Looks like Councilman Steve Kozachik has a challenger in this year’s Democratic primary.
Miranda Schubert, an academic advisor at the University of Arizona who has also served as a DJ on KXCI community radio and hosted a feminist-oriented live talk show at Club Congress, announced today that she was challenging the two-term councilman in the Aug. 3 primary.
Schubert said in a statement that she wants to see the council do more to provide affordable housing, policies that lead to higher wages and alternative policing strategies.
“The majority of Tucson’s residents aren’t people who are preoccupied with the resale value of their home,” she said. “They’re families like mine, working for the institutions and small businesses that drive Tucson’s economy, but feeling ignored and left out of whatever future our leadership is imagining for the city.”
She added that increasing rents were creating a housing affordability crisis.
“You cannot tell people in this city that rents are too low or actually affordable when they have evidence in their daily life to the contrary,” she said.
Kozachik said that Schubert “was welcome to take part in the democratic process.”
“These jobs are first and foremost about addressing the day-to-day concerns of our constituents,” Kozachik added. “I believe she’s going to learn that my office has a pretty damn good record with constituent services and being accessible and responsive. Continuing that personal touch is a big reason I’m doing this one more time.”
Kozachik was elected to the Tucson City Council as a Republican in 2009 but switched to the Democratic Party after fighting with GOP members of the Arizona Legislature. He won reelection as a Democrat in 2013 and 2017.
Petition signatures are due for candidates on April 5.
There’s still some question as to whether Tucson will have an election this year, as the city is still awaiting an Arizona Supreme Court decision regarding a state law that would force the city to move elections, including this year’s contest, to even years to correspond with presidential and midterm elections.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2021.
Steve K is in his third term, not his 2nd. Elected Nov 2009, re-elected 2013 and 2017.
Whatever. Let’s hurry up and get those Dominion voting machines so China can pick OUR winner.
Steve K. has been a great asset to neighborhood groups. He listens and helps to find answers and solutions in the city bureaucracy. Reelect Steve.
As a FORMER supporter of Steve Kozachik, I’m shocked at his refusal to consider Ward 6 & other voters’ complaints about the Randolph Park zoo’s wishes to steal land from Tucson citizens to expand the zoo. He has sided with planners & architects & the greedy zoo land grabbers & defended the 50.38% Prop 203 majority win in 2017 as justification for the theft. Even many of the Prop 203 YES voters have admitted they were misled with proposals for “zoo improvements” & claims of “no political games or hidden agendas”. Steve has turned into one of the political game players & hidden agenda con artists. He needs to go, & those of us who aren’t registered as Democrats or Independents should switch parties to be eligible to vote for Miranda Schubert in the August 21st Primary Election.
So this election is going to be decided by a “to zoo or not to zoo” issue? I thought we had real issues to focus our attention on. Liked the zoo and the duckpond but haven’t visited them in years.
The Ward Six office does have a good record when it comes to constituent services and being accessible and responsive. Steve deserves credit for that.
But the job is also about leadership, making hard decisions, and coming down on the right side of divisive issues. We’ve been seeing more of this kind of challenge lately, what with a pandemic, an employment crisis, and a housing affordability crisis that was already getting bad before the pandemic happened.
I think this year’s city race (if it happens this year—we’re still waiting on a court decision) will not be so much about constituent service, but about policy issues. Should we continue to incentivize high-end apartment development with tax dollars? Should we be granting controversial rezonings to developers like the one that happened at the Benedictine Monastary? Is this proposed zoo expansion really the best thing for our community at this moment in time, and is it worth sacrificing a treasured community landmark (Barnum Hill) for? Questions like these will define the race, and the divisions are already looking rather clear.