When Republican Greg Krino, a former Air Force fighter pilot and first-time political candidate, withdrew his House of Representatives bid in Legislative District 28 and entered the Senate race as a write-in candidate, political junkies lifted an eyebrow.
Republican candidates don’t normally have much of a chance in the midtown Tucson district—which is home to about 36,000 Democrats, 22,000 Republicans and 24,000 others spread out across the political spectrum—but some think there’s a chance Krino could sneak in to office this year.
“The stars are aligned in District 28,” says Bob Westerman, the chairman of the Pima County Republican Party.
A pair of independent candidates—former Green Party candidate Dave Ewoldt and former Democratic lawmaker Ted Downing—have stepped up to challenge Democratic Sen. Paula Aboud, who has represented the district since being appointed to fill Gabrielle Giffords’ seat after she resigned to run for Congress in 2006.
Both independents lean left, and Republicans are hoping they will draw enough Democratic votes to allow Krino to win a plurality.
“We saw the two independents running for the office, and the general feeling is they would draw votes (from Aboud). … If you had to put a scenario together where we had an opportunity to upset that election, I think it’s in place,” Westerman says.
While Democrats expect Ewoldt to take some of their votes, they look at Downing as the real spoiler.
Downing served the district in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2006, when he lost the Senate Democratic primary to Aboud by less than 1,500 votes. By running as an independent this year, Downing avoided having to face Aboud in a primary (which would most likely be decided by party loyalists), and he is able to draw attention to his “post-party” platform.
Downing wants to eliminate partisan primaries, as Californians recently voted to do, and institute a wide-open primary, where the two highest vote-getters go on to the general election regardless of party affiliation. The plan has vast support from Arizona voters, according to a recent Morrison Institute poll.
He also wants to “fire half the Legislature” and turn to a unicameral system. These moves would cut down on the partisan bickering that has plagued the Legislature and devastated the state, he says.
“Tucson is receiving collateral damage from the partisan fighting, and it doesn’t help the people of Tucson at all,” says Downing.
While his ideas might sound good to some Arizonans who see the lawmaking body as totally dysfunctional, they haven’t gained much traction with his former colleagues in the Democratic Party.
Aboud and Downing live only a few blocks apart and met while working in neighborhood politics. Still, Aboud says that she had reservations about voting for him during his first bid for the Legislature back in 2000.
“That’s me—a pretty level-headed person—looking at a guy who I’ve been working with for a few years, and he was crazy to me,” Aboud says.
Aboud says Downing is running as an independent because he doesn’t have Democratic support.
“If people won’t sign your petition, and people won’t give you $5, and people won’t contribute to your campaign—hello? What’s missing here?” says Aboud.
Even Ewoldt—Downing’s fellow independent, who ditched the Green Party label in an effort to pick up support from environmentally minded folks across the political spectrum—is taking shots at Downing, saying, “Ted’s going to have a hard time convincing people he’s independent. He’s one of the good old boys of the core Democrats in town.”
Aboud admits that the two independents could capture enough votes to open the door for Krino, but she says that’s not likely to happen.
Downing says such an occurrence is nearly impossible—he compares Krino’s run to Luke Skywalker’s shot that took down the Death Star—and says the race is really between him and Aboud.
Krino thinks otherwise, and says his moderate stances on social issues like gay marriage and medical marijuana, combined with his conservative stances on fiscal issues during this Great Recession, will earn him support from Democrats and independents alike.
“I’ve got a free-market mentality, and my focus has always been on the economy,” he says. “Some of the more divisive issues—you know, I’ve got positions on those issues, but they’re not at the top of my list. (My emphasis has) always been improving the economy, bringing jobs to Arizona and simplifying the tax code—and all these things help everybody.”
Downing claims SB 1070’s main sponsor, Sen. Russell Pearce, got Krino into the race to keep a victorious Downing from potentially joining Republican ranks and voting against Pearce as Senate president next year. Krino says Pearce never asked him to get into the race, and he’s not sure who he would vote for to become Senate president.
Pearce aside, Downing says he’s not the Democrats’ spoiler; instead, he maintains, he’s the future. Studies show Arizona voters have been leaving the two parties since the 1970s, he says, and it’s about time they had someone who represents them.
“(The political parties) don’t know how to deal with a viable nonpartisan candidacy like mine,” Downing says. “It conceptually baffles them. But they’re going to have to get used toit, because the demographics of the state are such that there will be more Ted Downings appearing.”
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.
Wow, an independent as spoiler- what innovative reporting, guys! Gosh, I guess you believe the two major parties have done such a fabulous job over the years, they should continue to run the state (and the country) into the ground as they have over the last thirty years.
Instead of critizing Downing, maybe you should look at Aboud’s absences during crucial votes, or her inability to bring much money to Tucson for job creation or the fact that she hasn’t had any significant legislation passed. Oh, sorry, that’s not Paula’s fault. That’s the big, badass Republicans, right?
And what solutions does Aboud proffer for the State. Funny you never hear her state any- only that if you vote for her, Steve Farley and Bruce Wheeler, they’ll deliver for LD 28.
C’mon, Weekly. Put on your trenchcoat and sneakers and do some investigative reporting again, instead of just being another cypher for the big Democratic machine.
Why is the Weekly using scare tactics on LD28 voters? When he was a state representative, Ted Downing wrote and PASSED 86 bills into law. He worked with the Republican majority and deliver results to district 28. Paula Aboud is an absent senator who has done nothing for Tucson and is a puppet for the Democratic Party. If she loses to Krino, we have not lost much. Vote with your gut and vote for Ted!
Good article overall, Hank. This _is_ shaping up to be a very interesting race.
There are a couple of subtle points I’d like to make. The first is that I’m not “challenging” Senator Aboud. I’m running “for” a sustainable future, which can be implemented through a practical, affordable process known as relocalization. I just happen to have spent the past couple of decades drawing on my background as a systems scientist to see how we got into our current mess, connecting the dots in how the mess maintains itself, and working at the community and personal levels to implement solutions. If we’re going to have the systemic change required to deal with the root causes of our crises, it’s going to require someone who has a background in change and its realistic possibilities.
I don’t lean left. But I don’t lean right, either. I’m out in front. That’s probably the main reason I’m running as an Independent. While I would be inclined to vote for Paula if I wasn’t running, it’s because she exhibits the highest degree of common sense among the other candidates, not that she’s a Democrat.
Plus, it’s a myth that the Green Party is the left wing of the Democrats. There are as many of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values the embody traditional conservative values, such as democracy, decentralization, conservation, responsibility, and local autonomy as those that tend to be narrowly associated with liberal values, such as justice, equity, non-violence, diversity, and sustainability.
However, most _real_ Republicans I know agree that all those latter values would be a good idea as well if we’re to have any hope of passing on a planet and society our children can prosper in. If the media should decide to start presenting fair and honest coverage of candidate platforms, I’d expect to pull more Republican votes than Greg, the vast majority of the Independents, and a good chunk of the Democrats. Relocalization is both a necessary and a winning platform. See http://www.daveforarizona.org for details.
But I’m not running as a Green, and haven’t been associated with the Green Party for almost a year now, because their main interest is in building a party and they’re not using their values to propose solutions to our rapidly converging crises. They seem to be following the Democrats to the mythical “center” in trying to stimulate an economic recovery with “green” jobs and other band-aids, and they seem to have lost their passion for challenging the status quo. While jobs in a sustainable future must be green, they are not going to return us to the “normal” that got us into our current mess.
Which brings up the other main reason I’m running. Most candidates today believe that you can’t challenge the status quo, or that there isn’t any alternative, or that doing even more of what got us into this mess will somehow get us out, or that we just need to rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic called Corporatism–or throw half the chairs overboard. Not only do we deserve better than that, we’re actually capable of better than that.
Why no photo of Independent Dave Ewoldt?
Because the campaign photo he submitted was blurry and low-resolution. Had we run it, he would have looked like a pixelated wookie. Mr. Ewoldt says he’s working on getting us a better picture for future coverage.
This is the thing….
I’m an American FIRST. I will vote for Ted Downing, because he’s the ONLY choice, as far as I’m concerned.
Also, I can’t believe I have to read ANOTHER one of Aboud’s false claims on here!!! He collected enough signatures right away, that’s how he got on the ballot to begin with. And how nice of her to help Ewoldt collect signatures to get on the ballot.
As far as money goes, he isn’t focusing on fundraising, he isn’t focusing on money, because he isn’t planning on spending a bunch of money, he just wants to reach voters.
How nice for a Democratic party backed candidate to talk about money, when she’s BACKED by a PARTY….
PLEASE don’t let her serve another term Tucson, for ALL of our sakes….