The partisan primary election happening later this month might be the last voters will see if backers of an election reform measure get their way.
On Wednesday, the Make Elections Fair campaign filed petitions with 584,124 voter signatures — more than 200,000 in excess of the minimum — to put an open primary proposal on the November ballot.
The filing of the proposed constitutional amendment was sandwiched between two other measures, one that would put abortion access in the state Constitution and a proposed new law that would raise Arizona's minimum wage.
Combined with referrals from the state Legislature, voters could see at least a dozen propositions on their November ballot.
Primaries open to all voters
The measure would scrap Arizona's long-standing partisan primary system, where the political parties pick their nominees for various state and federal offices in elections funded at taxpayer expense.
The campaign's proponents argue this is unfair to voters who aren't members of a given party, and moreso to Arizona's growing ranks of independent voters, who have to take extra steps if they want to vote in a partisan primary.
"Democracy works best when it treats all people equally," campaign chairman Sarah Smallhouse said at a Capitol news conference, against a backdrop of 127 boxes containing the petitions.
The campaign is leaning heavily on a message of equal treatment for all voters, notably for independent voters, who make up a third of Arizona's voters.
It extends that message to independents who want to run for office. Currently, they must gather more than five times the number of signatures for a given office as the partisan candidates. The Make Elections Fair proposal would require the same number of signatures for all candidates.
"It's truly a rebirth of freedom for Arizona,' said Terry Goddard. A two-time state attorney general who backs the open primary system, Goddard also led the successful 2022 campaign for Proposition 211, which requires transparency in campaign finance.
How an open primary works
An open primary requires all candidates to compete regardless of political affiliation, or the lack of one. Candidates can run with a party label if they choose.
Goddard said such a structure would force candidates to appeal to a broader electorate, blunting the effect of the current system, where partisan primaries tend to produce candidates more at the extremes of their party. An open primary should produce more centrist candidates, he said.
"If John F. Kennedy were to try to write his book today — "Profiles in Courage" — he'd have a very hard time finding people who reach across the aisle," Goddard said.
The proposal leaves it to the Legislature to decide how many candidates for any office would advance to the general election. The choices range from two to five.
If the Legislature doesn't make that decision, it would fall to the secretary of state.
In general election races with more than two candidates for one seat, voters would be required to rank their choices.
Signatures show support, but challenges remain
Smallhouse emphasized the petition drive far exceeded the required number of minimum signatures, suggesting it has wide support. But the measure, if it qualifies for the ballot, will compete with a referral lawmakers made last year. It would preserve the existing partisan primary system.
The campaign to sell the idea to voters will be expensive. Chuck Coughlin, the political consultant running the effort, said he expects there will be legal challenges on the petition signatures. The state Republican Party has already made its opposition known, while Democrats have not taken a public stance.
Coughlin estimated the overall effort could exceed $14 million.
Hiking the minimum wage
Supporters of a minimum wage increase submitted their qualifying signatures at 3 p.m., but announced in advance they wouldn’t answer questions from the news media.
The political action committee Raise the Wage AZ, backed by the national One Fair Wage group, hopes voters will agree to raise minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2027, with annual cost-of-living increases after that. The measure would also eliminate by 2027 what’s known as the tipping credit: The ability for employers to pay less than minimum wage to employees who receive tips.
The group needs to submit at least 255,949 valid voter signatures to qualify for November’s ballot.
“We need a full livable wage with tips on top,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, said last month during a news conference.
She pointed to a living wage calculation by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showing Phoenix residents with no children need to make $24.69 an hour to afford “typical expenses” like food, rent and taxes.
Raise the Wage has been collecting signatures for about two years for their effort. It’s raised nearly $2.5 million in contributions from One Fair Wage, state campaign finance reports show. The public can’t find out who the original donors were. But major donors may need to be disclosed, according to the Voters Right to Know Act.
The new law, approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2022, requires a committee that spends more than $50,000 on a statewide or legislative ad campaign to disclose the identity of anyone making a contribution of $5,000.
It’s not yet clear whether Raise the Wage needed to submit an extra form with its most recent campaign finance report from April to comply with the dark money disclosure law. Most of the contributions went to paying for signature gatherers, which isn’t required to be disclosed like campaign media spending.
As a political action committee, Raise the Wage also doesn’t need to file a disclosure report under the law until 20 days before the July 30 primary election, said Jim Barton, a lawyer for Raise the Wage.
Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl.
Ray Stern is at rstern@arizonarepublic.com and on X at @raystern He can be reached at 480-276-3237.
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