YUMA, Ariz. – The Yuma County Primary Election is less than two weeks away, and two Republican candidates are in the running for Yuma County District 3 Supervisor.
Darren Simmons is one of the two Republican candidates, and as a former sheriff himself, his goal if elected is getting more sheriffs patrolling the streets of Yuma. “The people in our district don’t deserve that,” says Simmons in regards to long response times after reporting crime in Yuma County.
When asked how exactly he plans on budgeting for theses additional officers, Simmons says, “We’d have to start looking at everybody’s budgets and seeing where we can cut to let the other officers be hired on.”
Simmons’ Republican opponent is Russ Clark who is running for reelection and speaks frequently of securing Yuma’s water rights. “We have a voice at the table and we’re fighting for the water,” expresses Clark. “Organizations who service the rest of the state are looking at our water very closely and they claim they’re going to take it.”
Both Simmons and Clark have proposed plans for supporting infrastructure and the military community in Yuma County, and Clark stressed the importance of knowing when is the right time and the wrong time to raise taxes.
“Military as well,” adds Simmons. “Why we don’t work harder to get more businesses in at the military bases considering how many different companies are coming in here and testing equipment. Why cant we?”
“I’m the only supervisor, and again we’ve got to look at what we promised when we go in, and I said, ‘We don’t need new taxes,'” stresses Clark. “I’m the only one who voted ‘no’ on the levy to raise the levy because I believed it wasn’t time yet.”
The two candidates spoke at the recent Chamber of Commerce Good Morning Yuma event and a Colorado River Tea Party event and along with introducing their multiple proposed policies, they also shared who they each plan to work with to achieve their goals if elected.
“It’s the connections we make in Phoenix,” shares Clark. “That’s how things get done. That’s how JDET gets pushed, that’s how other things get pushed. It’s what we do. The actual meetings themselves are just to wrap it up, that’s not where it gets done. It’s the extras that matter.”
“We need to get our supervisors back to working with the people and knowing the people, and working for you,” expresses Simmons. “You’re the ones who put us in there. We are your ears and eyes at the Board of Supervisors.”
The third candidate running for Yuma County District 3 Supervisor is Sandy Kamei. Kamei is a write-in candidate and identifies with the Democratic party.
The Yuma Primary election is on August 30 and early voting is going on now.