Elections are less than a week away and candidates up for Arizona State House of Representatives for Legislative District Two are vying for your vote.
The two democratic candidates up for District Two Representative are Rosanna Gabaldon and Daniel Hernandez.
Gabadon is running for her third term as the state's district two representative, while Hernandez spent the last five years on the Sunnyside School Board.
Republican candidate John Christopher Ackerely taught for 17 years as a physics and math teacher.
All three candidates top priorities are education and infrastructure.
Arizona ranks 48th out of the country for education.
"I understand education, I have been active on policy advocacy basis for allowing time, I want to help move education in Arizona forward, public education in Arizona forward, and then the other thing was representation for southern Arizona," said Ackerely.
Ackerely says the elephant in the room is a funding issue.
"Prop 123 was a start, but it was only a start. I would like to see in the next legislative session restoration in 9th grade funding for JTED, it's our career and technical education programs and all-day kindergarten funding," said Ackerely.
"Looking at retaining our teachers, putting in more classroom supplies, being able to repair the school buildings that are falling apart and also paying for new schools and especially our support staff, our bus drivers, our cafeteria workers, all that support staff that we need to run the school so that funding is lacking," said Gabaldon.
"We are hearing from the business community that they are not able to recruit the kind of people that they need because we are not investing in education, whether the K-12 and at the university and community college level. So making sure we are doing what we can to advocate for those addition funds for education because we know if we need to attract businesses in the future, we need to have a good place for them to take their kids to school," said Hernandez.
Infrastructure is a big concern for the three candidates.
"One of the biggest issues is state route 89 which is the highway which really isn't a highway yet but the section road that connects the La Mariposa Port with I-19. There are billions of dollars every year that flow through that port," Ackerely said. "In fact, a third of the produce that comes into the United States comes in through that port and we need to do something to facilitate traffic along that."
"Why is the state not giving the money to them in these counties and so I respond by saying this is something has been a concern of mine," said Gabaldon. "Transportation and infrastructure have always been a top priority for me along with others but I tell them I am going to advocate to get more money to our counties."
"One of the biggest problems is the state are the roads, bridges, and every kind of infrastructure we have in this district, so really investing in infrastructure and making those smart and targeted investments," said Hernandez.
