Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll is the talk of the town this week as Green Valley News editor Dan Shearer writes that the five-term Republican may be ready to call it quits. 

Carroll’s career on the Board of Supervisors began when he was appointed to the District 4 seat way back in 1997. Carroll, who represents the Tanque Verde Valley, Green Valley and Mount Lemmon areas, has faced various challenges at the ballot box through the years, but has swatted them away with little trouble.

Carroll’s politics are not easy to categorize. He’s often opposed county tax increases—he’s been named a “Hero of the Taxpayers” by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers on multiple occasions—and he’s never voted in favor of a county budget. He’s been generally supportive of the business community, but he’s also led the county’s opposition to the proposed Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains. He campaigned in favor of last year’s bond package, which was soundly rejected by voters.

Reached by phone today, Carroll told the Weekly that he has “heard the rumors” that he won’t seek reelection but plans to announce his intentions on Friday afternoon.

Over the last four years, Carroll has frequently tangled with fellow Republican Supervisor Ally Miller, an often-unhinged county critic who has accused Carroll of corruption and betrayal of Republican values. Supporters of Miller regularly castigate Carroll, his fellow supervisors and Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry at the board meeting’s call to the audience segment and on online blogs.

An ally of Miller, Marla Closen, has been assembling a campaign to challenge Carroll later this year. District 4 is a heavily Republican district where the GOP primary is likely to determine the future supervisor.

Here’s a piece on Carroll’s first run for office by the late and great Chris Limberis and a look at his last last reelection race by me.

This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2016.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

12 replies on “Is Pima County Supe Ray Carroll Calling It Quits?”

  2. You don’t actually read the posts, do you? Try it sometime. You might, just might, find that there’s something in there that will prevent your comments from sounding completely ridiculous.

  3. His replacement needs to be Marla Closen. It’s time for good change in PC!

    MarlaClosenforSupervisor.com

  4. Hey youdon’tknow – I’ve been a constituent of Carroll for his entire time. Maybe someday you’ll grow the ability to get information from more than one source.

  5. Carroll is becoming a rarity: a moderate Republican who cares about his constituents.
    Today there are mostly two types of Republicans: radical unhinged nutjobs, and those who work as the legislative arm of corporate America and just use the nutjobs to get elected every couple of years.

  6. I have supported Ray Carroll for years. He’s a pond of common sense in a sea of know-nothings. Why hasn’t he gone to the legislature (it needs help) or the Congress (ditto).

  7. I hope the rumor is false but suspect it’s true. Ray is a good man and an honorable public servant and, given the demographics of District 4, I would hope a reasonable Republican would step up to run. If none does, it behooves the Democrats to run a candidate who will have a chance of winning. The county and the district do not need an ally of Ally on the board.

  8. I got to be quite friendly with Ray when I was still with the County. He even bought me a beer at an Ice Cat game once, despite my N.Y. Rangers jersey. ( He’s a big Blackhawks fan). I’ve never seen a person change as much as Ray did over the years. He became aloof and snooty. I suspect he caught it from the other clowns on the Board. That or the power just went to his head. All I know is that something sure changed the man. The Ray that first started working there was not the same Ray by the time I retired.

  9. Marla Closen has been registered in this race since last summer, and her campaign has been “assembled” for over six months now ( marlaclosenforsupervisor.com) . The only one in the race with enough courage of conviction to challenge a 19 year incumbent, she has been attending the Board of Supervisor’s meetings for over a year and learning county issues. She is an engineer, former construction management business owner, and Navy Combat veteran. In addition to her excellent technical and business skills and leadership ability, she also has a brain and can think for herself, which means she can vote what is best for Pima County taxpayers: something that has not happened under Mr. Carroll’s leadership for quite some time.

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