We at the PRT feel it is part of our mission to provide our readers with the tools and information with which to make an informed decision at the polls. To that end, we are hosting two candidate forums at the Tin Shed Theater in Patagonia, free and open to the public. We will also be recording these forums and posting them on our YouTube channel.
We are hosting these forums before the July 30 primary elections. We feel that, for our local offices, the primary elections are as important, if not more so, than the general elections in November.
These elections are one of our most direct forms of democracy. In Santa Cruz County, our primary elections essentially determine the make-up of our county government. This is not a phenomenon unique to our county. In Arizona, primary elections generally determine who will hold state legislative offices.
In our county, which, as of April 2024, has 30,678 registered voters, 13,722 are registered Democrats, 5,188 are registered Republicans, 11 are Green Party members, and 11,470 are Independents. For better or worse, this gives the winner of the Democratic primary a decided advantage over his or her Republican challenger.
Then, consider that voter turnout for the primaries in Santa Cruz County has dipped from 30.17% in August 2020 to 17.07% in the primary election in 2022. That gives those of us who do show up to vote in the primary a bigger say in the choice of our candidates. Because so few people vote in the primary, those who do get the biggest bang for their buck.
Our first forum, for Democratic candidates for County Sheriff, will be held Saturday, June 29, starting at 2:00pm. The moderator will be the Honorable Thomas Fink, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge.
The second forum, scheduled for Saturday, July 13 at the Tin Shed Theater, will focus on the Democratic candidates for Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors for District 3. Dave Lumia, a retired journalist living in Sonoita and a PRT volunteer journalist, will be moderating this forum.
We encourage our readers to send questions that they would like us to pose to the candidates. Please email them to editor@prtnews.org. We look forward to seeing you at the forums. Also, look for continued coverage of local and county candidates in this issue, and upcoming issues, of the PRT.