LEGISLATURE

Arizona House rejects bill that would add political parties to city elections

Dustin Gardiner
The Republic | azcentral.com
Arizona elections for mayors and city councils will remain nonpartisan after a House panel rejected House Bill 2032 on Jan. 17, 2017.

An Arizona lawmaker's effort to make elections for city and town offices partisan contests received swift rejection Wednesday by a committee in the state House of Representatives.

Members of the House Committee on Local and International Affairs voted 5-2 to kill the legislation, which would have affected elections for mayor and city council. The vast majority of the state's 91 cities and towns hold nonpartisan elections — Republican, Democrat and other political party designations do not appear on the ballot. 

Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, introduced House Bill 2032, which would have required all cities and towns to print a candidate's party affiliation next to his or her name.

Lawrence has said he introduced the bill after a constituent asked him to do so. 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 had said prior to Wednesday's vote.

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

Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, called the legislation "a solution in search of a problem." He said the primary job of local elected officials is overseeing services like policing, garbage collection and street repairs.

"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," he said.

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

Tucson is 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.

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