Immigration, data centers factor in Marana council race

Five candidates in the running for Marana Town Council recently debated growth strategies, government transparency, and the kinds of development the city of about 67,000 people should try to attract.

A four-candidate coalition called “Marana for the People” is attempting to unseat two council incumbents seeking re-election and the current Mayor, Jon Post. Councilmember Patti Comerford is not seeking re-election, leaving four total seats open on the seven-member board.

Jackie McGuire, Julie Prince, Sue Ritz and mayoral candidate Greg Johnsen are calling for greater transparency in development projects, citing the council’s unanimous vote in January to rezone 600 acres of former farmland to allow Beale Infrastructure to build a data center campus.

Sue Ritz is a retired member of the Army National Guard and a professional mining engineer. She emphasized her concerns that new hyperscale data centers require significantly more power than older data centers. The Beale development is expected to use between 1,100 to 1,500 megawatts between two campuses, according to the zoning request.

“It does not matter to me that these things are going to make us a few million dollars. What matters to me is that we don't know the long-term impacts, and until we have a better feel of what those long-term impacts are, I don't want to see it. So I would be more in favor of a moratorium until we can make a good detailed study of what's happening,” Ritz said.

Prince is a former reporter and has lived in Marana for 23 years. She said her personal feelings on the data center don’t matter as much as the opposition she’s heard from constituents.

“I don’t see a lot of benefit for the town of Marana from that project, and I’d like to see more input and just slow it down a little bit,” she said.

Marana passed an ordinance in 2024 that prohibits data centers from using potable water, requires developers to submit estimated water and energy needs, and comply with maximum noise levels.

Incumbent Murphy, a former rodeo promoter and small business owner, defended the ordinance at the panel, but told data center critics that she understood their concerns.

“I'm with you guys. I think that there's a lot of research that needs to be done, but at the same time what it does for the fire, police, and our community is kind of something that we really need to look at as well,” she said.

Jackie McGuire is a cybersecurity expert and former investment advisor. She has a significant social media presence dedicated to discussing data centers and tech, and frequently aligns herself with the No Desert Data Center coalition, formed after community opposition to Project Blue, another data center development in Pima County.

She shared similar concerns that the town ordinance is not designed for the demands of the Marana project.

“The town's ordinance is completely insufficient. I don't think that's a result of malice. I think it's just a lack of expertise. I would love to see a significantly stronger ordinance that addresses the problems that hyperscale data centers represent, not normal data centers,” McGuire said.

Write-in candidate Jackie Craig worked in management roles at U.S. embassies. She said water and environmental concerns have been addressed by the company’s compliance with the town ordinance.

“I think that the problems that people have heard about data centers have been solved in this case,” Craig said.

Two councilmembers seeking re-election, Herb Kai and John Officer, did not participate in the forum Thursday night hosted by the League of Women Voters of Southern Arizona.

Officer has been on the council since 2017 and spent over 30 years working for the Central Arizona Project. He told the Star Marana is well-equipped to handle the resource demands from the data center, and said the tax revenue will go towards town services.

“The data center is going to be great for the community. It’s going to be great for the schools, it’s going to be great for the fire department,” he said.

Kai, a farmer and business owner according to his campaign biography, did not respond to an interview request from the Star.

Kai owned one of the two parcels of land rezoned for the data center, the Star previously reported, and recused himself from all “discussions, deliberations, or voting,” the town said. Though not directly named, the Marana for the People candidates said the council needs a stronger ethics code.

McGuire and Ritz advocated for an independent review system for ethics complaints against councilmembers.

“There is a very, very thin line between legal and ethical. And just because something is legal does not mean it is ethical. And if you run for elected office, you are signing up to be held to a standard that is higher than just what is legal,” McGuire said.

Potential ballot referendum

Opponents of the data center development are awaiting a legal decision that could determine whether the council’s rezoning goes to voters in a ballot referendum this fall.

The town previously rejected a referendum petition submitted by a political action committee sponsored by Worker Power, saying it did not include adequate property information with the petition. The group attempted to withdraw the petitions, which the town said it could not do, according to a February press release.

In May, a judge upheld the town’s decision to reject the petitions and the withdrawal request. McGuire and Ritz appealed to the Arizona Court of Appeals and are awaiting oral arguments scheduled for August 19, according to court documents.

“If we lose that, we have to try to submit it to the Supreme Court, and then the Supreme Court gets to decide whether they take things up or not,” McGuire said.

ICE detention center

The town has also been grappling with news of the federal government’s plans to reopen the former Marana State Prison as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.

Federal documents published this spring showed ICE is pursuing a two-year contract with the Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, the previous operator when the facility was a private prison, for a facility that could hold up to 775 detainees.

Both Pima County and the City of Tucson have passed resolutions opposing the detention center, and many Southern Arizona Democrats have spoken out against its development, including Rep. Adelita Grijalva and Pima County Board Chair Jen Allen. News of the development also caused some community members to form a group they dubbed Pima Resists ICE, or PRICE, that has frequently shown up at the Marana Town Hall during calls to the audience.

Town Council candidates in opposition to the detention center expressed their concerns about MTC, the private prison company that has been previously under fire for prisoner riots and poor treatment of its employees.

Officer told the Star he supported MTC’s proposal. He said he used to volunteer at the prison before it closed in 2023 and said MTC was a legitimate operator.

“Somebody broke a law. The cop is doing what they're supposed to do. They're enforcing the laws that are out there, and they need a place to stay…until their court date or until they get shipped back,” Officer said.

Meanwhile, McGuire said private prisons are generally unpopular and would advocate for working with MTC on other options besides working with ICE.

“We need to ask the community to set aside immigration politics, we know we’re not going to agree on that, and decide whether we want a private prison or not. If the answer is no, then we need to work with MTC to understand what other options there are,” McGuire said.

Craig said she opposed the ICE facility but believes the town can’t intervene.

“I don’t like the way that ICE detention centers are run under the Trump Administration, but that’s the fact…It’s already zoned as a prison. There’s nothing the town can do about it,” Craig said.

Both ICE and MTC told AZPM in June they had not yet signed a contract. Ritz said that leaves an opening to ask MTC to consider other business options she said are more beneficial and long-term to the community.

“There's an opportunity for us to go back to them and say, ‘Look, you've got other business units here. You've got Job Corps. You've got alcohol rehabilitation units, and these things are much more beneficial to the community than a perhaps temporary ICE detention center,’” Ritz said.

Primary election info

Town Council elections are also usually decided in the primaries, and a general election is only held if not enough candidates reach the majority threshold determined by state law.

Marana elections are also nonpartisan, meaning no party affiliation is listed on the ballot.

Early voting is underway for the July 21 primaries. The Pima County Recorder’s Office recommends mailing ballots by Tuesday, July 14, to ensure they are received and counted before election day.

Find early voting locations and hours at the Recorder’s website.