Alvarez taps Latino vote to advance to Glendale City Council run-off
Norma Alvarez was an underdog candidate going into the four-way August primary for a Glendale City Council seat.
Although Alvarez is a well-known community activist born and raised in the Ocotillo District, she lacked incumbent David Goulet's flush campaign war chest and political sophistication. She didn't have Bud Zomok's Arizona Republic editorial board endorsement or Bob Bohart's practiced run for the seat - he had challenged Goulet in 2006, nearly forcing a runoff.
Alvarez was on the heels of the three-term councilman. She trailed Goulet by just 13 votes, pitting the two in a November runoff.Even Alvarez was surprised. "I really never thought I would make it to the general," said the 64-year-old grandmother of four, a longtime neighborhood activist.
Political experts say Alvarez and Goulet likely will have a rousing battle. Goulet has carved out a campaign that says he is the more pragmatic leader who has helped bring businesses to the district, which covers downtown, and is a supporter of the sports district that has reshaped the city's image.
Courting Hispanic voters
Alvarez, who said she was encouraged to run by district residents who felt unheard at City Hall, attributed her success in the primary to feet-on-the-ground campaigning. Since February Alvarez's army of 30-some volunteers met weekly in her dining room to strategize their moves. Supporters knocked on doors, cold-called potential voters and handed out fliers.
Foot soldiers carried Alvarez's message, "Time for Change" into the barrios. They mined an untapped resource: Hispanic residents, which comprise 56 percent of the Ocotillo District. The district, which includes older and historic neighborhoods, is home to the city's largest concentration of Hispanics.
"For years we have been criticized and chastised for not voting," Alvarez said. "It was all the time, 'Mexicans don't vote, Mexicans don't get involved.' "
Alvarez was determined to change that by getting handicapped and elderly voters who were already registered to vote on the early-ballot mailing request, as well as registering residents, regardless of ethnicity, to vote. She estimated her volunteers turned in 400 voter-registration forms.
But a registration drive by itself doesn't accomplish much, said Luis Plascencia, a professor at Arizona State University. "There's a very high registration pattern among Latinos initiated by unions and pro-immigration groups," he said. "A drive by itself doesn't accomplish much." He said the crucial step takes place on Election Day.
"Mobilize all those registered already and it would make a difference," Plascencia said.
Although the number of registered voters actually decreased in the Ocotillo District from four years ago, the nearly 23 percent voter turnout was 2 percentage points higher than in 2006. The primary results showed Alvarez captured five of the Ocotillo District's nine precincts. A majority of voters in those five precincts had voted for Goulet in 2006.
On primary day, her volunteers drove people to the polls. They took shifts in triple-digit heat outside polling places, ready to share information with undecided voters.
Alvarez is new to city politics but is not a political neophyte. She ran unsuccessfully in 1992 for a seat on the Glendale Elementary School District governing board. And she helped lead a campaign to pass Proposition 203 in 2000 that banned bilingual education in Arizona schools. Her brother, Joe Silva, served on the Glendale City Council from 1956 to 1970.
She retired as director after 29 years with Glendale's Community Action Program.
Mapping election strategy
Three weeks after the primary, Alvarez and her supporters gathered for their weekly planning meeting, which begins with a prayer. An election banner is draped across the second-floor balcony of her house.
Although family and friends served as advisers in Alvarez's primary race, she has now brought in paid professionals.
That includes Christina Martinez-Romero, who owns a public-affairs firm and is on the board of Emerge Arizona, which recruits and trains Democratic women to run for political office.
"The focus is to get people energized and vote," Martinez-Romero said. "And get the energy to vote for Team Alvarez."
Also lending support is Phoenix Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski, a longtime family friend.
Nowakowski knows all about waging an underdog campaign. Nowakowski staged a political upset in 2007 by defeating the well-heeled Laura Pastor, daughter of U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor.
He advised Alvarez to go through the Rolodex of people she's helped over the years.
A looming battle
However, Alvarez faces a fight for the seat. Goulet has criticized Alvarez's call to reinstate the city's free recreation programs for youth, summer programs at community centers and restore longer library hours.
The items were cut this past year to balance the city budget. City officials said the youth recreation programs were being offered by other community groups.
Alvarez also favors a proposed tribal casino in western Glendale, supporting the jobs it would bring. She has criticized Glendale's spending on its legal fight against the tribe and discounts claims the city would have to pay for infrastructure, saying the Tohono O'odham works with governments to cover such costs.
The tribes "give 12 percent of their gaming profit to areas surrounding the casino; $4 million was given to Pima County last year. Glendale needs some of that," she said.
Goulet sides with a majority of council to oppose the casino, saying it would take away the city's "hometown feel." He said the city would have to provide such services as public safety that could take away services from residents. He said the tribe offers no guarantee of reimbursement of costs.
"The promise that's being made of thousands of construction jobs would happen anyway with regular commercial development, as we want, and the so-called high-paying jobs are not nearly as likely to happen as touted, yet people continue to cling to this shallow promise," Goulet said.
Although Alvarez has clearly carved out a base of support being the only Latina in the race, other factors come into play in the November runoff, said Jason Rose, a publicist and political consultant. He said the race may be less about Alvarez and more about Goulet's leadership style.
Rose noted that Goulet has been among the council majority casting votes for the Phoenix Coyotes to remain in Glendale and other key issues. The race is not a "referendum on the city of Glendale, rather it seems to be specifically how he may be representing the district," Rose said.
Alvarez knows she has to spread her message beyond Hispanic supporters. "I'll let them know what I want to do and they can decide. I can't do anything more but reach out to them."