Of course, the big news of last week was Regina Romero winning the Democratic primary in the Tucson mayoral race. The other two candidates—Steve Farley and Randi Dorman—had put up a fight, but Romero had the money and the ground game (plus all those people who wrote letters to the Daily Star) and she prevailed.
While most media outlets were focused on the Democratic primary, the other person in the race was making a move that would greatly strengthen his position heading into the general election. For, on that same day, Independent candidate Ed Ackerley went to court and had his name legally changed to NOT Regina Romero. Suddenly, we have a race.
The idea originally came from some research done by one of Romero’s primary opponents. A couple hundred Tucsonans were asked whom they would want to be mayor for the next four years. The most common response was “Not Regina Romero,” followed (distantly) by “Regina Romero.”
This way, the Candidate Formerly Known As Ackerley—who will be outspent by a margin of 20-1 in the election—is giving voters a solid choice.
His strategy is clear: Be the alternative. If they have a debate, he’ll be sure to let her answer each question first (“Oh no, ladies first, please”) so that he can take the opposite tack. And if they make him go first, he’ll wing it. “So, what would you do about the amortization of the bonds that were issued for capital outlays by the tripartite commission for road and street improvements?”
“Well, as you know, I’m NOT Regina Romero…”
I first met him back in the early 1990s, when he was simply Ed Ackerley. He and I were seated next to each other under the basket in McKale Center about 10 feet away from a behemoth named Shaquille O’Neal. I was there to cover the Arizona-LSU game for a national publication. Ed was there to add a bit of the It factor to the night’s proceedings. (Those seats used to be available to members of the media, especially on nights of big games. But then somebody realized that they could sell those seats for huge fees to high rollers.)
He introduced himself and I did a double-take. I had just come from a high-school basketball practice conducted by Brian Peabody (who is now the men’s coach at Pima Community College). One of Brian’s players was a kid named Ed Ackerley. I thought it was crazy, but apparently Ed Ackerley in Tucson is like Zhang Wei in Beijing.
We had a good time watching the game. Late in the game, with the UA comfortably ahead, Wildcat big man Sean Rooks told O’Neal that he wasn’t going to win the game that night. O’Neal just smiled and said, “That’s OK. I’m going to be the Number One draft pick.” And he was.
I would see Ackerley over the years. He does a lot of charity work. He’s on this board and that committee. I see him every year at McKale Center, working with the immortal Herman House in putting on the Martin Luther King Day Basketball Classic.
But now he’s going for the big time and he’s pulling out all the stops. He owns his own ad agency and has a bunch of slick tricks up his sleeve. You may have noticed billboards going up around town the past couple weeks. They have one word in giant letters, “NOT…” There have been features on the evening news trying to figure out the origin of the billboards but Ackerley had covered his tracks. Just last night, he released his first TV spot, a serious-looking montage of faces—young African-Americans, elderly Latinos, Asians, college students, construction workers, nurses, and teachers. At the end, it shows the candidate and the voice-over says, “We’re all Tucsonans. We’re all in this together. And we all have one big thing in common. We’re all NOT Regina Romero.”
He also has pioneered a new mini-spot that is run on radio, TV and various social media platforms. They’re 10-second bites, featuring a quick Q&A. One voice will ask, “Who can fix Tucson’s roads?” And another voice will answer “NOT Regina Romero!”
I don’t live in the City of Tucson so I can’t vote in the election. But it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch. Romero has paid her dues as a member of the City Council. She shows up for meetings and votes on stuff. She makes appearances at neighborhood functions, schmoozes with the right people, and networks with important pols and queenmakers. But, she also has some breathtaking negatives. There will always be a significant number of people who don’t like her politics, which are kinda out there. But it’s absolutely amazing how many people simply don’t like her, regardless of her politics.
Ackerley, with no party to back him and almost no money, could still win maybe 30 percent of the vote, based entirely on the very strong perception that Regina Romero is just another cog in the Raúl Grijalva Machine.
And now we’ve got a sprint to the finish. By the evening of Nov. 5, we should know the results. The next mayor of Tucson will be Regina Romero…or NOT.■
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2019.
Ackerly ought to start with the basics.
1.) Promising to crack seal all the streets. Tucson has less than 3,000 miles of roadway but they have over 300,000 miles of unsealed cracks in those streets. Unsealed cracks propagate to potholes. Once you get all those streets crack sealed the first time, all it takes is four 4 man minimum wage crews to keep them sealed. Tucson has an annual revenues of over $550 million pouring into their general fund. They don’t have a couple hundred grand a year to keep their streets from falling apart?
This is not a small problem for Tucson. Premier business parks have pavement cracks so old they are no longer cracks, they are crevasses. Tucson is an unpleasant city to drive in because its roadways are in such bad shape.
2.) Promise to track happiness. Longitudinal surveys show that modern technology has left people unhappy. Last time they did a survey, only 10% of Tucson residents rated their neighborhood an excellent place to raise a child. Merge both of these into the concept of happiness. The idea that not only should Tucsonians be happy with Tucson government, they should be happy in general. Seize the idea that the Mayor and city can make a difference in both realms. Tucson city government is regarded by its residents as being the worst managed city in Arizona, only 8% rated its performance excellent. In the pursuit of happiness that Jefferson promised, Tucson is just about in last place.
3.) Tucson has one of the highest murder rates and overall violent and property crime rates in the country. Bratten has not only written the book he has two different large city implementations on how you overcome the forces of poverty to deliver safety to at-risk communities. Promise to implement it.
People want their Mayor to deliver benefits. Romero implicitly promises corrupt benefits, the dispensation of largess out of a billion dollar general fund to interest groups. Ackerley has to promise beneficial results that citizens can visualize.
To overcome the corruption of Tucson city government, Ackerley is going to have to be a guerrilla campaigner. four by four campaign signs in the city, four by 8 foot signs on every roadway in Arizona.
Tucsonians drive everywhere.
All he’s accomplishing is publicizing her name to those who haven’t heard of her. Whatever happened to the old political rule of not mentioning your opponent by name?
After the primary election, both of the unsuccessful Democratic candidates, Randi Dorman and Steve Farley, said that they would support the winner, Regina Romero. Which of those two candidates supplied Ed Ackerley with the negative research on Regina Romero? Tom Danehy probably knows if it was Steve Farley or Randi Dorman, and if he doesn’t know, he can easily find out. Then he needs to print it in the Tucson Weekly.
This is a childish tactic by Ed Ackerley, appealing to voters least informed instincts. I would like to see leaders in both the Pima County Democratic Party and the Pima County GOP condemn this foolishness, and donors should avoid a candidate who is this small.
Both Jim Nintzel and Tom Danehy in their Weekly columns today, managed to snub Regina Romero’s accomplishments, political savvy and connection with Tucson voters, attributing her victory to outside money and to paraphrase, either it’s the year of the woman or the year of the brown person. Gentlemen, wake up and quit being so patronizing. Try talking with some Regina Romero supporters, if you can get out of your bubble.
Why? They don’t live or vote here. Or do they?
Regina Romero has committed her heart and soul to better the lives of her fellow Tucsonans. That is why I supported her in the primary and will continue to do so in the general election.