By
Mindy Jones
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Father, son campaign for seats on Arizona legislature
While some fathers throw balls in the backyard with their kids, Ted Downing pitches ideas in the political arena with son and fellow candidate Demitri Downing.
The father-and-son duo will appear separately on the District 13 and 14 ballots for state representative on Nov. 7.
"Demitri told me that he was running first," said Ted Downing, a University of Arizona social development research professor. "After I decided to run in District 13, people warned us about mixing politics in the family."
He said that having family members active in both campaigns can strain family relations, but that they work hard to keep the family close.
"We have always been a tight family," Ted Downing said. "I think this campaign is just making us stronger."
Demitri Downing, a UA Law school alumnus, agreed that there is still some separation between the family's campaign lives and their home lives.
"We don't talk about each other's campaigns in our speeches and we don't discuss politics at the dinner table either," he said. "You can thank my mom for that one."
The two candidates maintain separate campaign headquarters, manned with family members and volunteers, but are represented by one common campaign poster.
"It would be too confusing for our voters if they saw Ted on one side and Demitri on the other," Ted Downing said. "So we decided that one poster with one name would be better."
While the two candidates contend there aren't any issues they firmly disagree on, they don't find this unusual considering their districts and constituents maintain a different focus.
"My dad has always been interested in continuing education and generally focuses on the professional network," Demitri Downing said. "I am really focusing on the younger generation from college students through the young professionals."
If elected, Demitri Downing will represent District 14, which includes the UA and surrounding areas, forcing much of his politics to revolve around student- related issues
This is why a major focus of his campaign is to get the student voting numbers up, he said.
"There is a census out there that college students just don't matter," Demitri Downing said. "I want the students to go out and vote in enormous numbers and show those people how wrong they are."
Ted Downing agreed that students need to take advantage of the fact that many issues pertaining to students are handled in the Legislature.
"Everything from the drinking age to consent laws to driving rules is determined in the Legislature," he said. "The fact that only 50 percent of eligible voting students would really vote is disturbing."
Both candidates mention last year;s failed single-sex dorms initiative and said they will be back to fight it if it comes up again in January.
"As a Democrat, I don't think that the government should intervene in social and moral issues," Demitri Downing said. "Also as a Democrat, I think we tend to focus a lot of our attention on education and funding for public institutions."
While the younger half of the duo focused much of his campaign on voting and university funding issues, Ted Downing structured his campaign around lifetime learning and the new economy.
A life of continuous education and learning - both in the classroom and out - is imperative to getting a job in the new economy, Ted Downing said.
"My mother, who enrolled at Tennessee State University at the age of 65, is an example of a lifetime learner," he said. "That just shows that education does not stop after high school or even after college."
Ted Downing said he promotes advancement through education and not relying on money or technology to fuel the new economy.
This aspect of public service has been instilled in the Downing family for nearly a century, he said
Bea Snelson, Ted Downing's mother and District 12 precinct committee woman, said politics were always discussed in the home with the Downing children.
"The boys don't go for the same issues and that's good," she said. "I believe my son and grandson will be out front and on top on the ballots on Nov. 7."
