Republican Rick Grinnell formally filed to run for mayor of Tucson as a write-in candidate earlier today.
Grinnell will need to get at least 1,060 Republicans to write his name on their Aug. 30 primary ballots in order for his name to appear on the November general ballot.
He tells The Range he will continue running his lobbying firm, Smart United Business Strategies, while running for mayor.
“I still have to make a living,” he says. “If I won the mayor’s race, then I’d have to step down. I would restructure the company to be able to do certain things. … I could keep the marketing side, but the lobbying would have cease and desist.”
His biggest client is Rosemont Copper, the Canadian firm that plans to dig tons of ore out of Santa Rita Mountains if they can win permission to dump their tailings on U.S. Forest Service land.
Grinnell doesn’t think that his work for Rosemont will be a negative for his mayoral bid.
“The work I do for Rosemont is right in line with the work I do for my company,” Grinnell says. “They’re still a client. I’m still going to advocate for good business positions. I’m still going to advocate for opportunity.”
He added that he has about 12 clients, but he doesn’t plan to reveal their names while he runs for mayor.
“The only ones that would probably be public, because of certain regulations, would be Rosemont,” Grinnell says. “I don’t think that’s an issue. I help people with marketing campaigns. I help them understand the dynamics. I help them with emails and stuff like that.”
Grinnell says most of his work involves marketing for his clients. “There are only a couple that I do political advocacy for,” he explains.
We’ll have more on Grinnell and his campaign in this week’s Skinny, due on newsstands tomorrow!
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.
In my case his support of the Open Pit Copper Mine in the National Forest (Rosemont Augusta) is a definate no vote for him in any political position.
We’ll vote against politician and avoid any business supporting that mine. It would be an incredible blight on the Tucson area that will affect the air, drop the water table in the Sonoita area, and destroy around 3000 acres of pristine wild lands in the Santa Ritas. Because Arizona has a history of copper mining doesn’t mean we have to automatically continue the environmental destruction.
@perspective and azroberth,
Thank you for not voting, now simply return to California….take some friends.
The rest of us have to make a living as we lack your trust fund ethics. When the FBI is doing the bookkeeping for the City of Tucson, it’s time to clean house. We’ve suffered with the RINO droppings long enough. Real business pays it’s own way as opposed to enjoying the free lunch at taxpayer expense.