Candidates for the U.S. House and Senate, Arizona Legislature and more will appear in a series of 2024 Clean Elections primary debates convened by the Arizona Media Association.
The debates include selected county-level candidates — including a planned face-off between the Democratic candidates for Pima County attorney next month.
Tucson Sentinel Government & Political Impact Reporter Jim Nintzel will moderate that discussion, along with several other debates.
“At a time when there's a lot of confusion about politics, I thinkdebates are one way that voters can really size up the candidates,” said Nintzel, who will be one of four main moderators for debates that will be broadcast statewide. “I’m humbled and excited to be part of keeping thetradition alive.”
The other moderators on a rotating panel will include Arizona Republic columnist RichardRuelas, former Univision journalist Mary Rabago of Mary RabagoProductions and Steve Goldstein, who recently stepped down from hislongtime gig as host of The Show on PhoenixNPR affiliate KJZZ.
The major statewide debates will be broadcast live from Scottsdale's BitFire Studios and willbe available on television, radio and news websites across the state,including TucsonSentinel.com. The legislative debates will be streamed online.
All debates will also be simulcast with Spanish audio translation and include an American Sign Language interpreter.
The first debate at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, will feature the six Democrats running in Congressional District 1. Amish Shah, Andrei Cherny, Andrew Horne, Conor O'Callaghan, Kurt Kroemer and Marlene Galan-Woods will face off in the discussion about the crowded primary contest.
Closer to home, PimaCounty County Attorney Laura Conover is scheduled to face prosecutorMike Jette, her challenger in the Democratic primary, at 6 p.m. Monday,June 24.
Conover, who is seeking a second term, was elected in 2020 on a platform of criminal justice reform.
Jette,a former state and federal prosecutor who is now working for the SantaCruz County Attorney’s Office, has charged that Conover has been toosoft on property and drug crimes and her leadership has resulted inexperienced prosecutors leaving the office.
No Republican or independent candidates filed to run, so the primary will decide the race.
Other debates include the Democratic and Republican primaries inCongressional District 3 on May 22; the Republican primary inCongressional District 4; the Republican primary for Maricopa CountyRecorder on Monday, June 24; the Republicans in Congressional District 8on Tuesday, June 25; and the Republicans running for U.S. Senate andMaricopa County Sheriff on Wednesday, June 26.
The debates were developed with the Arizona Media Association coordinating input from the leaders of dozens of news organizations across the state, including the Tucson Sentinel. The coordinated debate series is the first ever to involve the combined efforts of the state agency, the press group and a large cross-section of Arizona's news outlets.
"This new partnership makes sure that Arizona political debates are more accessible to voters, and that's a win for democracy," said AMA President Chris Kline. "Getting support from so many Arizona local media brands means these debates will have a huge megaphone."
Legislative debates
Among Southern Arizona legislative races, there are three Democrats are in the LD 23 race for an opportunity to fill two House seats: incumbent Rep. Mariana Sandoval, James “Jimmy” Holmes and Matias Rosales. The winners of the House primary will face Republican Rep. Michele Peña, the sole Republican in the contest. That debate will be Tuesday, June 25.
Nintzel will also moderate a debate between the two Democrats who are running for Senate, incumbent Sen. Brian Fernandez and primary challenger Jesus Lugo Jr. The winner of the Senate primary will face Republican Michelle Altherr in the November election.
The battle over LD23 could prove pivotal in the fight over control of the Arizona Legislature.
While Democrats, at 35 percent of the voters, hold the registration advantage over the 24 percent of Republicans, the 41 percent of independent voters can swing either way, as they demonstrated in 2022 when they elected the bipartisan House delegation of Sandoval and Peña.
The largest chunk of LD23’s voters—47 percent—live in Yuma County and 34 percent live in rural Maricopa County. Roughly 19 percent of voters live in western Pima County.
Voters can submit questions for the candidates on the Clean Elections website.
Clean Elections is scheduled to host debates for two other key primary races in Southern Arizona.
On May 24, the Republican candidates for Senate and House in Legislative District 17 are expected to meet.
Sen. Justine Wadsack, an anti-vaccine crusader and fierce proponent of gun rights who has joined the Legislature’s fledgling right-wing Freedom Caucus, is facing a primary challenge from Republican Vince Leach, who was unseated by Wadsack in 2022. Leach said voters should return him to office because Wadsack’s voting record in office leaves her vulnerable in the general election. Wadsack has declined to respond to requests to discuss her campaign with the Tucson Sentinel.
In the House race, Republican Reps. Cory McGarr and Rachel Jones are facing a primary challenge from GOP candidate Anna Orth, who came in third in LD17's 2022 primary race. The two winners of the primary will face Democrat Kevin Volk, who works with his family’s commercial real estate firm.
While LD17 doesn’t look that competitive on paper, Democrats see a potential pickup opportunity. As of Jan. 1, 38 percent of LD17 voters were Republicans, 29 percent were Democrats and 33 percent were independent of those two parties, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. The district includes precincts in Pinal County’s Saddlebrooke and Pima County’s Oro Valley and Marana, as well as Tucson’s East Side and Vail.
But Democratic strategists note that Democrats Mark Kelly, Katie Hobbs and Adrian Fontes all won LD17 in 2022 and say the district is now represented by some of the most extreme Republicans in the Legislature.
On May 29, the Democratic candidates for House of Representatives in Legislative District 21 are scheduled to debate.
Democrat Briana “Breezy” Ortega is challenging incumbent Reps. Consuelo Hernandez and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton.
District 21 includes neighborhoods in central Tucson south of Broadway between 4th Avenue and Pantano Road. The heavily Democratic district—41 percent of voters are registered Dems, while 21 percent are registered Republicans and 38 percent aren’t registered with either party—stretches south through Sahuarita and takes in Southern Arizona communities such as Nogales and Bisbee as well as the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
Roughly 73 percent of the district’s voters live in Pima County, while 22 percent live in Santa Cruz and 5 percent live in Cochise County.
More debates are awaiting final confirmation, and general election debates for contested races will be scheduled for the fall. A full list can be found on the Clean Elections Commission site.
"Voting is a vital responsibility but before casting a vote citizens need to be provided the opportunity to get to know their candidates and what they stand for which makes the unfiltered nature of debates highly effective," said Gina Roberts, director of voter education for Clean Elections.
Each debate will be an hour-long discussion among candidates that includes back-and-forth conversations, limits on response times and a focus on the issues at the top of Arizona voters' minds as shown by polling conducted by Clean Elections, including the economy, abortion and immigration.
Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins said "we have dedicated our careers to successfully producing the best non-partisan candidate debates, and this year marks the start of what we hope is the most modern, far-reaching, collaborative production to be seen in more than 20 years."
