Candidate cards: Legislative District 16

Like father, like daughter … They’re probably citizens anyway … And move over for the robot overlords.

Democrats are counting on a father-daughter duo to help flip control of both chambers of the state Legislature this year — hoping that a freshman Democratic representative can hold down his House seat and that his daughter can oust the district’s longtime Republican senator to join him at the Capitol.

In 2022, Rep. Keith Seaman successfully single-shotted his way into the sprawling Legislative District 16, which covers parts of Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties.

Republican Rep. Teresa Martinez was the top vote-getter in the House race, but Seaman won the district’s second House seat by edging out Republican Rob Hudelson by just 644 votes.

The area leans Republican, but Seaman’s narrow victory turned LD16 into one of just five districts with split Republican and Democratic representation.

This year, Democrats are again running only one candidate — Seaman — for the district’s two House seats. Martinez is running alongside Republican Chris Lopez, a newcomer who beat out Hudelson in this year’s GOP primary.

In the Senate, Seaman’s daughter Stacey Seaman is challenging longtime Republican lawmaker T.J. Shope. Shope comes from a long line of local politicians who have served the area and was elected to four terms in the House before moving to the state Senate, where he is seeking his third term.

Last election, Shope defeated his Democratic challenger by more than 8,000 votes.

See full-size images of all the cards here.

On Friday, we told you about how the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review changed up its report to eliminate information about how members voted on whether a judge is worthy of retention.

And in case you missed it, our sister newsletter in Tucson spent some time sizing up their Pima County Superior Court judges ahead of their retention elections this November, as well as diving into the headlines that the two local Court of Appeals judges have generated in recent years.

If you’re a Southern Arizona voter, check out their coverage.

Or forward the Tucson Agenda to your friends south of the Gila River.

No big deal: After a computer glitch put at risk 100,000 registered voters’ ability to vote, the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday decided the threat of barring them from voting was a worse option than allowing the likely citizens to vote in this election, the Washington Post reports. The Arizona Republican Party and Republican legislative leaders had petitioned the court to just let the whole citizenship thing go, considering the largest chunk of those voters were Republicans, as the Republic’s Ray Stern noted. Meanwhile, out-of-state students are excited to register to vote in Arizona — instead of their politically boring home states — now that we’re a battleground, Annabel Lecky writes for Arizona Sonora News Service.

“I got the (Arizona) driver’s license so I could get in-state tuition with the U of A,” student Regan Sherff told Lecky. “But I would think that my vote matters more in the state of Arizona than it does in California.”

The Hobbsian approach: Backers of the Arizona for Abortion Access Act won’t show up to debate detractors in any of the several debates scheduled for the issue, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. Clean Elections, Arizona PBS and the Secretary of State’s Office have all asked backers of the initiative to participate in events, but organizers have declined each opportunity.

The internet is forever: Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers used official Senate letterhead to endorse a Cottonwood City Council candidate in an apparent violation of a state law that prohibits using government resources for campaigning, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports. Rogers sent out a tweet with a screenshot of the letter and then deleted the tweet after the Mirror started asking questions. Senate Democrats asked Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate.

Safe seats are slippery: Some typically non-competitive legislative districts with clear partisan advantages may be more competitive than they appear, Nelson Morgan, chair of the Arizona Democratic Party's standing committee on Census and Redistricting, writes in the Republic op-ed pages. The Independent Redistricting Commission measure of competitiveness leaves some districts out of the category even though their elections were super close in 2022, he notes. Plus, MAGA candidates have had a tougher time succeeding in general elections, even in Republican-leaning districts.

Wages, with a side of panic: Restaurant owners in Flagstaff are worried about the rising minimum wage rate there as a city ordinance requires minimum pay to stay at least $2 above the state, Arizona Family’s Mason Carroll writes. In January, the pay rate will hit $17.85 ($16.85 for tipped workers). Restaurant owners say they’re having to cut costs and close doors, while hourly workers say it’s a lifeline amid higher living costs.

---

Please subscribe today so we can make a living as journalists. We don’t want to become servers again!

---

Two ways to lose money: Social workers in the Peoria Unified School District could lose their jobs after the school board turned down a mental health grant that funded their salaries, 12News’ Joe Dana reports. The school district was one of 27 across the country that got the grant in 2019, and the board’s vote meant the loss of $275,000 the federal government was already set to give it. Meanwhile, The East Valley Institute of Technology says it was underpaid millions of dollars in rent when it leased out part of its campus to Adelante Healthcare in 2011 without legally required voter and governing board approval, per 12News’ Kevin Reagan. It wants the FBI to investigate.

So long, senator: Republican Sen. Ken Bennett, who lost his reelection bid this year, talked about the “civil war” in the Republican party in a Q&A with Arizona Capitol Times’ Hannah Elsmore. He said he’s “scared to death” at the thought of violence after this year’s election results drop, and while he doesn’t plan on running for office again, he wouldn’t mind becoming head of the Department of Administration.

“I like the lady that’s over there now, but she can’t get through Jake Hoffman’s committee. If I went for it, that would be an interesting hearing,” Bennett said.

The Democrats of Greater Tucson are hosting Greg Whitten, a Democrat running for Congressional District 8 against Abe Hamadeh, for a virtual event at noon today. Tune in here.

This evening, the Knight Foundation is hosting an Election Law Forum, a collaboration between Knight Foundation, the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy, and the University of Arizona School of Law. Register here.

And on Tuesday evening, the Trump campaign is hosting a virtual volunteer training with U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs. Tune in here.

In non-political events, the state fair is now open, The Nile venue in Mesa turned 100 and the Buffet bar in Tucson celebrated 90 years.

If you’d like to submit an event to our Arizona Political Calendar you can fill out this form or email us at info@arizonaagenda.com.

We’re not so much laughing as wincing, but an adorable little delivery robot abruptly changed direction and knocked over a pedestrian at ASU, then backed up and hit her again, 404 Media reports. The company that owns the robots taking over university pathways across the nation offered her some free delivery.

From the police report: