Kathleen Dunbar says she's not so sure she wants to run for re-election as a Republican for her Tucson City Council seat. In fact, she'd rather have all candidates for the Council run sans party labels.

Her idea may be more a matter of political expediency because it's getting harder to find people n any people n inside the city limits willing to call themselves Republicans. Democrats hold a three-to-two voter registration margin over Republicans. Worse for Republicans, those registering without any party affiliation are getting darned close to outnumbering them.

Arizona may be a red state, but Pima County n especially inside the Tucson city limits n is definitely blue.

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Dunbar stopped short of supporting another idea that's being bandied about: keeping city council elections strictly ward affairs. Currently, candidates are "nominated" in partisan primary elections within the city's six wards but then the candidates run city-wide in the general election. The idea being put forth would keep the council candidates running only within their wards in the general election.

Like that's a good idea.

Tucson already has a problem trying to get anything done because every time there's the slightest noise from a squeaky wheel, our local politicians get preoccupied with trying to quiet it and they seem to lose track of the big picture. If the squeaky wheel doesn't get its way, then it gets even noisier. Then another squeaky wheel hears the noise and they join forces n even though they may have had different issues in the first place.

From there it's all downhill. There's little rational discussion and whatever plan might have been put forth in the first place comes to an abrupt halt.

Nothing happens.

Case in point: transportation.

This metropolitan area is coming dangerously close to choking on its own gridlock. Lots of people complain there's no cross-town freeway, but the city can't get it done. Too many squeaky wheels in neighborhoods would be disrupted. Others in the know say it's too late; plans needed to be made 30 years ago.

Some day there could be plenty of room for a cross-town freeway. As more and more parts of the city lose accessibility, they'll become less desirable and rot away. By then, a freeway could be considered a beautification project for a decaying city.

It's certainly right for elected officials to begin to think of making fundamental changes that will lay the groundwork for decision-making rather than divisiveness. Dunbar's idea of doing away with partisan elections might be a step in the right direction. But doing anything more to fractionalize city government, such as ward-only elections, will clearly doom our future.