaining table: Tucson Teamsters were still talking with Sun Tran on Monday about extending the contract for city bus drivers, which was set to expire yesterday, Mia Kortright reports for the Tucson Sentinel. The union voted earlier this month to authorize a strike if negotiations fall through. In the meantime, the Tucson City Council set aside $2.15 million of RTA Next money to boost transit safety, which is one of the main sticking points for the union, whose members are concerned about violence on buses, drug use and loitering at bus stops.
Russian roulette: A Tucson woman is worried her husband will get deported back to Russia and be forced to fight in the war against Ukraine, Angela Gervasi reports for Arizona Public Media. Protesters outside the ICE Tucson Field Office are demanding the release of Andrea Landavazo’s husband, a Walmart employee who fled Russia four years ago and asked for asylum in the U.S., before it’s too late. Earlier this year, one of his asylum hearings was rescheduled several times and he ended up missing the appointment, which triggered a deportation order. He went to the ICE office on Friday to submit paperwork, but was taken into custody instead.
Handing back the reins: In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Tubac residents started managing the Tubac Presidio, a state park that ran into financial trouble after on-site revenue dried up. Now, the park has a new manager and the yearlong prep to return the park to state control has begun, per the Green Valley News’ Jorge Encinas. State officials still expect the Friends of Tubac Presidio to “play a massive role” even after the transition is complete.
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Slippery slope: A former Tucson Parks and Recreation employee was hit with an injunction against harassment that may have gone a little too far, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. Paul Kemnitz was fired last year after criticizing the parks director at a Tucson City Council meeting. Since then, he’s been posting videos on social media of decrepit conditions at parks and confronting city officials. That led the city to monitor his Facebook account on an almost full-time basis. But the injunction also bars Kemnitz from posting images on social media that could be deemed “alarming” or “annoying,” which Steller says could end up infringing on his First Amendment right to criticize public officials.
Pima County recently discovered what happens when you ask the Japanese government to weigh in on a controversial mining project in Southern Arizona.
Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote a two-page letter to the Japanese ambassador, hoping he might lean on Mitsubishi by highlighting serious unresolved environmental issues with the Copper World mine.
Recently, Mitsubishi has invested approximately $600 million to get a 30% share of the mine.
The response was… diplomatic.
Japan's ambassador said he hopes the Hudbay-led copper mine advances “the mutual interests of the United States and Japan.”
Translation: That sounds like it's a you-and-Hudbay problem.
1 We’re not using the other name, that’s not what executive orders do when it comes to international waters. Take up your argument with a cartographer.
2 That particular anti-trans bill failed in 2020. But former Gov. Doug Ducey signed a similar bill into law in 2022. It was put on hold by a federal court in 2023. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two similar laws from other states, unleashing Arizona’s ban on trans girls in sports.