Legislative District 23 Voting History

CURRENT LEGISLATORS

Senate
Rebecca Rios (D)
Apache Junction;
Director of Inter-Agency Relations for Pinal-Gila Behavioral Health Association.
Termed out in 2012.

House
Barbara McGuire (D)
Kearney;
small business owner.
Termed out in 2014.

Frank Pratt (R)
Casa Grande;
owner of Pratt Pools.
Termed out in 2016.

VOTING HISTORY

When the Independent Redistricting Commission drew boundaries of LD-23 in 2002, the historical partisan voting pattern in the district was 60 percent Democrat and 40 percent Republican. Since that time the Democrats have lost most of their electoral dominance.

The underlying conservative nature of the district’s voters, Democrats included, was shown in the 2004 presidential election in which Bush defeated Kerry in the district by almost 10 percentage points.

Though the more expansive marriage amendment was defeated statewide in 2006, it passed in the district by 3 percentage points. The 2008 version of the marriage amendment, narrower than the one proposed in 2006, passed in the district by 24 percentage points, almost twice the margin of victory than the referendum received statewide.

Napolitano defeated Munsil in the 2006 gubernatorial election by nearly 30 percentage points, slightly more than the statewide total of 27 percent.

Parts of four congressional districts are included in LD-23. Voters preferred Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell and Raul Grijalva to Republicans Sydney Hay (by 23 points in CD-1), David Schweikert (by 41 points in CD-5) and Joseph Sweeney (by 12 points in CD-7). In CD-6, Republican Jeff Flake was favored over Democrat Rebecca Schneider by 22 points.

FINAL ANALYSIS

Having nearly doubled in population since the 2000 census, Pinal County, which comprises 90 percent of the registered voters in this district, is easily the fastest-growing county in the state. As a result of this growth, much of which is in retirement-aged persons, the county and this district have undergone a large change in voter registration patterns. Democratic registration has declined by more than 17 percentage points, from almost 54 percent to barely 36 percent. Republicans have picked up only 4 points of that difference. The balance of power here, as in many other districts in the state, lies with independents and the unaffiliated that now constitute nearly one-third of registered voters. Until 2008, the district had elected only Democrats to the Legislature. However, Cheryl Chase, elected to the House as a Democrat in 2002 and 2004, changed parties in 2005 and then challenged Democrat Rebecca Rios for the Senate in 2006. Chase lost by 3,265 votes (7 percentage points).

Republicans broke through in 2008 when Republican Frank Pratt, in his third try for the House, defeated Democrat and former lawmaker Ernie Bustamante by 686 votes.