Age: 27. (05/18/85, Phoenix, AZ).

Arizona since: Birth.

Occupation: Community voice mail manager, Community Information and Referral, since 2009; information and referral specialist, Community Information and Referral, 2008-2009; political coordinator, Int’l Assn of Bridge & Structural Iron Workers Local 75, 2008; instructor, Boys & Girls Club of the East Valley, 2007-2008.

Marital: Single.

Religious preference: Did not respond..

Education: B.A., political science (minor in justice & social inquiry), ASU, 2008; A.A., general studies, classical studies, certificate of int’l studies, Phoenix College, 2006; Tolleson Union High School, 2003.

Political experience: Elected state committeeman, AZ Democratic Party, since 2007; elected precinct committeeman, LD17, since 2006. Through my work with the Dist 17 Democrat organization, I have helped with most campaigns in my district: Ed Ableser for State House and Senate; David Schapira for State House, Senate and Congress; Ben Arredondo for State House; Harry Mitchell for Congress; Corey Woods, Mark Mitchell, Joel Navarro, and Kolby Granville for Tempe City Council.

Memberships: Member, City of Phoenix, Human Services Advisory Committee; graduate, Tempe Leadership; volunteer, Valley of the Sun United Way’s Project Connect Event, since 2008.

Interests: My interests are promoting all levels of public education and human services, and ending hunger and homelessness in Maricopa County. My hobbies include camping, hiking, rock climbing, biking, and drawing.

Political influence: My entire community has influenced my political development. From my educational community there are professors like Eddie Genna who fostered the critical thinking skills I use today, and faculty like Kelly Loucy who opened my world to education outside of the classroom. Without their influence, I would not be equipped to explore and apply myself in my community politically. Without the influence of my community, I would not know about the responsibility we all share to foster the growth of all of those around us.

Job creation measures: To encourage job creation, I will cultivate an environment that attracts jobs. Businesses need a healthy educated workforce that will not be an undue burden to their solvency. As a state, we can rise to occasion to help businesses by funding and promoting education and health care. This will not only provide businesses with the employees they need but also the communities for their employees to raise their families. By funding education and health care, we improve the health and productivity of our workforce, the health of the bottom line for employers and ultimately the health of our state’s economy.

Top Issues: Aside from revenue concerns, the two issues I will concentrate on as a legislator are public education and health care. The state of our public education is failing our students in such a way that it must be on purpose. There is no excuse other than poor leadership when our fifth graders cannot read. AHCCCS and KidsCare are not in place to only make sure people in transition or our children have health care, they also ensure a healthy workforce and in turn a functioning economy.

Prop 100 sales tax extension: I favor funding quality education and jobs. Rather than feeling powerless over the cuts that have punished our children with much larger class sizes, lack of basics like textbooks and the loss of counselors, librarians, music and arts or P.E., I will be picking up where our Legislature has failed us and will be supporting the extension of the temporary sales tax increase.

Illegal immigration: Our Legislature is currently addressing undocumented immigration in a way that threatens the public safety of everyone, including our citizens. Our current approach to undocumented immigration diverts attention from the structural and economic causes of undocumented immigration and keeps us trapped in a vicious circle of blaming. Our actions become nothing more than misplaced efforts and resources while we are sentencing countless people to death. If anything is to be done at the state level to address undocumented immigration, it should be to make sure hate and fear don’t destroy our communities. I understand immigration to be a federal issue.

Background & experience: My individual success was dependent on supporting sustaining public infrastructure. Funding for our public education and universities and funding for AHCCCS and KidsCare made my life possible. Countless people and programs are responsible for the opportunities that have allowed me to be successful at life. I work to serve others the way others have served me, and I know so many other people’s lives are dependent on the leadership of our state. I am prepared to do my part to make sure the supportive and sustaining public infrastructure that allowed for my success is there for everyone.

Pro-life / pro-choice: Regarding a woman’s right to privacy and control of her own body, I am pro-choice. I would like to see those who oppose a woman’s right to choose take a stand to actually prevent abortions. We need to make sure our youth are appropriately educated and afforded the correct preventative measures to make sure abortions never have to happen. I will work to make sure an abortion never has to happen but it is not my place to take away a woman’s right to privacy and control of her own body.

One last thing: I am a first generation American and the oldest of four. We were born in rural Wittmann, AZ into poverty, and we lived in poverty all over metro Phoenix. My family went through domestic violence and divorce. Though I was sustained in poverty through the compassion of our government, my family didn’t transition into safety until our community invested in my family. We were given opportunities and granted access to resources. The biggest barrier holding us back was not a lack of hard work but the lack of availability in the resources and information that allowed us to transition out of poverty.

Campaign finance: public.

Age: 31. (10/11/80, Tucson, AZ).

Arizona since: Birth.

Occupation: Director of marketing, Great Spaces, since 2011; professional dog trainer, 2003-2011.

Marital: Single.

Education: B.I.S., American history, ASU, 2007.

Political experience: Chair, LD18, 2010-2012; Democratic nominee for Arizona State Senate, LD18, 2010; member, Democratic State Committee.

Memberships: Bd member, People to People Int’l; AZ Democratic Party.

Interests: Rock climbing, traveling.

Political influence: I learn about the political process by watching and listening to other voters, activists, and elected officials. Todd Landfried has been a close friend of mine and taught me about the importance of seizing every opportunity when it presents itself and to examine each problem from all sides. That way you can see where to look for the best solution to any given obstacle. I am always looking for individuals that know how to engage someone they disagree with in a way that is respectable to the public and doesn’t degrade their political opponent. Few individuals possess this quality. One person who excels in this talent is John Loredo.

Job creation measures: A program to strengthen and grow opportunities for small businesses to grow and find new markets. Also, restoration of education funding to universities and college so they can support programs in fields where Arizona has or should have a competitive advantage such as renewable energy, engineering, and space sciences.

Top Issues: Education and job creation.

Prop 100 sales tax extension: I might support extending the sales tax. The sales tax was implemented to help restore education funding because the Legislature was slashing the budget and gutting education. Therefore, the sales tax might be a reasonable way to try and help an already failing education system. Also, the sales tax benefited several other public services that I have not watched as closely as education. I would want to be briefed on where they are at with their financial obligations and what the projections are for the upcoming fiscal year.

Illegal immigration: We need to find better solutions than SB1070. The best solution that I have seen proposed is from the Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. They have suggested that we created “Ellis Island type” stations along the border that can handle the massive flow of immigrants. These stations would perform background checks, match employers to employees, and perform other necessary services that would free up law enforcement to chase the drug cartels and other aliens that truly are caustic to our society. The other benefit this system would have for Arizonans is that it would be better public policy. What we see from SB1070 is that when the state is perceived as politically unstable, we lose huge amounts of revenue from tourists and businesses that leave Arizona.

Background & experience: During the last few years, I have had the pleasure of working with my community in a position of leadership. As a previous candidate, I learned how to work with all the different political outlets of the party. As a District Chairman, I learned how to serve all the members of my community, including the ones I rarely heard from or disagreed with. And finally, during the recall of Russell Pearce, I developed many friends in the Republican Party that worked with me for the common good of Arizona. The political experience combined with being a former small business owner and college graduate has given me the tools, the connections, the experience, and the trust to work with my fellow Arizonans at the State Capitol.

Pro-life / pro-choice: The government does not have the authority to regulate what a person can do with their body. If government does anything, it should support programs to make the need for abortion as rare as possible.

One last thing: I am an independent-minded Democrat, who will consider all sides of an issue and work to find the best solutions for the people of Arizona. I have promised to be very transparent in the bills I sponsor. I will reveal who my fellow authors are and state what the justification is for the bill. If elected, I will be ready and willing to speak with any constituent, regardless of their political party affiliation, and give their ideas all due consideration. Finally, my focus will be in improving economic opportunities for small business and putting Arizona’s educational system back on a path toward excellence rather than the Republican path to lower achievement, lower rankings, and reduced opportunity for our children. Arizona’s children are its future and we owe it to them to give them the tools to succeed instead of taking those tools and opportunities away because we are afraid to invest in them.

Campaign finance: public.

Name pronunciation: Hurry-OX-shah

Age: 58. (03/24/54, Conroe, TX).

Arizona since: 2000.

Occupation: Foundryman, Cosanti Originals, since 2011; groundskeeper, Cosanti Foundation, comingled with foundry work at Arcosanti since 2000.

Marital: Divorced.

Children: 1.

Religious preference: Sri Chinmoy.

Education: Some college: bouncing from architecture/fine arts to film production, anthropology and theater; Choate School, 1972;

Political experience: 2010 maiden campaign for state rep, LD17, as a Green Party-endorsed candidate. Until we achieve permanent ballot status as the peoples’ alternative to the Ds and Rs, we must circulate petitions every election cycle: this is our grassroots democracy. Occupy Phoenix has been invigorating and heartening, and a great learning experience. (Everybody should get arrested, to learn first-hand the smell of fungus at the 4th Avenue jail.)

Memberships: War Resisters League (whose premise is that war is a crime against humanity, and that we must work to eliminate the causes that lead to war), ACLU, Sierra Club, Green Party Lavender Caucus, IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), World Harmony Run, AZ Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Interests: Meditation, hiking, running, horses, art, gardening, sewing.

Political influence: Howard Zinn. We are all influenced by each other, and I’m grateful for many tough lessons, but nothing challenged my socio-political underpinnings like HZ’s “Peoples’ History.” I’d like to take up his refrain and encourage everybody to run for office. It’s a free country. Runners up: William F. Buckley (the American Pope), Emma Goldman, Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Jefferson and Eugene McCarthy.

Job creation measures: Direct hires for a latter-day civilian conservation corps for out in the country; and for in the cities, public transportation projects like buses and the light rail and its extensions to get people to work. Inter-city passenger rail would be nice, and massive alternative energy initiatives. “Sustainability” is a scary and ambiguous word, but it really comes down to ‘healthy” and “frugal.” Long-term: public education. Let educators and school boards determine what is needed, and give it to them. Arizona is famous for spending more on prisons than for schools.

Top Issues: Standing up for organized labor and LGBT equality and the environment. There is a loud chorus (whining, really) implying that all environmentalists are extremists. Ecological science is a rational and valuable discipline, much needed for protecting our fragile land, air and water. We’re all in this together. There’s another chorus going “green.” But we must not lose sight of social justice too. Sometimes it takes persistence and longevity. Prison reform will require much patience. We must eliminate prisons-for-profit, and we must abolish the death penalty.

Prop 100 sales tax extension: Favor, even though it’s regressive. Sales tax is a stop-gap until we can broaden the base. In conscience, there’s only so much we can squeeze out of the working poor. Also, at some point the bed taxes and rental car fees will start driving away the tourists. Tax the churches. Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drugs. We can’t keep chop, chop, chopping critical health programs for the needy and sweeping funds from schools and parks, meanwhile offering tax breaks to the wealthy. (Where’s the litigious Goldwater Institute on the fresh-mint Arizona Commerce Authority, vis-a-vis the gift clause?)

Illegal immigration: Full amnesty. Scale back the hysteria. Everybody should learn to speak Spanish: this is America. Here we have a time-honored libertarian/anarchist tradition. Why the sudden nativism? NAFTA is the root cause of the surge in economic migration from our southern neighbors. I was taught to be hospitable toward strangers. It’s a reciprocal virtue.

Background & experience: My spiritual life has been preparing me for anything. In the Legislature we could stand to lighten up and treat each other with more compassion. Keeping in mind our obligations to the Constitution and to the very people we represent, let’s not lose sight of beauty and joy. (Once again, my friends, Kumbaya. Voices are heard, good Lord, Kumbaya. Songs of freedom, justice, love between my brothers and my sisters, all around the world, Kumbaya.)

Pro-life / pro-choice: Laissez-faire. Ideally, with single-payer, Access-for-all, no legislators or lobbyists or lawyers or “taxpayers” or insurers or employers would be interfering in the relationship between a woman and her midwife/doctor. Abortion (or not) is a personal decision, and should be free from coercion. All health and medical care is a fundamental need, like food and shelter. We are an exceedingly wealthy and generous people. Frankly, I’m still a proponent of zero population growth.

One last thing: I strive for nobility in demeanor and in conduct. I am ovo-lacto vegetarian. (Vegans, please forgive me for using honey, leather and silk.) Mine is a “No-Gift” campaign, non-mercenary, $500 threshold. Arizona’s experiment with Clean Elections is pioneering and laudable. But like Coriolanus, I don’t want to trouble the poor by begging (for the $5 contributions.) It’s time to end “corporate personhood,” banish the notion that money equals speech; overturn “Citizens United,” get money out of elections.

Campaign finance: private.

Did not respond.

Age: 56. (06/26/55, Cottonwood, AZ).

Arizona since: Birth.

Occupation: Small business owner, Velocity Design Group, since 2011; construction manager, Woodbine Southwest Corp, 2000-2011; small business owner, Speakman & Son’s Construction, 1987-2000.

Marital: Married (Carolyn, homemaker).

Children: 8.

Religious preference: LDS.

Education: Two years at ASU, construction; associate’s degree, Mesa Community College, 1978; Mesa High, 1973.

Political experience: None.

Memberships: Boy Scouts of America.

Interests: Family, woodworking, church, camping, Boy Scouts.

Political influence: I don’t have any one individual. It is a series of events and individuals that have influence my decision to be involved in politics. And most especially, the inability to gain the knowledge of those who are involved has inspired me to be more involved.

Job creation measures: I would propose to continue to lower the tax burden on businesses and allow them to grow more freely, and then to continue to create an environment for businesses to start or move to Arizona.

Top Issues: Education and securing our borders.

Prop 100 sales tax extension: No. We need to continue to reduce the taxes imposed on our citizens and thus encourage economic growth.

Illegal immigration: We need to continue to pressure the federal government to secure the borders and make it easier for those who want to come here and work to be legal, taxpaying, contributing visitors. We need to send those who are criminals back to whatever country they are from.

Background & experience: I have served in leadership positions for over 30 years in the community. As such, I have had to make hard decisions, use my imagination to work through difficult situations and work with many varied opinions and personalities to come to the best solutions. As an employer, I have had to live within a budget and make businesses grow. These experiences have prepared me for this office.

Pro-life / pro-choice: Opposed. The choice is made before conception not after. Except in the case of rape or incest.

One last thing: I am a multi-generational native of Arizona. I have many ancestors that helped settle Arizona and this is the place I have chosen to raise my children. I am committed to making decisions based on values and the Constitution not on personal interests or special interests. My values will dictate policy and not the reverse.

Campaign finance: public.

Age: 73. (02/13/39, Snyder, TX).

Arizona since: 1966.

Occupation: Retired; school teacher for 38 years.

Marital: Married (Gerald, retired.).

Children: 3.

Religious preference: Christian.

Education: M.A., education/administration, Univ of Phoenix, 1990; B.A., business, Eastern New Mexico University, 1961.

Political experience: Regional director, state second vice president, Republican Women’s Club; president, Tempe Republican Women; Tempe Union High School Bd since 2002.

Memberships: Tempe Kiwanis Nuevo Club; bd member, East Valley Assistance League; Delta Kappa Gamma; founding president, Tempe Dollars for Scholars.

Interests: Reading, walking my dog, being with my three girls and their children – eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I also enjoy being on the golf course with my husband.

Political influence: Two very influential women have encouraged me. They are Susan Bitter-Smith and Laura Knaperek. Both have a broad knowledge of how the political process works. Their help has been very beneficial to me.

Job creation measures: Reduce overburdensome regulations on businesses. Job training – build existing programs and more outreach to business.

Top Issues: Education P-20; job development and training.

Prop 100 sales tax extension: The governor and the Legislature made a promise to Arizonans that the sales tax would be short term. If elected I will not break that promise. However, I understand that there is a possibility that there will be an initiative that the people will get to vote on in the fall election.

Illegal immigration: Federal protection at our borders needs to be enforced immediately. It is the job of the national government to protect our borders. The system for becoming a citizen of the U.S. needs to be reformed, making the path to citizenship attainable. Anyone choosing to remain illegal should return to his or her country of origin.

Background & experience: Thirty-eight years of teaching made me a good listener and a problem solver. Ownership of a small business gives me the ability to work with a wide variety of people. My role as a school board member has given me knowledge of balancing a budget and has taught me how the budget process works.

Pro-life / pro-choice: I am pro-life.

One last thing: Small business owner – Lulu’s Moonfish; thirty-eight years of teaching; serving on the Tempe Union High School Board; service oriented and involved in my community.

Campaign finance: private.