Pima County GOP Sues To Stop Tucson Sanctuary City Ballot Issue

TUCSON, AZ — As expected, the Pima County Republican Party is suing election officials to keep a referendum off the November ballot that would make Tucson Arizona’s first sanctuary city. Three citizens have joined the county party in the lawsuit, which challenges the signature-gathering process.

Those technical issues speak to a larger belief on the part of the party that making Tucson a sanctuary city would be a mistake.

“We are saving Tucson from itself,” David Eppihimer, the chairman of the Pima County GOP, told the Arizona Daily Star.

Last week, Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said supporters of the measure to make Tucson a sanctuary city had met the signature requirements to put the issue before voters on Nov. 5, and that a random sample showed 71.7 percent of them were valid.

In the lawsuit, the Pima County GOP argued among other things the signature threshold for the sanctuary city ballot question was too low.

Eppihimer also told the Daily Star that backers’ argument that Tucson can “do what it wants, when it wants” because it is a charter city isn’t valid.

“The GOP believes in following the Constitution, whether it’s the U.S. Constitution or Arizona’s,” he told the newspaper. “Moreover, state law should always supersede local law.”

» Read the full story on the Arizona Daily Star.