Ward 6 gets crowded
Who’s running? … GOP not in the game yet … And Tucson gets cast as the Windy City.
We’ve been waiting since last March to know who would take over the Ward 6 seat on the Tucson City Council after Steve Kozachik stepped down.
Yes, former councilwoman Karin Uhlich was appointed to fill out the remainder of his term in May 2024 — but she made it clear she would not seek re-election.
Ten months later, we’re finally getting a better picture of who is vying for the Democratic nomination for a full term in the midtown district. Four individuals already filed candidate statements of organization — the first step in running for office.
And in this race, the Democratic nomination is what matters. Dems have such a large advantage in Ward 6 that Republican candidates have little chance.
As of Monday, there were four Democrats in the running — Pima Community College Boardmember Theresa Riel, local attorney Leighton Rockafellow Jr., community organizer Miranda Schubert, and one of the co-owners of Fangamer, a small videogame merchandise company, Charlie Verdin.
There was briefly a fifth candidate in the race, Tucson Unified School District Governing Board Member Val Romero. He filed paperwork to run for the Ward 6 seat as a Democrat.
That’s a switch for Romero. He previously ran as an independent for several offices, including when he got his seat on the TUSD board in 2023. He lost to Kozachik in 2021 and again in 2024, when he challenged Adelita Grijalva for her seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
But Romero said he isn’t staying in the race. He told the Tucson Agenda on Monday that he changed his mind and filed paperwork to shut down his campaign, signaling he was close to offering his endorsement to someone else in the race.
As for Kozachik, he said he isn’t ready to endorse yet, but did predict that more people would get in on the race.
As more people jump into the Ward 6 race, and the other two council races, we’ll be right here to help you make sense of it all.
The midtown district is a strongly Democratic area, with a 3-to-1 advantage for Democrats.
No Republicans have entered the Ward 6 race — or either of the two other council races this year.
We should note that if a Republican does enter the race, nearly one-third of Ward 6 registered voters are not aligned with either party.
However, any Republican candidate seeking a seat on the council faces a monumental disadvantage. The city charter allows any registered city voter to cast a vote in all three of the open ward races, and Democrats have a huge citywide advantage. There are 129,000 registered Democrats, compared to 66,500 registered Republicans.
It doesn’t look like that system is changing any time soon. While there have been a number of attempts to overturn how Tucson handles elections, judges have repeatedly sided with the city.
Kozachik was the last Republican to win a city council race, but he left the GOP and became a Democrat in 2013 after fighting with state Republicans over gun laws.
It’s still early, and the four Democratic candidates in Ward 6 aren’t guaranteed a spot on the ballot just yet. Filing a statement of organization is merely the first step in the process.
The candidates will still have to get at least 576 valid signatures on their nominating petitions from Democrats living in the district, with a deadline of turning them in no later than April 7 to qualify for the ballot.
Conventional wisdom says they should add a few hundred additional signatures to the number, as it is not unheard of for political rivals and their proxies to challenge their opponents’ signatures.
If you live in Ward 6, keep an eye out for the candidates.
All four Democrats in the race said they plan to go door-to-door to talk to residents and get their signatures.1
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Fresh face at the Capitol: Newly elected Democratic state Rep. Kevin Volk talks to the Capitol Times’ Jakob Thorington about why he ran for office in a Republican-leaning district covering Tucson's east side, Marana and Vail, and what he wants to do on his big priorities like education funding and housing.
“I’ve done some challenging and innovative things within housing, whether it’s converting an office property into six residences or creating a business to convert used shipping containers to affordable, residential studio units,” he told the Capitol Times.
A latte of complaints: The Starbucks location that moved in to the historic Chicago Music Store downtown isn’t sitting well with some people, Alessandra De Zubeldia reports for the Tucson Sentinel. It’s part of a nationwide expansion by the company. In Tucson, nearly half the Starbucks locations in the city were added in the past three years.
"To have something like a Starbucks, of all places, being opened in such an iconic store, just really feels like a slap to the face to all the locals who live here," native Tucsonan Susan Ho said.Finding gold: The renovation of Teatro Carmen is revealing treasures like century-old concert posters, the Arizona Daily Star’s Cathalena Burch reports. When the renovation is complete, hopefully by 2027, Barrio Viejo will have a 300-seat theater and events space, along with a restaurant, bar, and an outdoor patio.
Digging into the past: The Tucson Police Department got a $1.5 million grant to investigate sexual assaults, Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. The grant came from the U.S. Department of Justice and will be used to look into DNA evidence that could shed light on cold cases.
As the state Legislature kicked off its annual session yesterday, GOP lawmakers took aim at Pima County’s “Chicago-style” politics, the Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern reports.
Freedom Caucus leader Sen. Jake Hoffman spoke at a news conference and said he planned to “place special scrutiny” on Pima County, which just so happens to be one of the only places in the state where Republicans can’t win over voters.
“The days of Pima County operating as a corrupt Chicago-style machine are soon to be over,” Hoffman said.You can also sign candidate petitions electronically through the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Just a reminder that Jake Hoffman is not just a state legislator. He is also an indicted fake elector in trump's 2020 election subversion scheme. Character doesn't matter in elections anymore.