A Democratic state Senate candidate portrayed a 10-term Republican lawmaker in a Southern Arizona legislative district as a “professional politician” and hypocrite on term limits on Aug. 19.
Democrat Bob Karp lost a House race against Republican Rep. Gail Griffin in 2018, and now they’re running for a Senate seat in Legislative District 19.
Karp slammed Griffin’s long tenure at the Capitol in an interview after Griffin declined an invitation to the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate.
Sen. David Gowan and Rep. Lupe Diaz also skipped the debate, leaving Tucson Agenda Senior Reporter Joe Ferguson to interview the Democratic slate for the state House, Aiden Swallow and Jackie O’Donnell Anderson.
The district, where Republican voters outnumber Democrats nearly 2 to 1, covers five rural counties and a large swath of the Mexico border.
Voters go to the polls Nov. 3 and early ballots go out Oct. 7.
Legislative District 19
Gowan wants to move to the House to fill Griffin’s seat. Griffin, 82, reached her limit of four consecutive terms in the House and wants to move to the Senate, where she could potentially serve four more two-year terms.
Karp said Griffin signed onto a grassroots effort to enact term limits for Congress, where members can serve as long as they’re elected. Congress has 24 octogenarians and 92-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley. Several of them have served since the 1970s and 80s.
Griffin has represented Southern Arizona on and off since 1997, starting in the House and jumping back and forth between chambers to bypass term limits.
“I'm running because Gail Griffin is a professional politician,” Karp said. “She believes term limits are fine for the U.S. Congress, but not for herself.”
Democratic Senate candidate Bob Karp
That wasn’t the last of Karp’s criticism of Griffin.
“Gail Griffin refused to debate,” Karp said. The Republicans have never participated in any of the three prior debates that I have been at. I believe that elected officials need to meet their constituents.”
And he also jabbed at her water policy.
Karp said the state should enforce its 100-year water requirement for new development to ensure there’s enough water for existing residents and new development.
“There's a lot of debate about that,” Karp said. “Gail Griffin doesn't believe in that.”
Griffin is known as a leading defender of property rights and rural economic development and her refusal to hear bills that have wide support to bolster groundwater management has spawned a swell of exasperation and fury from rural leaders, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, lobbyists, the governor, and anyone else interested in policy change.
Karp said the Arizona Department of Water Resources should have more power to monitor commercial industrial wells to know how much water is withdrawn. He also emphasized the need for water reclamation systems and protecting water rights from being sold outside of counties.
On housing policy, Karp said he doesn’t think the state should override local zoning rules to encourage more housing development because “local governments can be responsible or responsive to their constituents.” He cited Bisbee’s ban of plastic bags in grocery stores as one example of state interference in local control.
“Okay, you know it's a little bit nutty, but I actually think it was a good idea and great for Bisbee to try it,” Karp said. “However, the Republicans in the state legislature immediately outlawed it statewide.”
Swallow and Anderson took turns discussing what lawmakers should do about the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, or vouchers, and data centers; and how they would represent a red district.
The ESA program provides public funds for students to attend private schools and is a contentious political football at the Legislature with the cost rising to nearly $1 billion and revelations of waste, fraud and abuse. Democratic lawmakers are seeking more oversight and financial guardrails while Republicans fight restrictions and changes in eligibility.
Democratic House candidate Aiden Swallow
Swallow, a former Army intelligence officer, said the Republican-controlled Legislature has failed to add accountability measures to the program.
“People have filed and got reimbursed for lingerie, for cars, for a lot of frivolous and useless expenses that they never should have been able to file for in the first place,” Swallow said.
The House candidates weren’t enamored with data centers either.
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, power, and cause noise pollution.
Communities have come out against data centers and local governments have listened and rejected them, but their necessity will only grow as technology continues to evolve and the state will likely have to address them. Lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs agreed to place a three-year moratorium on tax incentives for them.
For Swallow, it was simple: water scarcity.
“This is the desert,” Swallow said. “Stay out of Arizona because we can't handle data centers down here.”
Democratic House candidate Jackie O’Donnell Anderson
Anderson doesn’t think the business model for data centers are sustainable and they bring only a few long-term jobs.
“I mean, all they could have is a night watchman, and then we're still losing our water, which is going to take harder and harder to replenish,” Anderson said.
Anderson and Swallow said that if they’re elected, they wouldn’t take marching orders from the Democratic Party or Democratic leaders in the House, but try to serve all of the constituents of the district first.
“I'm not a fan of the Democratic establishment,” Swallow said. “I understand I'm a Democratic nominee, but I have no issue breaking caucus if I need to.”