Tucson Election Results

The votes are counted. Only two of the city's 145 precincts have turned in their ballots, and the prospective results read as follows.

City Council Wards:
Three contentious races took place to occupy these positions. Democrat Karin Uhlich holds her incumbent position in Ward 3. After a heated contest in Ward 5, Democrat Richard Fimbres pulled a 53-46 win over challenger Shaun McClusky. Unfortunately, incumbent Nina Trasoff was edged out on the east side, losing to challenger Steve "Koz" Kozachik by less than two percent of the vote. While the early ballots only held a couple of hundred in his favor, today's polling shows nearly a 1,000 vote advantage.

Proposition 200:
Decried as an unfunded public mandate that would likely exhaust the already depleted budget of the city's parks and recreation, education, and welfare assistance revenue, Tucson citizens soundedly defeated the measure with 7 out of every 10 voters checking "no."

I attended a Drinking Liberally meeting back when it took place at The Shanty downtown. The group invited some representatives to discuss Proposition 200. While attendees agreed that public safety is of concern, especially since Tucson operates well under the average ratio of firefighters and police officers per 1,000 in the population and delivers lower response times, it was very disconcerting to hear that "economic recovery" would solve the costs. No details -- none, whatsoever -- on the projected costs or the funding sources beyond some veiled mention of a "general fund." The same fund that has proven time and time again over the past few years to be cut first.

Crime has been trending downward in Tucson for the past decade, and the backers of 200 appeared to fail repeatedly in seeing the systemic problems of crime. The funding for this mandate could be better appropriated into education and after-school interventions designed to deter young adults from opportunities to pursue crime.

Speaking of Education:
Nearly all the propositions to allow for budget overrides for both the City and for the school districts were shot down. The most overwhelming blows came for Tucson proper and for the Tucson Unified School District, which has failed to garner a budget increase for the past three election cycles. Meanwhile, folks living in the wealthier northern and Foothills areas of town shrugged at the one-dollar per $100 property tax increase.