GIVEN WHO'S LINING up to take his job, Ed Moore would seem to have woman problems. Of course, that's just the start of Moore's problems. The only supervisor he can get along with anymore is District 4's Paul Marsh. He's angered the neighborhoods and the greens by voting for virtually all the rezonings that have come before him. He's pissed off the builders, his traditional financial supporters, with his support of Proposition 200 in last year's city election, which shut down direct delivery of the CAP for at least five years. Over his three terms, Moore has dominated the local political scene. From unfavorably comparing City Councilwoman Janet Marcus to a stalk of celery to purging the upper echelons of county government after his re-election in 1992 (a "cost-cutting" move that cost the county about $4 million in legal fees and settlements), Moore has made headlines more often than any other local politician. Now Moore, who was first elected as a Democrat only to later join the Republican Party, has bolted from the GOP to run as an independent. Moore has told The Weekly he's decided to run a "stealth campaign" because "the people who fought against Prop 200 have aligned themselves behind a candidate in the primary election." Moore is talking about Vicki Cox-Golder, a real estate agent who's served two terms on the Amphi School Board. Politically ambitious (she served as a co-chairman on Moore's 1992 campaign), Cox-Golder has been preparing for this race for a long time. She's already collected more than $38,000, mostly from real estate and education interests. "Those are industries I've been involved with for many, many years," says Cox-Golder, defending her contributors list. "I think I'd be worried if they weren't giving to my campaign." Without Moore in the primary, the 27,000 Republicans in District 3 will choose between Cox-Golder and Ann Holden, an accountant who took an unsuccessful stab at the Ward 3 City Council seat in 1993. Cox-Golder denies she deserves the cementhead label her opponents have tagged her with; in her speeches, she goes as far as to say current residents shouldn't shoulder the cost of growth. But she also doesn't like the idea of impact fees. "I'm in the real estate industry," she says. "I concern myself with affordable housing." Opponent Holden is less excited about growth in Tucson. "The way I see it, growth has controlled Tucson for the last two decades," Holden says. "Now it's time for someone to take control of growth." Holden says the board's impact fee "was not enough. I also am concerned that they only picked that northwest corridor rather than looking at the entire county.... It's really not sufficient." Holden wants to see stiffer impact fees, fewer rezonings and an end to growth subsidies. But while she's clear-spoken on the issues, she's found herself frozen out on the fundraising circuit. She doesn't have the money Cox-Golder has, but she does have one ace in her camp--campaign consultant Emil Franzi, The Weekly's own political piranha, who helped get Moore elected in the first place (as a Democrat) way back in 1984. The winner of the GOP primary will face both Moore and Democrat Sharon Bronson, a political strategist taking her first stab at public office. The three candidates will compete for voters in a district that includes both the fast-growing northwestern area of town and rural constituents stretching west all the way to Ajo. Although the 35,000 Democrats in District 3 make up more than 47 percent of the registered voters (GOP registration is about 38 percent), nearly 15 percent of the voters aren't registered with either party. All three candidates will be fiercely courting those 11,000-plus voters. For all their differences, the three women running for Moore's seat do agree on one thing: Ed Moore has got to go. They say Moore is disruptive, egomaniacal and an embarassment. Moore, for his part, is unapologetic about his record. "I have done nothing that has not been to the benefit of this county," Moore says, "and that is what really irritates the business community."

 
 

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