By
Richard Clark
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Downing wants to end the micromanagement of Arizona universities
A UA research professor of social development is organizing his campaign for the District 13 seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, hoping to bring a different vision of Tucson to Phoenix.
Ted Downing, a Democrat, said he would like to see Tucson develop in a similar manner as Boulder, Colo. - which turned into a highly technical, high-paying job city while Denver remained the industrial center in the state.
"I would like to see students graduate from the UA and get high-paying jobs in Tucson," Downing said.
He said he is also concerned with some of the legislation that would have affected the University of Arizona that has been proposed in the past few years.
"I have immense problems with micromanaging classrooms and dormitories," he said.
Last year, partially due to the biennium budget that left the state legislature with less work, a large number of bills were proposed that would have placed new restrictions on Arizona's public universities and some thought the universities would have been micromanaged.
However, his primary concern was with provisions in recent bills that would have allowed random searches of students' residence hall rooms and banned coed dorms.
In addition, a bill was proposed last year that would have required creationist viewpoints to be taught along side evolutionism in science courses at the state universities.
"I don't want the university to get dragged back in time," he said.
He is also the first candidate in Arizona to run on only "clean money," Downing said.
This means he has not accepted any donations from special interests or lobbying groups. The only money he has taken is from state and private donations of $5 or less.
Downing signed a waiver with the state to receive money stating that if he takes money from special interests, he would automatically forfeit the election even if he wins the vote.
District 13 covers a large portion of Tucson and has about 110,000 voters in the region. Republican Kathleen Dunbar holds the position now.
UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said that several professors from the UA have served in the State House of Representatives and that service would not affect students' ability to learn.
"Most professors have convictions and they follow them," Kha said.
In Downing's 29-year career he has worked as a consultant to the World Bank, lived in 14 countries and has written six books.
