Legislation Would Give Rural Arizona More Power in Ballot Initiative Process

An Arizona State Senate resolution would fundamentally change how initiatives would make it to the ballot.

SCR1015 would require 10% of voters in each legislative district to sign onto a petition to get a statewide measure proposition on the general election ballot, as opposed to the 10% statewide that’s currently needed.

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State Sen. Kelly Townsend Announces Congressional Run in Arizona’s Open New 6th District Seat

State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Apache Junction) announced she is running for Arizona’s newly redrawn 6th District Congressional seat, which is an open seat due to Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick declining to run for reelection. The sprawling southeast Arizona rural district runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Mogollon Rim and the New Mexico border to Casa Grande. Townsend lives in Apache Junction, in the newly drawn CD 5, about 60 miles from CD 6, but there is no requirement for her to live in the district she runs in, only that she live within the state.

Townsend told Capitol Media Services, “Anybody who knows me knows that my heart has been down in the southern part of the state anyway. That’s where I go for leisure, and that’s where I go to work.” Townsend filed a complaint last year with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich about Tucson’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. After Brnovich issued an opinion declaring that the mandate was illegal, the city paused it.

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