Your city elections could get partisan

Bill would place party affiliations on ballots

For politicians vying for city office in Arizona, there’s a go-to line when people ask what political party they belong to: “There isn’t a Democrat or Republican way to fix a pothole.”

Elections for mayor or city council in most of the state’s 91 cities and towns are officially nonpartisan — no political party designations appear on the ballot. And many local candidates, often those who repeat the pothole line, would like it to stay that way.

But a Republican state lawmaker has proposed legislation to upend that status quo by making city and town races partisan affairs.

Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, is sponsoring House Bill 2032, which would require municipalities to print a candidate’s party affiliation next to their name on the ballot in races for mayor and city or town council.

The bill faces fervent opposition from some city officials who say local issues, such as street repairs and policing, are inherently nonpartisan in nature.

Lawrence said he introduced the bill after a constituent asked him to. He declined to name the constituent, but said he shares the person’s concern that candidates often give voters a false impression of their political leanings.

“Too many times there is the wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Lawrence said. “I felt that naming the parties would give (voters) a good view of the opinions of that individual.”

Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, said the bill is concerning for multiple reasons.

For starters, he said, the primary job of local elected officials is service delivery. They make sure police officers are on duty, garbage gets picked up on time and streets with those pesky potholes get fixed.

“We don’t need to organize on party lines because the services that we deliver don’t have any kind of partisan angle to them,” Strobeck said.

“(The bill is)a solution in search of a problem. It’s one of those unnecessary complications of life.”

Critics also question if the legislation could withstand a legal challenge.

Tucson is currently the only major Arizona city that holds partisan elections. The city won a court battle to keep its elections system after the Legislature passed a bill in 2009 to outlaw partisan local races.

The Arizona Supreme Court has also held that cities with charter governing documents, like Tucson and Phoenix, have the right to control their own elections.

But Lawrence’s bill seeks for the state to exert control to make all city races blue and red contests.

Phoenix Councilman Daniel Valenzuela, a Democrat who’s running for mayor of the city, said he adamantly opposes the bill.

He fears it would inject the bitter tenor of national politics into local races.

“You see the dysfunction of Washington, D.C.-style politics,” he said. “Why would we want to invite that into local governing?”

However, not all city officials are so alarmed by the bill, which the Legislature will consider when it convenes in January.

Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, a Republican, said he sees pros and cons. Listing party affiliation on the ballot could increase division, but it could also give voters an insight into a candidate’s principles and philosophy, he said.

Lane said a candidate’s ideology can speak to how they might govern — if they support tax increases or oppose them; if they like business regulation or support free-market ideas.

“It’s not a big issue to me one way or the other,” he said of HB 2032, noting most people already know a city candidate’s ideological persuasion. “People certainly do ask (my political party affiliation). Frequently they’ll ask.”