The Party Lines of Arizona

   The state of Arizona has been recognized throughout these 100 years for its pioneering personalities and its mainstream conservative Republican politicians.

   Individuals like Barry M. Goldwater, a five-term U.S. senator of Arizona and advocate of conservatism, and Sandra Day O'Connor, a federalist Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, are very significant among Arizona's history.

"Originally, Arizona was Democratic, but it followed other western and southern states that were Republican starting in the 1960s," Nicholas Damask, political science faculty at SCC, said.

   Modifications in Arizona's party classification caused political parties themselves to change their own stands.

   The Democratic Party was for limited government and states' rights, but as it changed to embrace a more active role for the federal government, towns whose population did not change its beliefs were likely to drift to the Republican Party.

   "Now, Arizona faces some important challenges that have been alive since its statehood," Damask said. "First, a concern with maintaining the flow of businesses into the state, a political culture that is hostile to federal involvement in the affairs of the state and the fiscal limitations on state spending."

   Arizona has the ability to provide basic needs to the community. The state depends on federal subsidies for projects involving the creation of freeways and infrastructure.

   Linking politics to very beginnings of Arizona, John F. Long is a significant Arizonan to commemorate.

   Long was a land developer who pioneered the planned communities in the 1950s. The most vital aspect of his vision was the high-density community of single-family homes that included pre-planned locations for schools, parks, and commercial areas.

"Long's method greatly decreased the cost of home building because of the increased cost-effectiveness of building so many similar homes at once and nearby one another," Damask said.

   The importance of Long in Arizona's history is still tangible. Long not only made Arizona attractive for veterans, retirees, and middle-class families to own homes but also contributed to determine the particular urban appearance of the copper state.

   When Arizona became an industrial state its large lands and spaces for urbanization made cities to grow out, not grow up.

"The greater Phoenix area is not so dense to host city cores like in mid-town Manhattan or Chicago," Damask said. "People live in houses, mostly, not apartments or condos."

   In order to continue to attract people to the state, the state of Arizona is working to keep its income and property taxes low compared to other states.

   "Retirees come here for sunshine, of course, but other states such as Florida, Alabama, and Texas have sunshine as well," Damask said.