By
Mindy Jones
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Some say students are not a factor
UA-affiliated political candidates did not fare well in yesterday's Tucson elections.
Among the defeated Democrats were father and son candidates, Ted and Demitri Downing, who ran for the Arizona State House of Representatives.
The University of Arizona social development research professor, Ted Downing, trailed District 13 Republican candidate Carol Somers by 1 percent with 69 of the 76 precincts reporting.
While Downing admitted that he did whatever he could to win the race, he also said that his team of supporters was exhausted.
The voters' opinions were not easy to anticipate, Downing said, and mentioned it was important to understand that the power to determine the future is in the people.
"I think political candidates sometimes forget the immense influence they have on the regulations set before them," Downing said.
Specifically, he thought that the UA students would be feeling the "ripple" of a lack of funding for education with his defeat.
However, Downing was proud of the fact that he ran, for the students, as a clean candidate.
"Being a clean candidate means that I ran without any special interest money," he said. "Whatever happens, I know that I ran clean and so did my son and we focused on reforming the political system."
Downing's son and UA law school graduate, Demitri Downing, also suffered a defeat to Republican candidate Edward Poelstra in a tightly contested race in District 14.
The visibly upset candidate blamed his 1 percent defeat on both the lack of student impact and the Green Party's presence.
Although both Demitri's running mates and father said that he was supported by UA interests, he said that UA students don't even factor into the political equation.
Any voting that university students do, Demitri Downing said, goes above and beyond what he expects for his numbers.
Demitri Downing said that the Green Party took votes away from the Democrats who were essentially supporting the same type of issues, but with a more practical and methodical approach.
"The fucking Green Party had nothing but a self-serving agenda," he said. "They pulled from the Democratic basis when we are really a party of the people."
Demitri Downing was disappointed with the Green's "selfishness" to make them selves known as a party and thought it severely hurt his chances to be elected.
Marion Pickens, the Democratic incumbent running in District 14, said that Demitri was a positive advocate for the UA.
As a running mate of Demitri Downing's sharing both campaign financing and political advertisement, Pickens hoped that he would be going to the House with her.
Regardless, she mentioned that funding for the University, partially covered in Proposition 301 which was supported by both herself and Demitri Downing, would be a major budget item in the coming year.
"Demitri Downing has strong connections with the UA, I hoped that would help him," she said. "Demitri has been trying to get students to get out there and vote."
Another candidate not focusing on returned numbers, was first-time Libertarian candidate and lead custodian of UA's Agriculture Center, Dale Gorney.
The full-time employee, who expected to get at least 10 percent of the votes for the District 10 Arizona Senate seat, was defeated by Democrat incumbent Ramon Valadez by about 86 percent.
His decision to run was spurred by the lack of competition in the district and the subsequent lack of interest in the race, he said.
Gorney chose to run with the Libertarian party but in hindsight said that their views were much more extreme than he chose to endorse.
"The Libertarians want to get rid of government and social security because they believe in personal responsibility," he said. "I agree that people should be responsible for their own actions but the lower and middle class rely a lot on the government for things they don't have a choice in."
Gorney emphasized the fact that he was an "average guy" and thought that is what the people want in an elected official.
The UA employee cited this race as a learning experience and said that he might try it again in the future.
Until then, he will remain working for the university and attending classes at Pima Community College.
Other UA-affiliated political candidates, included Jonathon Lee Paton, who suffered a fourth place defeat in the District 13 race for an Arizona House seat.
