Wednesday, April 25th, 2007...5:46 am
Another Candidate in CD1?
I heard another rumor about a possible candidate in CD1. As you know, there has already been noise from Ann Kirpatrick, an experienced legislator from Flagstaff. Now, another name has surfaced, Mary Kim Titla.
Yes, I know what you are saying: two women runing against each other in a Democratic primary, one is a legislator and one is a former television reporter. Wow, who could have imagined such a thing!
Titla has an interesting story: she first came to prominence when she helped narrate the television coverage of Pope John Paul II’s speech to Native Americans when he visited Phoenix in 1987. She impressed enough that she was hired by KVOA and spent several years as a reporter here in Tucson, even landing an interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was then the first lady of Arkansas campaigning in Tucson for her husband. She moved up to Phoenix and became a reporter for Channel 12 back in 1993.
She stepped back from full time television reporting in 2005 to become the publisher of Native Youth Magazine. The site gets around 4 million hits a month and is considered the top Native American website in the country. Titla also serves on the board of UNITY, a group that advocates for Native American youth. She has recieved numerous journalism awards, the Ira Hayes Honorable Warrior award, and even has a scholarship named after her at Eastern Arizona College.
Titla is a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. Not only was she the first and only Native American reporter on Arizona television, but should she be elected, she’d be the first Native American Arizonan in congress. There have been candidates: Albert Hale made a great but unsuccessful run in 1992, and Debora Lynn Norris and Jack Jackson Jr. both ended up not running after floating their names as candidates. Interesingly, all three of these candidates are Navajos (Although Norris lived in Sells in the Tohono O’odham Nation). Titla is the first Apache I can think of that has tried to make a political splash.
Should either Kirkpatrick or Titla be the Democratic nominee, the Republican candidate would have a hard time with the considerable Native American vote in the district. Kirkpatrick has also done a great deal of work with Native Americans and speaks Apache.
CORRECTION: My original post said that Kirkpatrick speaks Navajo. I get my Athabaskan languages confused.
1 Comment
April 25th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Actually, Ann’s first language was Apache. Her parents were traders.
Mary Kim Titla is a good woman and an important role model for Native Americans, especially Native American women.