Vanessa Bechtol may be new to politics, but she has decades of experience in community and public service that she says makes her the most qualified candidate for District 4’s Pima County Supervisor seat.

Bechtol, a Democrat, is challenging two-term Republican Supervisor Steve Christy for his seat. And while Christy eked out a victory in 2020, beating his Democratic challenger with 54% of the vote, Bechtol said that the constituents she’s spoken to are ready for a change.

Bechtol moved to Tucson 28 years ago to attend the University of Arizona. She loved it so much, she never left, and spent her career working with nonprofits focused on land use planning, economic growth, quality of place and cultural and historic preservation.

Her experience, she told Tucson Spotlight, lines up perfectly with some of the key issues facing District 4, one of the most pressing being the shortage of affordable housing.

The cost of housing is tied to inflation, and while supervisors can’t do much to change that, Bechtol said, they can take steps to help families, including increasing the inventory of affordable housing.

But, she said, Christy has consistently voted against investing in affordable housing and zoning changes that would facilitate the development of more affordable housing.

District 4 has other issues to contend with, including land use planning and water conservation, which Bechtol said she would prioritize if elected.

“If you look at where most of the development is going on, it’s along that I-10 corridor on the east side that’s part District 4,” Bechtol said. “A huge role of the Board of Supervisors is land use planning and infrastructure, and that creates jobs, but it also guides our water use. We need to make sure we have strong water conservation strategies for our future population, but also for that growth that is coming.”

Finding ways in which conservation and economic development can overlap and work together will be critical to this, Bechtol said, but oftentimes, people make the mistake of pitting the two against each other.

“I don't think that conservation and economic development are mutually exclusive,” she said. “We have a lot of great examples of how it already is, and we just need to continue, and land use planning is one of the key ways to do that.”

In order to address these serious challenges, county leaders have to collaborate and engage in dialogues with stakeholders to find common ground. But in District 4, that’s not happening, according to Bechtol.

“(I am someone) who actually wants to work and create solutions to our key challenges, and I have the willingness to dialog with people who think differently and collaborate with the rest of the board of supervisors to find common ground, instead of just saying ‘no,’” she said. “I want to bring back community service to the role of a county supervisor.”

Another concern Bechtol has heard from constituents is Christy’s refusal to certify the results of the election in both 2020 and 2022. This is the first time he’s come up for reelection since refusing, which Bechtol said could be a problem for some Republican voters.

The issue came up during an August debate between the two, with Christy defending his actions by pointing to problems in other parts of the state.

“But you're certifying the results in Pima County, so what's going on elsewhere doesn't matter,” she said. “If that's the vote you're going to make, own it. If you think you made a mistake, own that.”

Spotlight spoke with Christy about his refusal to certify the elections, his tenure as supervisor and issues impacting District 4. We’ll report interview with him next week.

Supervisors will have their work cut out for them in 2025, with Pima County in the process of updating its comprehensive plan, which includes a water element. If elected, Bechtol said she’d be proactive about engaging with planning and development services to think about growth in a way that’s aligned with the water supply and quality.

“And also thinking about it from not just land use planning, but how does it integrate with all the other departments and all the other things that Pima County is pushing?” she said. “We're trying to recruit more economic development partners and trying to recruit big businesses to come from here. Then let's make sure that there's alignment there.”

District 4 needs a partner who will have residents’ backs, Bechtol said, something she’s done over the course of her career.

“This is what I think I bring to the table. I've been a partner in various nonprofit roles,” she said. “I think it'll be refreshing when I'm elected, for residents to have someone who shows up, talks with them, actually wants to instead of just disagreeing with them, and wants to hear their point so that we can figure out where there's common ground.”

Caitlin Schmidt is Editor and Publisher of Tucson Spotlight. She previously worked for the Arizona Daily Star and has been reporting on Southern Arizona for a decade. Contact her at caitlin@tucsonspotlight.org.