PHOENIX (AP) — The incumbent Republican governor and a Democratic Latino education professor won their parties’ respective nods in Tuesday’s primary election for Arizona’s top office.
Gov. Doug Ducey bested former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a more conservative GOP candidate who had little funding and campaign resources. Education professor and military veteran David Garcia beat fellow Democrats state Sen. Steve Farley and Kelly Fryer, a former CEO of the YWCA Southern Arizona.
A huge whoop erupted from several hundred supporters packed inside a central Phoenix restaurant when the race was called for Garcia.
“The insiders who have been running the show for decades are running scared because they know their days are numbered,” Garcia said. “We are one step away from changing Arizona.”
Much of the crowd was comprised of teachers who applauded when he vowed to “build a first-class education system.”
Ducey and Garcia both said they are suspending campaign gatherings later in the week to honor the late Sen. John McCain. Ducey, who has the responsibility of naming a replacement for McCain — and said he will do so after his funeral — held no public events on Tuesday.
Ducey has focused his re-election bid on border security and job creation, promoting a new law enforcement collaboration effort called the Border Strike Force. In a statement, Ducey touted increases to public education funding and job increases from his first term in office.
“We’ve delivered substantive reforms and made real progress these last three years in order to improve our state,” he said.
Garcia emerged over the summer in the three-way Democratic race. The fourth-generation Arizona resident is a professor at the education school at Arizona State University.
He supports the Invest in Education Act, a proposal that would increase income taxes on Arizona’s wealthiest residents to provide more money for schools.
He also has promised to pull back the National Guard troops Ducey sent to the southern border at President Donald Trump’s request. Ducey has argued their presence combats drug smuggling and other illegal activity along the international boundary.
Now that the primary is over, both parties are poised to funnel millions into November’s general election.
The Republican Governors Association over the summer broadcast attack ads against Garcia, linking him to calls to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Association spokesman Jon Thompson said the group had planned to buy more ad time this week, but decided to hold off after McCain’s death.
Some Democrats see Ducey as vulnerable after an unprecedented statewide teacher strike to demand increased school funding. Although Ducey’s proposal to give teachers a 20-percent raise over three years passed in the state budget, teachers had demanded $1 billion in new money for schools.
Josh Meyer, a 27-year-old Phoenix movie theater manager, said he voted Tuesday for Democratic candidates.
“It’s now or never for a blue wave by the Democrats,” said Meyer. “If not, democracy will be in question in our country.”
Eduardo Haramina, a naturalized U.S. citizen who sells hot dogs from a cart outside the Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, said he was thankful for the right to vote in the homeland he adopted after arriving from Argentina in 1971.
“It’s good to be able to choose our leaders, but sometimes it’s hard to know who is the best,” said Haramina, who declined to reveal how he voted. “I was sick and tired of the corruption back home. We have to make sure we keep the corrupt ones here out of office.”
Well, Señor Haramina, if you’ve been in Arizona for 47 years and still don’t know “who the best person is” to vote for, you’re clearly an imbecil.
Maybe you can be on the new Border Strike Force. Pendejo.
Border Strike Force sure sounds like a militarized cop force to me. It’s rather obvious where the money for education went. I am a long time resident of Tucson And I attended and then worked for many years at the University of Arizona. In 1968 (my first year there) the state provided around 45% of the Unversitiy’s operating budget as our state Constitution stipulated the state has the burden for education. The GOP acquired majorities in both state chambers in 1969. Since then very steadily year after year the funding dropped. Each year the mantra was “It’s just a one year cut, deal with it”. In 2012, the year I retired the state’s part stood at under 7% of the school’s operating budget … That is no one off. That’s a trend.
Education is a way out of poverty. The state would do well to look after the thing that gives a person the chance to have a better life. Yeah a border strike force sounds impressive and authoritarian but it will not stop smuggling any more than Nixon did when he completely shut the border down in 1974 for “Operation Intercept” that was supposed to end marijuana smuggling.
Ducey is no centrist GOPer. He’s a hard line trump follower. There is no way in hell that he is good for my state. I would have preferred to vote in November for Steve Farley but the voters have decided that Mr Garcia is the choice. It would be good for Arizona if he can win but Ducey is rolling in Koch money.
Stats from SoS office say only 25% of registered voters bothered to exercise the franchise. Granted it’s a primary. However, that’s no excuse.
I am beginning to believe that the non-voters deserve what they get, good and hard.
Except it grags along the voters as well.