A Democratic Senate candidate in a competitive Chandler-Gilbert legislative district took a jab at the Republican incumbent for not showing up for a debate on Aug. 17.
And while there was also a Republican no-show in a separate debate among House candidates, they stuck to emphasizing their own policy positions instead of attacking their opponents or the absent candidate.
Republicans have a voter registration advantage over Democrats in Legislative District 13, which includes Chandler, Sun Lakes and Gilbert. But Democratic candidates have won before in the district where almost 36% of the voters are unaffiliated with either party. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has targeted the district for extra spending to flip the Legislature into Democratic control.
Legislative District 13
Election Day is Nov. 3, and early ballots go out Oct. 7.
Democrat Kristie O’Brien said she is running against Republican Rep. Julie Willoughby, who is seeking the district’s Senate seat this year, because “most people haven’t really met her or seen her or feel that she represents us.”
And she noted that Willoughby was invited to the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate, but she declined to show up.
“She represents special interests and I’m ready to be a voice for us. I will show up, and I will listen to the community, and I will have an open door policy,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien didn’t name any special interests, but about 25% of Willoughby’s financial contributors are from political action committees. PACs for healthcare corporations and other healthcare groups and businesses have contributed more than $1,000 each to Willoughby’s campaign. PACs for real estate agents, utilities and the largest railroad union in the nation also gave her campaign more than $1,000 each.
O’Brien’s large contributors include PACs for several labor and public-employee unions, an abortion rights political network that recruits political candidates and several groups that push Democratic causes. Some gave her campaign between $3,000 and $7,000.
Democratic Senate candidate Kristie O’Brien
O’Brien said Willoughby’s legislative priorities “have not been solving the long-term water crisis” in Arizona or lowering costs.
She said the Legislature needs to pass bipartisan legislation to conserve water and expand water management while looking for long-term water sourcing.
O’Brien said she wouldn’t favor a housing moratorium to address the state’s water crisis nor should the state mandate zoning rules for cities to encourage housing development.
“I think it’s up to the local communities to decide what they want in their own communities,” she said. “I don’t think the state should usurp that.”
O’Brien said she wants to limit Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, or school vouchers, to their original purpose of serving students with special needs, rather than the universal school voucher program the state implemented in 2022.
She said Republican lawmakers, who control the Legislature and preach fiscal responsibility, have been irresponsible with taxpayer dollars by allowing the cost of the program to balloon to nearly $1 billion and not addressing the fraud, waste and abuse that state auditors have found.
“This is not my first rodeo, even though I’ve never done rodeo, and unfortunately, years ago, I said if we kept expanding the vouchers, we would get to this point in Arizona’s public education … funding crisis,” O’Brien said.
The House candidates, Republican Kevin Hartke, who is Chandler’s mayor, and Democrats Rockee Armstrong and Jacob Weinberg, also spoke about the empowerment program and how to find more money for public education.
Republican Janet Weninger didn’t show up to the debate.
Democratic House candidate Jacob Weinberg
Weinberg, an accountant who audited Wall Street firms, said he would “claw back” all of the program funds that families wasted and abused, and he would require students in the program to take standardized achievement tests as charter and traditional school students must.
Weinberg said he would also seek expert advice on successful education programs around the nation.
Armstrong, a former teacher and school administrator who now works at Arizona State University, said the state needs to remake its funding formula, which was enacted in 1980.
Hartke said the state could explore new business models for schools.
“I think the best ideas come when we get together and explore and see how we can make this happen,” Hartke said.
Republican House candidate Kevin Hartke
When the debate turned to where they stand on the continued growth of data centers and how to balance their economic benefits with community opposition, Hartke had his personal experience as Chandler’s mayor to lean on.
In December, the Chandler City Council voted unanimously against approving a data center that former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema lobbied for. Hartke said the council gave the project a comprehensive look, and it took the voices of the community into consideration. They concluded that data centers “are essential to technology, but where they go is just as essential.”
Data centers enable cloud computing and storage, and advanced automation such as artificial intelligence, smart technology and robotics. But they require a lot of land, water and power, and they cause noise pollution.
Hartke said he’s been consulting with other cities and found data centers are willing to go into industrial parks or lower-density areas.
“I think we can find a solution that will bring more data centers to our economy, nationally to Arizona, but in places where they are more welcome and needed, rather than in the heart of population centers,” he said.
Weinberg has his own experience with data centers. The company he works for is designing and building a “responsible data center” in Eastern Europe, which will be 75% to 80% wind- and solar-powered. He said his hopes are to make it 120% energy efficient, meaning “we’re going to put stuff back into the grid.”
He said his company would build in Arizona in a remote area and not ask for tax cuts and subsidies as other companies have gotten, except for solar credits.
“To me, the biggest issue is doing it right versus doing what’s expedient. And expedient is what we’ve seen over the last four or five years, and it’s led to data centers in people’s backyards and neighborhoods so much so that they go out and protest it now,” he said.
Democratic House candidate Rockee Armstrong
Armstrong said communities are learning about the havoc data centers can reap, but the state must build them smarter and take everyone’s needs into account.
The state must balance job creation and corporations paying their fair share, she said.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘not in my backyard’ because it’s going to be somebody else’s backyard,” Armstrong said.