Big shoes to fill
Two Dems vie for southside Council seat … Fimbres in his own words … And another nail in the coffin for the city courthouse.
Tucson City Councilman Richard Fimbres’ recent decision not to seek another four-year term representing the southside Ward 5 office will leave some big shoes to fill.
So far, two Democrats with deep ties to the area have stepped up to run for the seat — Richard Hernandez1 and Jesse Lugo.
Hernandez briefly ran for a seat last year on the Pima Community College Governing Board but withdrew his candidacy before the primary. He also ran in the Democratic primary in 2020 for the District 2 Pima County Supervisor seat - challenging then-incumbent Ramon Valadez.2 And Hernandez was part of the successful recall efforts of both Bobby Garcia and Louie Gonzales from their seats on the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board back in 2014.
Hernandez is something of an outsider in local Democratic politics — he has long been openly critical of what he calls the local political “machine,” saying elected Democrats routinely prioritize programs and services in other parts of the city over those in Ward 5. He says he leans conservative and wants the city to put more focus on core services like the police department.
Lugo is more of an unknown. He has run for this seat before — but it has been a while. He challenged Fimbres’ predecessor Steve Leal back in 2001. The lifelong Tucsonan is known for his annual Bike in a Box campaign, which raises funds to give bicycles to poor children here in Tucson during Christmas.
Lugo declined to discuss his priorities on Tuesday, but said he has deep ties to the community — noting he has owned a home in the Julia Keen Neighborhood for the last 50 years.
So far, they’re the only candidates in the race.
Republicans haven’t fielded a candidate in any of the three Ward races as of yet, but the head of the Pima County GOP Kathleen Winn says it is still early. She told the Tucson Agenda she hopes to have Republican candidates in the coming weeks for all three races.
Pima County Democratic Party insiders expect at least one more candidate will throw their hat into the ring in Ward 5.
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The threshold for getting on the ballot as a Republican in Ward 5 is fairly low. GOP candidates need only 62 valid signatures from fellow Republicans and independents living in the southside district.
By comparison, a Democratic candidate would need more than four times as many signatures to qualify for the primary.
While 2025 is packed with local political races, voter turnout is expected to be relatively low when compared to even-numbered years when the top of the ticket has more powerful offices — president or governor (depending on the year) — that attract a higher turnout.
In 2021 — the last time city voters went to the polls to vote for the same three wards - voter turnout was just 24% in the primary, with only 22,800 voters casting a ballot in the election.
While not strictly an apples-to-apples comparison, we will point out that more than 197,000 people voted in the July 2024 primary here in Pima County. And the overall statewide turnout in the November 2024 election was 78%.
When Richard Fimbres leaves the office next year, he will be the most senior member of the Council, having served 16 consecutive years as an advocate for Tucson’s southside, bringing new employers and businesses while supporting the homeless throughout his tenure.
Fimbres is a 32-year veteran of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, who also served in the Army as a military policeman during the Vietnam War era, and as the director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) when fellow Democrat Janet Napolitano was governor.
Despite his background in law enforcement, the lifelong Tucsonan focused his time on economic development in the southside district and helping the most vulnerable living in Tucson. Fimbres helped set up the Homeless Work Program, an initiative that offered homeless individuals a daily cash payout, a hot meal and services in exchange for working outside doing landscaping.
Fimbres has often taken pride in the Tucson Marketplace at the Bridges, which developed a massive empty parcel along Interstate 10 into a thriving mixed-use development – creating jobs and housing in Ward 5.
While he is well-known for his four terms representing the southside on the Council, he also served two full terms on the Pima Community College Governing Board.
Here is Fimbres in his own words talking about his accomplishments back in 2021 with the Democrats of Greater Tucson:
Pushing back: The legislative session is in full swing, and local officials are starting to respond to bills that get under their skin. Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly took to social media yesterday evening to call out SB1011, a bill that would cut the time voters can return ballots by mail in an effort to get election results faster. She wrote more than a dozen tweets explaining the dynamics of last-minute voting and arguing that more equipment and office space would be a better fix than what’s in the bill.
Hackers hit schools: A data breach at a software company used by local schools exposed data at the Vail and Flowing Wells school districts, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. PowerSchools, based in California, said hackers used one of the company’s websites to access student information systems. They’re offering support to local schools, such as credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.
Coming soon?: A closed prison in Marana could be used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to aid the Trump administration’s planned crackdown, the Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern reports. State Sen. John Kavanagh wants to rent the Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility to ICE for $1 a year, along with another prison in Florence. If federal officials don’t end up needing the facilities, Kavanagh said they could be used to house people detained under the voter-approved Prop 314 (assuming the U.S. Supreme Court gives the green light to a similar measure in Texas).
Setting records: Federal prosecutions for crossing the border illegally in Arizona set a record last year, with 10,500 prosecutions, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara reports. Although that’s not because more people were crossing the border. In fact, it’s the opposite, officials said. Fewer people were arrested crossing the border, which gave Border Patrol agents more time to process cases for prosecution.
A 0.4-acre parking lot just north of the Tucson City Court was sold for $1.5 million recently, signaling the continued value of downtown real estate.
While the new owners of 140 N. Alameda Street aren’t saying what they might do with the land, there are plenty of options: The Toole Avenue Subdistrict, where the lot is located, would allow for a new six-story, 75-foot high structure.
This leads us to wonder what the aging city court is worth…
As part of Prop 414, which voters will decide in a special election in March, the City Council is asking voters to spend $500,000 for a “court consolidation” study. City officials are trying to either renovate the building or move out of the structure.
Yep, the fate of the Tucson City Court is now a $500,0000 question for consultants to figure out.
City officials have spent years wringing their hands about the long-term fate of the building. Over a decade ago, they backed out of an agreement with Pima County to lease space in what is now the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court just a block away.
At the time, city officials said a laundry list of deferred maintenance at the court made investments in the property – which once was a parking garage – not fiscally viable.
In case you’re wondering, Hernandez is not related to the local political dynasty with the same last name — state Reps. Alma and Consuelo Hernandez and former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, their brother. It’s just a common name!
Valadez and Hernandez both lost to a third Democrat in the race, current Supervisor Matt Heinz.