Picking a Governor in Arizona
MILLER, GEORGE A.
ROUND TWO Picking a Governor in Arizona BY GEORGE A. MILLER Tucson Governors do not come easily in Arizona—or inexpensively. On February 26 the Grand Canyon State will be the scene of the...
...Voters here hope that at least for them it will also be the last...
...Symington himself declared victory on November 7, but later conceded that "because of a quirk in Arizona law the race is not yet over...
...Hetoldfarmers I would steal their water, he told urban voters I would raise their taxes, and he told the National Rifle Association that I would take away their guns," Goddard says, adding that Symington will now have to account for every charge...
...Meanwhile, 68-year-old Rose Mofford, who is no stranger to "filling in," is presiding over a caretaker government...
...Goddard also thinks he was badly hurt by Symington's "last minute negative TV ads," because they came too late for him to answer them...
...Symington waited for the new year to begin his "re-election" drive...
...In fact, at 4 a.m...
...Mecham, a conservative Republican, won a three-way race in 1986 with only 40 per cent of the vote...
...From there he zoomed down here to "officially kick off the "overtime" contest in the town where he was born...
...That's something Fife Symington can't buy," hecontinued, referring to the Republican's onslaught of TV commercials...
...Goddard told me in an interview that he feels he would have prevailed if there had been a better turnout of the populous Navajo tribe in the northeast corner of the state...
...The majority requirement for the election of a state governor in this country is not in itself new...
...Heavy snow and confusion created by an unrelated court order issued on election eve—postponing the vote for a tribal president—is believed to have resulted in large numbers of the normally pro-Democratic Navajos not going to the polls...
...In Georgia, the 1966 governor's race was a triangular affair involving Republican Howard Calloway, moderateliberal Democrat Ellis Gibs Arnell and Lester Maddox, a militantold-line Southern Democrat who closed his Atlanta restaurant to avoid serving blacks...
...state holiday, the Senate found him guilty of obstructing justice and misusing public funds...
...The impeached Governor's 1986 campaign manager, Max Hawkins, subsequently threw his hat into the ring as a write-in candidate...
...Both come from upper-middle-class families and majored in history at Harvard, where Symington played lacrosse and Goddard was on the rowing team...
...Many Symington supporters insisted that since the Legislature did not set up a runoff procedure and their man received the most votes, he should be named the winner...
...When the count was in, Symington ended up with 523,984 votes, or 49.7 per cent, and Goddard had 519,691, or 49.2 per cent...
...The principal contenders last November were 43-year-old Democrat Terry Goddard, a lawyer and four-time mayor of Phoenix, and 45-year-old Republican Fife Symington, a Phoenix real estate developer...
...He drew abrief, vague note in response that put the suggestions on the shelf...
...Elected secretary of state in 1986, she actually moved into the governor's mansion in April 1988, when the Arizona Senate impeached Evan Mecham (there is no lieutenant governor...
...Despite the money and energy both camps are expending, many political analysts are predicting a low voter turnout...
...Justice Department, which oversees Arizona's balloting because of past instances of discrimination against the state's large minority population...
...Goddard has written Symington three letters asking him to take part in a series of Lincoln-Douglas style debates in every one of Arizona's 15 counties, and to commit himself to a Martin Luther King Jr...
...In any event, following Mecham's removal, the group that urged his recall decided to use its leftover money and energy to reform the state's electoral laws and ensure that future governors were picked by a majority of the votes...
...Scuttlebutt has it, though, that his staff refers to him as "Governor-elect" and thathecallstheir work a "re-election campaign...
...The King issue is a hot one, since voters trashed several propositions in November to revive the state holiday...
...Two weeks after the initial election the Legislature, in a special one-day session, set the runoff for February 26...
...In the September primaries Symington had defeated Mecham, who tried to make a comeback...
...The problem of choosing between Arnell and Maddox was tossed into the lap of the Legislature, as was the custom in the few states having themajority regulation...
...Symington is a cousin of former Senator W. Stuart Symington (D-Mo...
...Most local political observers saw his race as nothing more than revenge for Mecham's loss in the primary...
...Goddard's father, Sam, was the Governor of Arizona during the mid-'60s, his great grandfather was a secretary of state in Illinois, and another relative served in the First Continental Congress and was the Governor of New Hampshire...
...And in a sense Hawkins won: His 11,000 votes were just enough to keep either official contestant from gaining a majority...
...Their political differences notwithstanding, the candidates do have some interesting similarities...
...Henry Kenski, associate professor of communications and political science at the University of Arizona, summed up this feeling recently when he argued that the Legislature should "go back to aplurality...
...It is perhaps a measure of the present atmosphere that numerous politicians and pundits believe Arizona should abolish the majority requirement and its runoff provision...
...Maddox emerged the winner, but the discord that marked his term in office prompted the state to mandate a popular rather than a legislative choice, to be made three weeks after the general election...
...Tucson lawyer David Eisenstein even filed a suit in the Arizona Supreme Court arguing that determining the rules now would "result in an ex post facto 'fix.'" In December the court rejected the challenge...
...A GOP staffer told me Symington "has said all along that the people have voted and we should cool it for now...
...In December he attended the national Republican Governors' Conference in North Carolina, then went on vacation with his family...
...Calloway came in last...
...Arizonans, vowing never to suffer a minority governor again, then supported a constitutional amendment requiring a successful gubernatorial candidate to win no less than 51 per cent of the vote...
...After two tumultuous years in which, among other controversial actions, he abolished the Martin Luther King Jr...
...On February 26 the Grand Canyon State will be the scene of the first gubernatorial runoff election ever held in this country...
...it dates back to the early days of the Republic when the two-party system was not yet firmly established...
...After all, Lincoln won the Presidency with 40 per cent of the vote, and Truman secured only 49 per cent...
...And it probably will...
...Their dubious distinction is costing them $2.65 minion...
...Overtime works in my favor because we have grass roots support," he said...
...Accepted as well was the Legislature's limited suspension of the voter registration purge, reduction of the cutoff for signing up new voters from 50 to 29 days, and shortening of the post-election canvass time from three weeks to one to permit the winner to take office March 5. Goddard had already restarted his campaign...
...There is some doubt as to whether Arizona imported the idea of a runoff from Georgia, Europe, South America, or elsewhere...
...George A. Miller is a free-lance journalist who currently lives in Arizona...
...Not to worry, say the unenthused...
...on November 7 he staged a rally in Phoenix to urge supporters to redouble their efforts...
...Massive apathy appears to have set in, making it quite possible that the winner will receive less votes than he did in November—and in effect be a minority governor...
...One prominent citizen who publicly and financially backed the recall effort was Fife Symington...
...The date was approved December 21 by the U.S...
...Although invoked only a handful of times in the present century, one famous instance may have influenced Arizona...
...who also held a subCabinet post in President Harry S. Truman's Administration...
...The ouster led to a new electoral process that produced the current runoff...
...Symington and Goddard favored abortion, he claimed, promising to break the hammer lock the Democratic and Republican parties supposedly had on the state...
...Ironically, had the effort failed the constitutional amendment that enabled Mecham's political poltergeist to snatch the governorship from the hands of the Republican candidate would never have been proposed...
Vol. 74 • January 1991 • No. 1
