NEWS FROM THE COCONINO COUNTY DEMOCRATS
July 15, 2024
In this edition: hear from leaders about using our passion and our values to keep moving even during these challenging times. Learn what Flagstaff residents and visitors think about our key issues. Get all the facts on this month’s Arizona primary election. We continue to reach out to voters, serve our community at the Flagstaff Family Food Center, and more in our work to defend democracy – join us!
Voices from Flagstaff’s Community Market
Our First Vice-Chair, Nancy Branham, and her band of trusty volunteers have been reaching out weekly to Flagstaff residents and visitors at the weekly Community Market downtown. Each week they pose a new question, encouraging passersby to stop, muse, and converse about some timely topic. Over the past couple of weeks they have asked people to list what they believe to be the biggest accomplishment of the Biden – Harris administration so far, and to describe the traits they most want to see in a candidate. (Both of these questions are highly relevant to the public reactions we’ve seen to last week’s presidential debate.) Answers have been diverse, thoughtful, and thought-provoking.
President Biden’s administration is credited for many accomplishments, but most fell into one of two general categories. Progress on economic and infrastructure challenges were mentioned most often. Achievements in the area of human rights, inclusivity, and respect were also frequently recognized. The President was praised by some for contributions to peace and the international order, and for climate and environmental achievements.
What do we want to see in an elected leader? By far, the largest number of answers evoked ethics, honesty, and integrity. This highlights the importance of focusing on the contrast between convicted felon Trump, and his criminal friends, versus our candidates. Other general categories that many people mentioned include empathy, pro-environmental values, and general rationality and the thoughtfulness born of experience.
These responses remind us to hold ourselves (and our candidates) to high standards of behavior, and to recognize that most people care about human values and principles. So our messaging needs to speak to these heartfelt priorities, as much as (or more than) facts and figures.Nancy invites all of us to stop by the Coconino Democrats table at the Market any Sunday, to talk over the question of the week. Many thanks to Nancy and our Market tabling volunteers for engaging in these revealing conversations!
Countdown to the Primary
July 19 – Last day to request ballot by mail (5 pm)
July 23 – Put your early ballot in the US Mail
July 26 – Last day to vote early in person
July 26-29 – Emergency early voting
July 30 – Election Day! Vote in person, or return early ballot by 7 pm to drop box, recorder’s office, or polling place
Go to https://coconino.az.gov/195/Elections to learn more about ballots and early voting (Recorder’s Office) or about Election Day voting and ballot tabulation (Elections Department).
Who’s On Our Ballot?
Many voters – perhaps even you! – tend to ignore the primary election, and don’t try to inform themselves or think about voting until the November general election. That is a mistake we don’t want to make! This month’s primary features a number of contested races among Democratic candidates (and some non-partisan elections in several county municipalities). We list here the races where Democratic Coconino County voters have a choice to make. Check these out, do some background on your options, and VOTE this month to finalize our November ballot.
State Senator, LD 7: vote for 1 of 2 Dem candidates (Haley Creighton, Roberto Apodaca Reveles)
State Representative, LD 6: vote for 2 of 3 candidates (Angela Malone, Mae Peshlakai, Myron Tsosie)
Coconino County Board of Supervisors, District 4: vote for 1 of 2 candidates (Judy Begay, Ross Bergstresser)
Coconino County Board of Supervisors, District 5: vote for 1 of 3 candidates (Marie Acothley, Lena Fowler, Angie Williams)
County Attorney: vote for 1 of 2 candidates (Ammon Barker, Gary Pearlmutter)
Page Justice of the Peace: vote for 1 of 2 candidates (Michael Barnes, Maia Rodriguez)
Nonpartisan races in the County:
City of Page (mayor, council members)
City of Sedona (mayor, council members, Prop 481 – water franchise)
City of Williams (mayor, council members)
Town of Fredonia (council members)
Town of Tusayan (mayor, council members)
Observing at the Polls and in the Elections Center:
Helping and Representing Voters
Help keep our elections safe, secure, legal, and transparent! Learn more about roles with the ADP Voter Protection Team here. Poll observers are the eyes and ears ensuring that any difficulties at a polling place are detected and corrected quickly. Meanwhile observers who watch the receiving of ballots on Election Night, and the tabulation of ballots at the central Elections Center, are our best defense against distrust in our elections. The Arizona Democratic Party supplies training and excellent support for our observers. Our huge county has dozens of diverse polling places – help us cover the ground so that all registered voters can exercise their right to vote! Sign up here to learn more and ask for an assignment.
Who Do You Listen To…and Why?
These days it is impossible to track all possible news and media sources. Indeed, without making a substantial effort, one can’t avoid living in a virtual bubble, hearing only the “news” and voices pushed on us by social media, corporate influences, and our own comfort zones. In this crucial election year, it is more important than ever to seek out reality-based information and to understand the political biases of the media we see. One key resource for doing this is the Interactive Media Bias Chart, published by Ad Fontes Media. Media sources are plotted on a chart, with one axis showing how factual their coverage is (from “inaccurate, fabricated” to “thorough fact reporting, fact-dense analysis” while the other shows political bias (from extreme left to extreme right). You can search to find a particular source, or view general categories (TV/video, websites and articles, podcasts and audio). Media are frequently reviewed and ratings updated. Below is a screenshot of the current TV/video category. It’s worth checking these every few months, just to see how your current news sources rate. You might also ask your family, friends, and neighbors to name their most important source(s) – and then let them know where these fall in terms of factual accuracy and bias.
Let’s Flip the Arizona Legislature’s GOP Control
Arizona Democrats are only one seat away in both Senate and House from taking legislative control away from the extreme Republicans. In November we have a great shot at bringing sanity and balance to the legislature.
Under GOP control, our state legislature has become dysfunctional, extreme and destructive. The majority in the legislature is hell bent on pursuing hardline anti-democratic policies, restricting voter access, diverting state tax dollars to private enterprises and institutions, and stripping away rights to justice and consumer protections. We have been fortunate this term to have a Governor in place to veto many of these extreme measures.
Under the leadership of former legislative leader Dr. Eric Meyer working with Governor Hobbs, the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (ADLCC) or both chambers of the legislature from Republican to Democratic control. The committee has an ambitious budget that, if funded, will result in one of the most aggressive campaign for legislative control ever waged in this state.
Democrats are invited to attend an informational reception in Flagstaff on Saturday, July13, at 2:00 pm to raise funds for this important cause. If you agree that our current legislative leadership is extreme and unacceptable, please attend. To RSVP or with questions or comments, email Conner at COwen@azdem.org
or call Nancy Scheneman- Brehm at 602-568-9820.
Arizona for Abortion Access Ballot Initiative
Flagstaff Abortion Alliance sends its most sincere thanks to all those who have labored over these past months to gather signatures, notarize petitions, knock on doors, and talk to voters on the streets about the AZ for Abortion Access Ballot initiative. Today is the day signatures are due in Phoenix. We will soon hear how many signatures have been submitted, and how they are evaluated by the various verification checks. We will then pivot to making sure that voters understand our initiative versus any other ballot measures related to reproductive rights, and to turning out informed and energized voters for the November election. Until then – THANK YOU to all of you who have engaged with us since last fall. We know that northern Arizona and our Flagstaff partners have contributed significantly to the success of this initiative – and we know we are going to do it again in November!
Join Us in Our Key Outreach and Voter Education Work This Summer! Flagstaff’s community calendar of fantastic festivals and celebrations is in full swing, and the Coconino County Democrats are fully engaged. We’d love to have your help, especially at the Fourth of July Parade this month. We are still serving dinner at the Flagstaff Family Food Center on the first Thursday of each month, too. Have you tried our “one-stop-shop” way of signing up to get involved? Keep reading for the link and give it a try – action beats desperation, any day!
Volunteer Signup Sheet As our outreach and community activities heat up with the summer and the campaign season, we are using a convenient tool for signing up. This link below takes you to a spreadsheet where you can learn about all of our events and sign up for those you’d like to help with. The tabs at the bottom are by month; click on JULY if you’d like to see what we have going that month, for example. Each sheet then presents all of the events for that month, from serving dinner at the Flagstaff Family Food Center, to tabling at one of our summer festivals, to talking to voters at the Sunday markets. Put your name and contact information into the sheet where you’d like to help; no need to email or call or click Submit, because the sheet will be updated and your information will be visible to the organizer as soon as you sign up. Thanks for being part of the fun and the great work we are doing this election year!
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