Jay Tolkoff

Jay Tolkoff

Republican Party

Candidate, Tucson City Council Ward 6

Elections and appointments

Next election

November 4, 2025

Personal

Profession

Entrepreneur

Contact

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Jay Tolkoff (Republican Party) is running for election to the Tucson City Council to represent Ward 6 in Arizona. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. He advanced from the Republican primary on August 5, 2025.

Tolkoff completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2025

See also: City elections in Tucson, Arizona (2025)

General election

General election for Tucson City Council Ward 6

Miranda Schubert and Jay Tolkoff are running in the general election for Tucson City Council Ward 6 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Miranda Schubert (D)
		Jay Tolkoff (R)

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Tucson City Council Ward 6

Miranda Schubert defeated Leighton Rockafellow Jr. and James Sinex in the Democratic primary for Tucson City Council Ward 6 on August 5, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Miranda Schubert	65.7	6,376
		Leighton Rockafellow Jr.	30.2	2,931
		James Sinex	3.8	365
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	27

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 9,699
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Theresa Riel (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Tucson City Council Ward 6

Jay Tolkoff advanced from the Republican primary for Tucson City Council Ward 6 on August 5, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jay Tolkoff	96.4	1,622
		Other/Write-in votes	3.6	61

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,683
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

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Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jay Tolkoff completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Tolkoff's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Jay Tolkoff grew up in a small town in New Jersey. He dedicated much of his youth to his love of listening to and performing music. After graduating high school, Jay worked to pay his living expenses and tuition at a community college where he studied engineering and music theory.

At age 20, Jay enrolled in the engineering college at the University of AZ and moved to Tucson. While at Arizona, Jay took a part-time job as one of the first drivers for Domino's Pizza in AZ. Offered the opportunity to open and manage the second Domino's Pizza in the state. Jay decided to take a break from college for this new challenge, which eventually turned into a 14 year career. As an integral part of the companies development, Jay eventually left the company after an ownership change with the position of acting president in charge of over 400 people.

During his time with Domino's, Jay's love of music led him to KXCI FM, a local community radio station on the verge of financial collapse. He spent three years volunteering first as a board member and soon becoming the president where he oversaw the necessary changes which allows KXCI to continue to be on the air 36 years later.

After Domino's, Mr. Tolkoff got married, had one son and started and owned three successful businesses.

Now retired, Mr. Tolkoff has the time, skills, wisdom, and drive to help Tucson become a place where all it's citizens can reach their full potential and thrive.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Ensuring effective and efficient governance. Jay comes from the business world where budgets matter and results are crucial. He will bring that same mindset to city government and make sure every dollar we spend creates value for the people of Tucson. Tucson is blessed with wonderful weather, natural beauty, and a relative lack of natural disasters. We can use our resources more wisely and be better stewards of the land we occupy while taking better care of all the members of our community. Mr. Tolkoff believes that our budget is sufficient to adequately fund our first responders, maintain our roads and walkways and keep our parks in safe and usable conditions, while maintaining the necessary, social safety nets so important at this time.
• Develop smarter solutions to the problem of homelessness and housing affordability. Our current city policies deal with the symptoms of homelessness, and does not address the root causes that results in people being unsheltered. In the business world, Mr. Tolkoff would routinely say, "we need to focus on solving the problems not solving symptoms." Jay believes we should be committing resources to the root causes of homelessness, rather than just spending millions of dollars to put roofs over the heads of those less fortunate. We must take all available steps to promote and minimize the cost of building new homes while preserving the integrity of our neighborhoods and preventing urban sprawl.
• Protect and prioritize our environment, the place we call home. When we think about the environment, we typically consider the mountains, the trees, the oceans, the air, we breathe and the water we drink. But the environment also includes our streets, our parks, the washes and all the areas that surround us. Jay believes taking care of the environment includes making sure our streets are well-maintained and safe for everyone, our park are clean and available to all and the washes should be free from litter and trash. Jay will advocate for your tax dollars to be adequately dedicated to make those be beliefs a reality.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Jay wants to see the city council adequately address the core responsibilities as set forth in the city charter. Providing a safe and secure environment for the citizens of Tucson is a priority. Maintaining our infrastructure benefits everyone. City government should also foster an environment where people have an economic opportunity to reach their full potential. We need to protect our limited and valuable water resources, and ensure that it is safe to drink.

of course, we always must be mindful of the impact human activity has on our world and take appropriate steps to mitigate that impact on our world.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My father, a man with unquestionable integrity, morals and honesty. He instilled in me a Conscience.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

An elected official needs to be an effective communicator capable of listening and hearing, an excellent manager, a good decision maker, fair, unbiased, open minded, ethical and moral. Elected officials must be able to get things done.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Building a business is about building a community. of course, it's a community made up mostly of employees, but nonetheless, each one of those employees works voluntarily. The qualities needed to build a successful business communityeasily lend themselves to be a successful council person

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The responsibilities for the office, I wish to hold are spelled out in our city charter

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The assassination of President Kennedy at the age of six.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Started delivering newspapers at age 10, and continued until the start of high school

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

No

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the local government?

This position leads and directs the entire city government

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Mr. Tolkoff believes that transparency is essential. As a public official, the primary duty is to the people who empower the elected official. a member of the city Council is charged with the responsibility of holding the government accountable to the citizens.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Tucson City Council Ward 6

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