Despite storm clouds rolling in, more than 60 community members showed up Tuesday evening for a City Council candidate meet and greet at the Community Foundation campus.

Co-hosted by Tucson Spotlight and Arizona Luminaria and sponsored by the Local News Initiative for Southern Arizona, the event was a civic experiment aimed at bringing voters and candidates together in an informal, low-pressure setting to spark honest, face-to-face conversations about the issues that matter most.

As ballots were hitting mailboxes, the gathering invited Ward 3, 5 and 6 residents to engage directly with candidates, ask questions, and share concerns, free from speeches and panel discussions. Just real dialogue in a shared community space.

“Participating in democracy takes more than just showing up on Election Day. It takes access to reliable information and opportunities like this to hear directly from the people who want to represent our communities,” said Community Foundation CEO Jenny Flynn, kicking off the event and introducing attendees to the Local News Initiative. “This initiative is about investing in a future where everyone in our region has access to the news and information they need, in the formats and languages that serve them best. This event is a reflection of those same values.”

After Flynn's remarks and an introduction by Spotlight Co-founder Caitlin Schmidt and Luminaria Co-founder Becky Pallack, attendees were directed to ward-specific rooms and introduced to the candidates on their primary ballot.

Democrat Kevin Dahl was the lone incumbent at the event, serving as Tucson’s Ward 3 council member for the past four years. He’s facing a primary challenge from Sadie Shaw, a member of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and vice president of the Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association.

The winner of the primary will take on Republican Janet “JL” Wittenbraker in the Nov. 4 general election.

While voters in the Ward 3 room varied in age and background, the majority were retirees.

“I have an inclination to vote for the incumbent,” said retiree Joseph Kobel, a member of the carpenters union.

Kobel said he attended the event due to concerns about wage reductions affecting his community of workers. A volunteer with the carpenters' mentoring and training committees, he expressed frustration with Arizona Revised Statutes 34-321, which prohibit project labor agreements, neutrality agreements and registered apprenticeship programs.

Previously, the carpenters union operated under the Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage Act for municipal projects in Arizona. But when Statutes 34-321 were enacted, the new regulations led to lower wages for local laborers.

“It was supposed to save taxpayer money, but it reduced our wages,” he said. “No thanks.”

Attendee Mae Smith said her biggest concern is environmental issues.

“I’m very concerned about our future with water and what we do with Tucson Electric Power and our energy,” she said.

Project Blue, a proposed large-scale economic development effort to build a data center campus on Tucson’s southeast side, has been a major topic of discussion throughout this election cycle’s forums.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has approved the purchase agreement, but the Tucson City Council still needs to vote on whether to begin the annexation process and enter into a development agreement.

The project has drawn criticism from community members and environmental activists due to its potential impact on the city’s water supply, energy consumption and air quality.

Both Dahl and Shaw have cited environmental priorities in their campaigns. Dahl previously served as the executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society and Native Seeds/SEARCH, and Shaw has said she strives to build climate resilience in low-income communities.

“I think if we make these environmental decisions in the wrong direction now, that we’re going to pay immeasurably in the future,” said Smith.

Ward 5 Democratic candidates Selina Barajas and Chris Elsner were both on hand for the event, while fellow Democrat Jesse Lugo did not respond to several invitations to attend.

With no Republican on the ballot, the winner of the Ward 5 primary will take the seat.

While candidates in the Ward 3 and Ward 6 rooms posted up in different corners and spoke with voters individually or in small groups, Barajas and Elsner did things differently, each sitting at a table with a larger number of attendees.

The pair fielded questions and shared their ideas for Ward 5 at their respective tables for about 40 minutes, then switched places halfway through the event to speak with the other group.

Some attendees, like Francisco Díaz, already had an idea of who they were planning to vote for.

Díaz said he came to support Barajas, but that didn’t stop him from pressing Elsner on the issues that matter most to him. As a trade worker, Díaz has dealt directly with homeowners associations and zoning regulations. He said he’s frustrated with how both current and past City Councils have handled them.

Another Ward 5 voter, Leah Vidal, said she came to learn more about the candidates’ ideas for neighborhoods, noting that she wants to see more people get involved in her community.

Vidal also attended a Ward 5 forum in June, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson, and said she’s been trying to gather as much information about the candidates’ policies as possible before casting her vote.

Homelessness and affordable housing were major concerns for Ward 5 attendees, with Christina McDonald saying that’s what brought her out.

While she was still undecided about who she was going to vote for in the primary, it was clear from her questions that the issue would factor heavily into her decision.

Like McDonald, voter Naomi Drew also expressed concern about homelessness.

She said she came to the event very sure about who she was voting for, and after hearing both candidates speak, she left feeling even more confident in her choice.

The Ward 6 room included mostly women, ranging in age from their 30s to older adults. They came armed with questions and concerns about affordable housing, unhoused community members, government spending and increasing utility bills.

But more than just getting answers, they were there to meet the people on their ballots. All four Ward 6 candidates attended.

“I received some fliers in the mail, but you know it’s like bullet points, so I wanted to get more in-depth information,” said Ward 6 voter Linda Cifuentes. “I think (this is) a good way to have one-on-one conversations. You get less performance from people.”

The conversations remained respectful as voters moved from table to table, engaging with Democrats Miranda Schubert, Leighton Rockafellow Jr. and James Sinex, as well as Republican Jay Tolkoff.

Cifuentes said she already had an idea of who she planned to vote for, unlike several other Ward 6 voters who attended the event.

Dawn Belle also came to get to know the candidates, and while she enjoyed talking with each of them, she said she would have preferred more of an open forum where she could hear every candidate’s answer to a question at the same time.

“This is the first time I’m even trying to find out who they are and learn about what they’re about,” she said.

Most voters spent their time speaking with the Democratic candidates on the ballot, with Republican Tolkoff saying he understood why there was more interest in his opponents.

But one Ward 6 voter, a registered Democrat, spent most of his time speaking with Tolkoff.

“I wanted to talk to him because my default is kinda biased, but I figured I’d be open-minded and see what he has to say,” said Michael Becker.

While he came to the event with a vague idea of who he planned to vote for in the Aug. 5 primary election, Becker found the event refreshing, saying he’s never participated in something quite like it.

Several conversations stretched beyond the event’s scheduled end time, with candidates and voters continuing their discussions in the lobby and out in the parking lot.

Many who attended said the meet and greet created space for genuine, face-to-face conversations that felt less like politics and more like community.

“It’s better than just (the candidates) talking at us,” Becker said.

Sarah Arellano is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at saraharellano@arizona.edu.

Arilynn Hyatt is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at arilynndhyatt@arizona.edu.

Ruby Wray is a journalism and creative writing major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at rubywray@arizona.edu.

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