Laura Pastor carries on political tradition in bid for District 4 seat
Laura Pastor said her political involvement started long before she could vote.
“I was 5 years old when my uncle ran for justice of the peace in south Phoenix,” said Pastor, a Phoenix native. “We were like the support team — me and my cousins. I have vivid memories of that.”
Pastor is making her second run at Phoenix City Council.
Pastor last ran for the council in 2007. She believes she was unsuccessful partly because critics credited her professional success to her father, U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz.
“My experience speaks for itself all the way around. And every single one of my jobs speaks for itself,” Pastor said. “I started off as a teacher, worked myself independently to stand where I am today.”
A graduate of Arizona State University, Pastor eventually earned her Master of Public Administration degree. Pastor directs a program at South Mountain Community College that helps underprivileged youths go to college.
When Pastor first ran for the council, her most significant experience at the city level was on a planning committee. After that, she was appointed to the Maricopa County Transportation Advisory Board and elected to the Phoenix Union High School District board.
Despite losing the first race, Pastor said her previous campaign magnified her public-service work.
“It was during 2007-08 that people really saw me for who I was,” she said. “It was during that time that I was out of the shadows of my parents.”
Pastor’s mother, Verma, played a key role in bilingual education and migrant education at the Arizona Department of Education.
She said her parents’ work, along with her own, has taught her about the diversity of Arizona, where her family has lived for five generations.
Pastor has made public safety her top priority. She originally objected to immediately eliminating Phoenix’s 2 percent food tax, fearing doing so could results in layoffs for nearly 100 police officers, she said.
City leaders voted 8-1 Wednesday to repeal half of the controversial tax earlier than scheduled, with the reduction taking effect Jan. 1. Then-City Manager David Cavazos said the council-approved plan removes half of the 2 percent tax without requiring cuts to police, fire and other community services. The remaining 1 percent tax would stay in effect through March 2015, when it automatically sunsets.
After public safety, Pastor ranks enhancing neighborhoods a high priority. Pastor hopes to bring a library to District 4 and support the area’s arts and cultural amenities. She lives in the same neighborhood where she grew up.