Republican state Sen. Steve Smith, often named among the most conservative members of the Legislature, will face first-time candidate Ralph Atchue, a self-described moderate Democrat.
Meet the candidate
Employer and position: retired U.S. Postal Service postmaster, Air Force veteran
Education: bachelor's degree in business administration from Northeastern Illinois University, associate's degree in liberal arts from Wilbur Wright Jr. College
Political experience: first-time candidate, secretary/treasurer of the Casa Grande Democrats, state precinct committee person, state committee member
Meet the candidate
Employer and position: director of a talent agency
Education: bachelor's degree in marketing and a cognate in business law from Michigan State University
Political experience: state senator 2015-present, state representative 2013-2014, state senator 2011-2012
Republican state Sen. Steve Smith, often named among the most conservative members of the Legislature, will face first-time candidate Ralph Atchue, a self-described moderate Democrat.
Mostly Republican District 11 includes Oro Valley and Marana. Smith lives in Maricopa and Atchue lives in Eloy.
Smith has raised about $26,200 for his campaign, including major donations from the political action committees of Pinnacle West and Sanofi.
Atchue has raised about $27,200, including major donations from Oro Valley Democrat Evelyn Lathram.
Smith has served in office for six years in the state Senate and House.
He likes to email district residents about what bills are coming to the Senate in the next week. “It gives our constituency a head start … and I get so much feedback that way,” he said.
Smith said the job is often about helping constituents navigate government processes. He recently helped a veteran get an appointment at the VA, helped a mother enroll her children in the state’s Medicaid program, and helped a geocaching club change a State Land Department rule that previously banned the game. He also advocated for the University of Arizona’s new Oro Valley veterinary school in state budget talks.
“That’s where party lines dissolve,” Smith said. “That’s exactly why I’m there.”
Can an extremely conservative person represent all voters in the district? Smith says he knows it’s impossible to make everyone happy, but “the district has overwhelmingly elected me and others with a certain philosophy.”
Atchue says many voters are dissatisfied with that philosophy and with the Legislature’s actions on education issues, children’s services and working families’ issues. He called Smith a “Tea Party radical.”
“Their sign says ‘God, family, and country,’ but Steve Smith’s actions in the Legislature prove that’s just a hypocritical empty slogan,” Atchue said.
Smith has “let down the voters and families in so many different ways,” including cutting education funding and children’s services and cutting corporate taxes, which reduces revenue for state programs and burdens county and city budgets.
“They’ve treated Arizona as a bargain basement business and we’re getting bargain basement results,” Atchue said.
Smith said he’s voted against his own party plenty of times and doesn’t look at the party designations next to a lawmaker’s name on a bill. “Yes I’m a Republican, but I look for good legislation first,” he said.
Smith supported Proposition 123, the voter-approved measure meant to increase teacher pay and end a yearslong legal dispute between schools and the state.
Of the $9.6 billion state budget, more than half goes to education. “So when people say they want more money for education, how much would you like?” he said. “We have other things to pay for, including health care and law enforcement, and would you want to cut those, or raise taxes?”
Atchue voted against Prop. 123, equating it to blackmailing voters, who had earlier approved a measure to give regular budget increases to schools, which led to the legal dispute when the state didn’t make those payments.
“It’s not extreme to want a top-notch education system where we don’t have to decide between paying teachers and fixing the roof,” he said.
Smith voted against KidsCare because the population of about 30,000 children was covered in the Medicaid expansion related to Obamacare, he said. He also voted against the Medicaid expansion a couple of years ago.
Atchue supports more spending on social services, saying it’s more cost effective to provide the services to children and their families than to deal with an economic or mental health crisis that could come from not having services.
He said the state should pay for it by stopping corporate tax cuts that erode revenue, sometimes with no measurable economic benefit. “It’s not extreme to say everyone should be paying their fair share of taxes,” Atchue said.
“I’m not saying let’s instantly start raising taxes … but if we need to take a look at other tax issues, then we should,” he said.
Smith said people need more choices when it comes to healthcare providers. He said the state also needs a better way to track the cost to taxpayers of providing healthcare to illegal immigrants.
The Arizona Legislature was designed as a gathering of citizen lawmakers – people from all walks of life who come together a few months each year to do the state’s business.
Its effectivness in the modern age of special interests and political power consolidation can be argued, but two candidates in Legislative District 11 offer compelling reasons why electing people with a wide variety of backgrounds makes sense.
The Star endorses Ralph Atchue for state Senate and Corin Hammond in the House. Both are running for their first term, and both are Democrats.
Atchue faces incumbent Republican Steve Smith.
Hammond is running against Vince Leach and Mark Finchem, both incumbent Republicans who have shown themselves to be overtly motivated by their personal religious and far-right-wing political positions.
The Arizona House needs fewer ideologues and more members who are motivated by a desire to solve problems for Arizona residents.
We believe Atchue and Hammond meet that criteria.
Atchue, who lives in Eloy, is an Air Force veteran who spent 33 years in the United States Postal Service, including as a postmaster.
He has negotiated labor contracts, representing, at different times in his career, the administration and the union. The ability to work with competing factions and improve life for all residents is sorely needed in the Arizona Legislature.
“Isn’t there a way we can find common ground and build on that?” he said. “I see myself as a facilitator.”
Atchue is worried that the Legislature is damaging Arizona’s national reputation.
“They’re making it much more difficult for working-class people,” Atchue said. He cited low funding for public education, a lack of accountability, use of private prisons and an ideology that demands tax cuts no matter what to underscore his point.
“Our state Legislature no longer has the voters’ best interest in mind,” he said.
Hammond lives in Marana and is a doctoral student in soil and water chemistry. She studies the reclamation of mine waste — an expertise she can put to good use in the Legislature.
Hammond identified public education and increasing teacher salaries as a primary focus. She laments that after voters narrowly passed Proposition 123 in May, people think that school funding problems are fixed because it allocates more state land trust money to K-12 schools for the next decade.
“Prop. 123 does not change that Arizona teachers are paid far lower wages” she said. “It does not fix the fact that schools are crumbling.”
Both Atchue and Hammond opposed Prop. 123.
School funding in Arizona is among the lowest in the nation and, Hammond said, “it’s hurting our state brand.”
It’s a compounding problem that can only be remedied when Arizona can “offer nationally competitive salaries for teachers, and reduce class size,” she said.
District 11 includes rural areas, which Hammond sees as ripe for, and in need of, economic development. “We should be developing our tech businesses and industry,” she said.
One of the things that most impressed us about Atchue and Hammond is how they answered the question, “How did you prepare for this race, and to serve?”
Both studied legislation, boned up on policy positions, the state budget and how the Legislature has kept gas tax money that should go to the cities and counties for road repair. They did their homework.
But Atchue said it best.
“What’s prepared us more than anything is talking to people,” he said. “I’ve knocked on over 6,000 doors. People want to talk about education, jobs, why can’t Tucson and other cities pass local ordinances?”
That last concern refers to the Republican majority’s passage of laws that keep cities and towns from passing their own ordinances that involve guns, which is specifically aimed at Tucson.
“There is no better source than the voters,” Atchue said.
Hammond said she’s spoken with thousands of voters, and agrees with Atchue that many people feel disenfranchised and aren’t engaged in the political process — an apathy both aim to change.
“People are surprised that somebody cared enough to come to the door,” Atchue said. “And that’s enough to have hope.”
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