Jay Ruby
Jay Ruby (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 1. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Ruby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jay Ruby was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor's degree from Antioch College in 1989 and a graduate degree from Prescott College in 2021. His career experience includes working as a theater director and performer. Ruby founded the Tsunami on the Square Arts and Culture Festival, the Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company, and the Global Stilt Congress.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)
Incumbent Selina Bliss and incumbent Quang Nguyen defeated Marcia Smith and Jay Ruby in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Selina Bliss (R) ![]() | 33.9 | 88,691 |
✔ | ![]() | Quang Nguyen (R) | 33.5 | 87,726 |
![]() | Marcia Smith (D) ![]() | 16.9 | 44,199 | |
![]() | Jay Ruby (D) ![]() | 15.6 | 40,911 |
Total votes: 261,527 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)
Marcia Smith and Jay Ruby advanced from the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on July 30, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Marcia Smith ![]() | 53.4 | 16,516 |
✔ | ![]() | Jay Ruby ![]() | 46.6 | 14,397 |
Total votes: 30,913 | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)
Incumbent Quang Nguyen and incumbent Selina Bliss defeated Shawn Wildman in the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on July 30, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Quang Nguyen | 44.3 | 38,264 |
✔ | ![]() | Selina Bliss ![]() | 39.4 | 34,074 |
Shawn Wildman | 16.3 | 14,117 |
Total votes: 86,455 | ||||
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If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Ruby in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jay Ruby completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ruby's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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|I founded The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company and the Tsunami on the Square performing arts festival. As the creative and communications leader of an internationally touring theater company I facilitated cross-cultural exchanges and global seminars, I led teams to success in complex, demanding environments with tight deadlines and competing priorities. I bring people together through events and stories.
My performance work inspires productive discussions and creates experiences and forums to engage, build, and sustain community. Our legislature can be improved by learning to function like an ensemble theater with critical thinking and skillful listening. I want to renew the art of dialogue in our legislature and improve our quality of life. I look forward to serving you.- WATER - We need to enact long term policies that protect Arizona's water supply through conservation, recharge and catchment. Our water policy should be updated to empower the activation of rural management areas so that we increase the stakeholder input in water policy and recognize the necessity of achieving safe yield. This will require lawmakers with the courage to write bills that have consequences for overdrafting and allocate adequate resources to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. We must successfully administer the desired policies of rural management areas through public dialogue, constructive education, efficient measurement and disciplined enforcement. You can't manage what you don't measure!
- PROTECT OUR LAND from toxic mining interests...foreign and domestic. - If I was in the state legislature I would push for laws that give adjacency rights for municipalities to approve or deny mining permits that would impact the quality of life for local citizens. We need to develop fair guidelines for mining companies to pay for the use of our water and financially commit to clean up wastewater from mines. Adequately funding the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is essential. We need our first line of defense to be robust and vigilant so that ADEQ can protect our land against toxic mining interests.
- FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY - The twin pillars of fiscal responsibility are: Don't spend money you don't have and When you have money spend it for the benefit of everyone. Instead of Misappropriations for city rodeos let's fund fire departments so that we can keep our property insurance rates affordable. Let's rein in ESA voucher giveaways so we don't bankrupt our state further. Fair taxation, keep taxes on the working class low and affordable but make sure corporations pay their fair share so we can fund public education, health care, and civic culture.
For further insight into my political philosophy my Master's thesis "Election as Ceremony: Politics and the Art of Transformational Dialogue elaborates on the seven A's that make a successful performing arts residency. Agency, Authenticity, Accuracy, Audacity, Artistry, Audience, Accessibility.
The Seven A's come from the Network of Ensemble Theater's work at defining the conditions that create a high-impact community residency. These were developed by Jerry Strobnicky over a three year period of reviewing performing art community residencies around the USA.
I take these seven principles and apply them to politics because I believe politics at its best activates our capacity to engage community and direct its resources for the benefit of everyone.
Agency is allowing people to determine their own direction.
Authenticity is being true to one self and one's context.
Accuracy is using facts and truth.
Audacity is the willingness to speak truth boldly so that it is heard.
Artistry is sharing your message in a way that catches attention successfully.
Audience is knowing who you are talking to or representing.
Integrity is often seen as an ethical characteristic but I view it as a capacity to take in new information and objectively reflect about one self and one's own views, where one stands and where one has stood. Integrity allows you to integrate new perspectives and experiences while remembering and being accountable for your own actions.
Curiosity is a critical characteristic for growth as it opens the channel for inquiring about the world. It creates the conditions for honest exchanges and aids in overcoming misunderstandings and building trust. If you are curious about someone or something it enables you to learn more.
Listening is an action that requires the temporary suspension of one's own point of view. It opens the pathway to taking in a different viewpoint and understanding and empathizing with someone else, even if there is not agreement. True listening brings a closer understanding to the differences between perspectives and is essential to effective negotiation.
Creating Dialogue is about asking the questions that get people to open up and share their perspective. It is the center piece of action between Integrity, Curiosity, and Listening. When a leader creates dialogue they create a situation for multiple people to listen to one another and develop a common vision.
We are not getting our money's worth from the current legislature. Instead of Mis Appropriations for City Rodeos let's fund fire departments to keep our property insurance rates affordable. Let's rein in ESA Voucher giveaways that threaten to bankrupt our state. Let's make sure the agencies that are tasked to stop toxic mining interests have enough resources to protect our lands.
State legislators are also the guarantors of our rights. Through legislation and legislators our constitutional rights, voting rights, marriage rights, religious rights, water rights, mineral rights, and property rights are protected.
For example legislators write and create the laws that can allow or not allow municipalities to have local control over short term rentals (currently municipalities do not have this right - that is a problem)
They could write laws that allow municipalities to approve or deny mining claims adjacent to municipalities.
The next historical political event that shaped my consciousness was the Iranian hostage crisis. I had to ask myself what were the historical forces at play that created such enmity towards the country I was from.
Currently we have performative politics with the state legislature crafting bills that the governor won't sign because the people who elected the governor don't want extremist bills like banning voting centers or early voting to be approved. It is a waste of human and financial resource to craft bills that are simply 'performative' for pleasing your base.
If there was a willingness on the part of the legislature to listen to the governor and respect the needs of the voters who elected the governor the legislature's time would be more productive serving the needs of Arizonans.
REVENUE - Arizona has an imbalanced tax policy whereby it takes 50% + 1 to cut taxes and 66% plus one to increase taxes. This does not allow flexibility for redressing situations. Because of a recent flat tax cities and towns are receiving less money from the general fund and having to cut services. If the capacity of our state to create revenues is not addressed we are in danger of losing a competitive economic edge through flexibility in response.
You can't manage what you don't measure
Transportation and Infrastructure. In order to meet the challenges of the future we have to be vigilant about energy efficiency and the changing paradigms of transportation. Arizona has unique opportunities through its environment to be a leader in transportation innovation.
Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Local Resources
If we don't have financial transparency and government accountability the social contract that holds democratic republics together starts to unravel. From open meeting law to candidates sharing their tax records there are traditions in our political history that urge transparency and accountability. The Boston Tea Party was a response to Divine King from a distant continent not disclosing where the tax revenues of the colonies went.
Of course the public needs to participate and inform themselves of what their state agencies are doing. If there is not a demand and vigilance for transparency and accountability the worst of human instincts can emerge and initiate grift and corruption.
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Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Candidate Arizona House of Representatives District 1 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 16, 2024