2025 Tucson city council elections: Candidate survey + responses


2025 is a big year for Tucson city council, with three seats up for election. Currently there are multiple candidates running for Wards 3, 5, and 6. As a nonprofit organization Living Streets Alliance cannot endorse candidates. However, with primary elections quickly approaching we wanted to make sure that the views of all candidates on transportation were available to Tucson voters.

We sent out a survey to all known/registered candidates with the following explanation and request:

Tucson streets are our largest source of public space, invested in by every taxpayer regardless of how they get around. Living Streets Alliance advocates for a thriving Tucson by creating great streets for everyone. We envision streets as living public spaces that connect people to places and to each other. Living Streets Alliance advocates with communities to make their vision for safe, dignified streets and transportation a reality, knowing that public policies and funding priorities are essential to  permanent, equitable, and inclusive transformation of our public streets over time. 

There are many intersecting City plans (e.g. Climate Action Tucson Resilient Together, Move Tucson, People Communities and Home Investment Plan, and the 2006 RTA Plan), many of which are approved by voters. With those in mind, we want to hear from you about your transportation and mobility priorities. 

The deadline for completion of this survey is Monday, June 30th. We will share your responses, as well as those of any other candidates who respond, directly with our membership and with the general public via our social media channels. Living Streets Alliance does not endorse nor oppose political candidates and does not engage in activities that could be viewed as partisan. We thank you for your participation!

We asked each of the candidates to respond to the following questions:

  1. Pedestrians, people on bikes, and people in cars are dying everyday because of traffic violence in our city. What will you do on the Council to make our streets safer?

  2. How will you bring down the costs of transportation for working and middle class families?

  3. How will you make public transportation work for everyone and how will you pay for it?

  4.  Do you support the City's fare free policy?

  5. What are your thoughts on the Pima County Regional Transportation Authority (RTA)?

  6. How do you plan to get to City Council meetings?

To see how each of them responded, click on their photo below. (Note: to avoid bias, we are sharing them in alphabetical order by last name for each of the ward races.)


Ward 3

Kevin Dahl

Sadie Shaw

Karen Wittenbraker

 

Ward 5

Selina Barajas

Christopher Elsner

Jesse Lugo

 

Ward 6

Leighton H. Rockafellow, Jr.

Miranda Schubert

James Sinex

Jay Tolkoff


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