Riel drops out Tucson City Council race

Retired math teacher Theresa Riel has dropped her bid for a seat on the Tucson City Council.

Riel said she was leaving the race with “sadness and frustration” after learning she would have to resign from her seat on the Pima Community College Governing Board if she was elected to the Midtown Ward 6 seat.

Riel said “due to the commitment I made in good faith with the PCC Governing Board, I am stepping out of the Ward 6 race at this time. I have thoroughly enjoyed talking to voters who signed my nominating petitions and I learned a lot about areas that need to be improved in our city from their comments and concerns.”

The question of whether someone could serve on both the Tucson City Council and a second elected body came up when City Council members appointed Rocque Perez to the Ward 5 seat vacated earlier this month by Richard Fimbres, who stepped down before the end of his fourth term.

City Attorney Mike Rankin told the Council that if they appointed Sunnyside Unified School Boardmember Robert Jaramillo to the Ward 5 seat, the City Charter would require him to resign from the school board. The equivalent of the city’s constitution, that document bars a member of the Council from serving in another elected office. That’s more strict than Arizona state law, which allows officials to serve in unpaid volunteer offices at the same time as some other elected positions. That’s how, for instance, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva was able to keep her seat on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board after being elected to the county post.

Faced with that choice, Jaramillo withdrew his application.

Riel’s departure from the race leaves three Democrats in the Aug. 5 primary for the open seat.

Incumbent Councilmember Karin Uhlich is not running for a full term for the seat she was appointed to when Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik stepped down in 2024.

The three remaining Democrats are:

• Miranda Schubert, who has served on the city’s Board of Adjustment and the Complete Streets Coordinating Council, is making her second run for the Ward 6 seat. She captured 28 percent of the vote against Kozachik in the 2021 Ward 6 primary.
• Attorney Leighton Rockafellow Jr., who is making his first run for public office.
• Retired science teacher Jim Sinex, who has based his campaign around his call for a change to the city’s election system so that candidates run within their wards rather than citywide in the general election.

Under the current system, candidates run within their wards in the primary race, but citywide in the general, making it very difficult for a GOP candidate to win a seat because Democrats have a significant voter-registration advantage over Republicans citywide.

Overall, Democrats make up 42 percent of Tucson voters, Republicans make up 22 percent and independent voters make up 36 percent of voters.

On the rare occasions when Republicans have won Council seats over the
last quarter-century, they have represented Democrat-heavy Wards 3 and
6.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Jay Tolkoff in the Nov. 4 general election.