The 9th Circuit has ruled in favor of a dark money group, Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, that filed a lawsuit challenging Tucson’s “hybrid” system of electing city council members.
The lawsuit effort was spearheaded by Bruce Ash, Arizona’s Republican National Committeeman, who gained national attention after he called for violence against popular conservative radio show host James T. Harris.
The ruling reads in part:
The panel rejected Tucson’s argument that the hybrid system is a reasonable “residency restriction” on the right to vote. The panel held that when two groups of citizens share identical interests in an election, the city may not use a residency requirement to exclude one group while including the other. The panel concluded that excluding out-of-ward voters from the primary election discriminates among residents of the same governmental unit in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Dissenting, Judge Tallman stated that the Constitution does not require Tucson to draw its district borders in a particular way for different local elections. He concluded that Tucson’s hybrid system is constitutional, and the majority erred in holding otherwise.
The Democrat establishment has thrived under the “hybrid” system in which the candidates are elected by ward in a partisan primary, and then during the general election voters across the city pick that ward’s council person.
According to attorney, Kory Langhofer, Tucson’s system dilutes the one person, one vote concept.
Langhofer argued in a motion seeking an injunction that the city should adopt either an entirely ward-based election, or an entirely city-based one.
Ash said today that he was unaware as to whether the City of Tucson would appeal the ruling. The Republican Party fielded candidates in last week’s General Election, but under the current system it was virtually impossible for them to prevail.
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