Independence and Justice: Peace, not so much

My recent foray into politics played out better than I had anticipated. Having been a sidelines politico for most of my life (it has been years since my last active participation in a campaign, mostly because I either held positions which would make it unseemly or because it is unethical for my husband to do so given his vow of objective journalism and since our funds are community property, there is not much I could do that does not involve giving money) I recently decided, too late in the game it would seem, to take a run at the Justice of the Peace. I figured this would be the least political of the offices I could run for given the above-mentioned constraints, and one for which I am certainly well qualified. After 13 years as a Judge Pro Tem, I am thinking I could easily handle the job. 


The Justice of the Peace heads up "the people's court." As such, it is intended that the person be a community member but not necessarily a lawyer. Because the job entails all civil cases under $10,000 and small claims court, in addition to restraining orders, state highway traffic tickets and misdemeanors, including DUI's, signing search warrants and the like, it can get quite legally arcane, especially in this day and time. Having had several cases in Justice Court of late in other precincts I was concerned that the speedy adjudications were not happening and in fact the 60 day time limit for decisions was falling by the wayside. A man whom I have the utmost respect for became a JP and later a pro tem and he was assigned to go around and help these courts get back on track. Although not law-trained he is an exceptional person. Given this anecdotal evidence I concluded law training is certainly a plus. So I was a perfect fit for the job.


I chose to run as an Independent against the advice of my politically experienced friends. For one, I really think the judiciary should be independent and had dreams of emphasizing the words Independent and Justice in my printed material. Also, I just couldn't see myself hanging around with party oriented folks. That just comes with too much baggage. But there is also a downside. Without a party and without a pile of cash one cannot get access to the voter lists, which makes it nigh on impossible to do any door to door work that is efficient. Second, in the Encanto precinct there are actually more Independents than Republicans and together they outnumber the Democrats. Finally, the opposition consisted entirely of Democrats: the 3- term incumbent, who is a lawyer and has been doing a fairly good job if the lawyers I know can be relied upon to judge him (on the other hand, I did hear from several non-lawyers that he was kind of tough on the unrepresented, so there is probably a bias there); a 16-year veteran of the legislature who needs 4 more years in the system to avail himself of the retirement offerings; and the very late comer, who I believe is a bankruptcy attorney. I figured these guys would all duke it out in the primary and I would lay low until the fall, when I knew which one would be left standing.


That all hinged on getting the 380 signatures to qualify for the ballot. I had just over 3 weeks to do it by the time I decided to jump off the cliff. I wrangled two friends into chairing my committee and acting as treasurer over lunch the day I took out my paperwork. We knew going in it would be a very grass roots effort. My strategy, which turned out to be fairly effective, was to identify people spread out all over the precinct and ask them to get their friends and neighbors to sign petitions. The Democrats had already been combing the precinct for months with the precinct lists so it was going to be up to my friends to ferret out the Dem's who had probably already been hit up. Under the rules one can only sign one petition for each position.

I sent my first email to a wide ranging and diverse group of people, one of whom was already working for that Dem soon to be former legislator in this race. Unfortunately for him he hit the "reply all" button with this response:

Hi Kim, Thanks for the update.  As you may know, our mutual friend Ken Cheuvront announced his candidacy for this seat several months ago.  Ken is working very hard, going door to door educating folks about the Justice Court and why he is running.  I have endorsed Ken, have already walked door to door with him, and will be hosting a fundraiser soon.  I applaud your commitment to our community, but hope you will reconsider your decision.  You are one of the most creative, passionate, and thoughtful people I know, and I would like to support you in some other capacity.  Tom

My single reply indicated my appreciation for the accolades and emphasizing my qualifications. Needless to say, my other friends who received this email were a bit taken aback by the suggestion that I should change my mind because my other "friends" were otherwise engaged. C'est la vie, but I don't think Tom (who was once a Republican) did himself many favors in my group. Given that he is a City Councilman that could be bad, but this is, after all, politics and memories, as we shall see by the number of people who had already signed a JP petition before signing mine, are short.

 


I am truly humbled by the amazing response I got from so many people who were willing to commit their time and energy to the petition circulation process. In that short period we collected a remarkable 434 signatures. As late as 24 hours before the deadline I was sure I was not going to make it. But encouragement kept coming and unexpected signatures flowed in from truly dedicated folks. Along with a couple of young but able friends, good success came as we staked out the polls on the date of the Proposition 100 election to raise the 1 cent sales tax rate. In the heart of the precinct we had a great response. On the edges it got very complicated because people were voting from outside my precinct, but we got a few that way. Another couple of friends whom I had not even seen in quite a long while were extremely diligent and dedicated and I was so happy to reconnect with them and so humbled by their enthusiasm. One of them was a former Arizona Governor and long time friend of my family. Her 7000 name rolodex is nothing to sneeze at and she had 15 signatures in about a split second.


On the final weekend I was able to walk a voting precinct. This was the result of a kindness of some Republicans who were also engaged in the collection process for their own campaign and were gracious enough to share their data for the local voting precinct. This made a huge difference. I met some interesting people in those two days going door to door. And God was smiling on me because that was the weekend when the weather was unusually cool.


So, filing day came and I showed up for my appointment in a very crowded County Elections foyer. I only had to wait about ½ hour and I got in and my petitions were checked in personally by the elected County Recorder and her able staff. They did their counting and I was well over my minimum; I had made the ballot.

I must stop right here and say that if all of government were as well run as the Maricopa County Elections Department we would be living in utopia. In each contact with that department, these were the most efficient, skilled and happiest group of people I have ever encountered. Even those I did not know were absolutely top notch. I am truly impressed.


As if we did not already have our allotted dramatic moment; I got notice (June 10) that I was being sued by the incumbent; and so were the other two contenders. This almost never happens in JP races; it was just my luck to be running in the one with the most sophisticated and controversial competition!

He was challenging 100 of my 434 signatures. I started furiously researching the signatures. I knew that I had 63 extra and that in the challenge about 10 or so were technical contentions that could have easily been remedied. But what I felt worst about was the fact that allegedly almost 20 folks signed for me even though they had already signed for one of my opponents, 31 were not even registered to vote and 29 were not registered at the address where they currently live. There were another batch whose address is outside my boundary (some of these came on that Election Day I mentioned)-it got kind of crazy sorting through all the questions with each person to rule out the things that could disqualify them. The other interesting part was when I did ask people if they lived east or west of Central, to a person they had to stop and think about it. This was awe-inspiring to me: Phoenix is the easiest town in the world to get around-it is laid out in a grid with Central Avenue being the split. From there the roads start at 1 and go up to the East where they are named Street and Place and likewise on the West but they are named Avenue and Drive. How hard is that? Someone who goes there every day has to stop and think? But I digress….)


Bottom line, this meant I had to call the wonderful folks who had already worked so hard back to the drawing board. Could we figure out if any of these challenges were in error? I also had to consider hiring a lawyer (I have had no fund raisers yet so that was not an option) or read up on the law of challenges myself. Meanwhile I was hoping my circulators could track down the signers and get back to me so I could figure out a theory and how to prove it --all by 1PM June 16 when the case would be heard in the Superior Court.

Ironically, the Judge hearing the matter was Richard Gama. His wife, a fellow YMCA denizen, signed my petition and her signature was challenged. Turns out she is a couple of houses outside my boundary (this is truly a gerrymandered boundary in that area). I could have made a big deal out of that and gotten the hearing delayed, but I needed to know first if I even had a valid argument I could make on the other signatures.

Meanwhile the attorney for Cheuvront and the other candidate were calling to see how we were going to coordinate our hearings. And the County Elections people were doing their verifications to determine if the challenges were based upon the correct data. I really needed to wait for that report as it would distill down just exactly how many I was short. 


During this time I learned that many people take advantage of the internet service provided by MVD when they move at servicearizona.com to comply with the 10 day deadline for updating their mailing info on their driving record. But, because of the motor/voter law many people presume that doing this automatically updates their voter registration record as well. This is an incorrect assumption for one must access a separate screen inside the website to do so. Once this was brought to these folks attention many of them went immediately to make the change. I figured I could make a colorable argument on those if these people would be willing to sign an affidavit to that effect. But this is an arduous task; getting people to take this much interest in your campaign, much less getting them to a notary, all in the allotted time. And how many of my wonderful circulator friends even had the time for this? So I chose to wait and see what the official tally was.

The County Recorder report came out the day before the hearing. There in black and white was my fate. 25 signatures short. No way were there that many motor/voter errors or even any way to get that many people before a notary in the few hours we had before the hearing. 


My hopes were dashed. And adding insult to injury, that evening, after I finally made my decision to withdraw before the hearing I got this from the incumbent's attorney:

As you know from the Certification of the Elections Department, you are 25 signatures short of qualifying for the election.  My client is interested in resolving this matter amicably by your voluntary withdraw from the election, thereby negating the necessity of litigating your case.  If you voluntarily withdraw we will not seek any court costs or fees.  Please advise immediately if you are agreeable to filing your voluntary withdrawal with elections prior to the hearing tomorrow.  If you would rather not make the trip to elections or the court, just advise and we can simply take a injunction judgment without costs.
 

I don't have to tell you my response. 


In the end this was a very gratifying experience. People truly rose to the occasion and many of them went above and beyond. I am forever grateful and humbled by their encouragement and support. You really do know who your friends are in these situations, so I am all the richer for the experience. And as my official paperwork terminating my campaign shows, I only spent $18 in the whole process!


Thanks to you all you circulators and resource persons who made this such a fun thing to do despite the ultimate outcome:

Kurt, Theresa, Evelyn, Rose, Eamon, Mary, Jesse, Stevi, Stephanie S., Stephanie A., Don, Warren, Bob, Sonya, Ivan, Luane, Rhonda, Tirza, Susan, Kim, Jake, Cassie, Jay, Casey, Dan M., Dan D., Cathy, Michael G., Michael M., Janice, Elaine, Barry, Sarah, Reed, Susan, Zachary, Frank, James, Bev, Ben and everyone else who provided moral support!