The Arizona Clean Elections Commission invited candidates for Legislative District 19 for a live, recorded debate. District 19 encompasses five Arizona counties, including much of Santa Cruz County. Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives Aiden Swallow and Jackie O’Donnell Anderson participated in the debate, but Republican candidates Lupe Diaz and David Gowan declined their invitations. Likewise, for the district’s Senate seat, Democratic candidate Bob Karp chose to participate, but Republic Gail Griffin did not.
Democratic candidates, Aiden “Addie” Swallow, Jackie O’Donnell Anderson, and Bob Karp are looking to flip the red seats in Legislative District 19.
These candidates shared their plans if elected during a debate hosted by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission last week.
Republican candidates Lupe Diaz, David Gowan and Gail Griffin declined to participate.
Host Joe Ferguson, of Tucson Agenda, asked about PROP 212 (the Protect Education Accountability Now citizens initiative), which failed to qualify for the ballot earlier this month, and what the Legislature should do about ESA’s (Empowerment Scholarship Accounts).
Karp responded: “ESA vouchers. They do two things. They suck money out of this school system and they make it difficult for people to continue to have their kids go to neighborhood schools.”
Anderson said she believes the Legislature needs to examine how education dollars are being spent and questioned why funding for public schools has declined over the years.
She said: “There’s also an issue of lack of transparency. I think with the Department of Education and there’s no accountability. There’s no public spreadsheet dashboard to tell us where this money is going and why.”
Swallow argued that lawmakers should place limits on what expenses can qualify for reimbursement while also raising concerns about differences in educational standards among homeschooling, charter schools and private schools receiving public funding.
“The legislature should have been reigning in ESA vouchers for years now,” said Swallow. “There is tons of money being wasted on the ESA vouchers. People have filed and got reimbursed for lingerie, cars, a lot of frivolous and useless expenses that they never should have been able to file for in the first place.”
Ferguson then asked about Data Centers and how Arizona should balance their potential economic benefits with growing concerns from communities that don’t want them.
Swallow said data centers do not provide enough long-term economic benefit to justify their demands on Arizona’s resources. She questioned whether the jobs created would remain in local communities and argued that the facilities’ water consumption is incompatible with Arizona’s existing water challenges.
Swallow said: “Those jobs don’t go to the people in the community. They’re not union jobs. They are jobs that they’re probably going to outsource or they’re not or they’re not permanent, so they’re not going to help anything.”
Anderson agreed, questioning the long-term employment benefits of data centers, saying construction workers could be employed temporarily before facilities become largely automated and require relatively few permanent employees.
She said, “we’re still losing our water, which is going to (be) harder and harder to replenish and then electricity is going to increase because of the usage.”
When asked what responsibility candidates would have to constituents who did not vote for them, and interestingly, if they would be willing to break with their party.
Swallow said her responsibility would be to every constituent, regardless of political affiliation.
“They (Democrats) do many things that I don’t agree with,” said Swallow.
Drawing on her nursing background, Anderson said she would first consider whether legislation could harm residents or provide sustainable benefits: “I may not walk too fast, but I still have a brain and I study…I don’t think I’ve really changed on any position, but I know that I will have my say in the legislature, my feelings based off of my personal knowledge at best.”
Karp, the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat, also ran for Legislature in 2018, 2020 and 2024.
Ferguson asked about what frustrated him the most about his party, Karp pointed to the Democrats’ difficulty attracting certain communities, in particular young people.
“We have tried very hard to reach out, and the party needs to broaden its space and down here the challenge is how to figure out how to do it.“
When asked what policies he would pursue to make life more affordable for families in the district, Karp identified health care, education and housing issues.
Karp insisted that changes to AHCCCS could make health care harder for residents to afford and said the state should explore ways to expand access.
“We need to start to think about universal health care at the state level,” Karp said. “We can start to make steps through changes to make it easier for people to get affordable healthcare.”
Water was another major issue raised by Karp. He said Arizona should enforce the state’s 100-year water requirement for new development and give the Arizona Department of Water Resources greater authority to monitor commercial and industrial wells. He pointed to concerns about water withdrawals in the Willcox Basin and said better monitoring is necessary before additional development occurs.
Ferguson also asked whether Arizona lawmakers should continue overriding local zoning rules to encourage housing development or allow cities to decide for themselves.
Karp said he has changed his thinking about housing density since serving on the Sierra Vista Planning and Zoning Commission. While he once strongly supported single-family zoning, he said increasing housing density could help reduce costs.
However, Karp said he does not believe the state should impose the same housing rules on every community. Instead, he said local governments should retain the ability to respond to their own residents while the state encourages policies that could increase housing availability.
He gave this example: “Years ago, Bisbee passed an ordinance that they weren’t going to have plastic bags anymore at the supermarkets. Okay, you know, it’s a little nutty, but I actually think it was a good idea and great for Bisbee to try. However, the Republicans and the state legislature immediately outlawed it statewide. Bad policy. We need to believe that our local governments can be responsible or responsive to their constituents.”
The debate concluded with questions about propositions that voters will see on the general election ballot.
When asked about Proposition 319 limiting the use of photo enforcement systems, Swallow and Anderson both said they would vote yes, citing concerns about government surveillance and the importance of allowing voters to decide how surveillance technology is used.
Swallow referencing CIA surveillance of African-Americans and other minority groups, saying the government should have learned from past surveillance abuse.
Karp was asked about Proposition 318, which would establish rules for school sports teams and athletic facilities based on biological sex at birth. Karp said he would vote no, arguing that the proposal represents unnecessary government intervention and that decisions about sports should instead be handled by athletic organizations.
With Republican candidates declining to participate, voters did not hear opposing candidates address the same questions during the debate.