Off and Running

As we note in “Who Gives a Crap?” most Tucsonans aren’t going to
show much interest in this year’s City Council races.

But if you’re among those rare political junkies who have an
interest in the management of this baked burg, here are a few points to
keep in mind.

Tucson remains a Democratic stronghold. The roughly 106,000
Democrats hold a formidable registration advantage over the roughly
59,000 Republicans. In fact, GOP voters in Tucson are actually
outnumbered by 69,000 voters who have no party preference or who
identify with a third party.

But the Republican slate has plenty of material they can use to
hammer the Democratic candidates. Look for the Republicans to sharply
criticize spending on Rio Nuevo and complain about the council’s
decision to raise utility taxes and water rates. They’ll also embrace a
proposed initiative to spend more on cops and firefighters.

The GOP’s best hope for victory: Hammer the incumbent Democrats as
incompetent, in an effort to discourage Democrats in the central city
from going to the polls; meanwhile, push Republicans on the city’s
eastside to get out on Election Day.

Republicans have successfully used that strategy in the past, but
it’s only worked with open seats and candidates who had the benefit of
big name ID or a Democratic Party splintered by a fractious primary.
And while Republicans can tap a growing mood of anti-incumbent
sentiment, they still have serious problems with their own brand.

Here’s how the races are shaping up.

In Ward 3, Karin Uhlich was swept into office in 2005 on a blue wave
of Democratic resentment toward Republican Councilwoman Kathleen
Dunbar. On the campaign trail four years ago, Uhlich complained that
Dunbar had raised too many fees without enough public input—but
as the economic slowdown has squeezed Tucson’s budget, Uhlich herself
has had to embrace higher fees for trash collection, water service,
utilities, and parks and recreation programs.

Uhlich’s biggest impact on the city came earlier this year, when she
joined with three of her fellow council members to dismiss the city
manager, Mike Hein, because she had lost “trust and confidence” in
him.

Uhlich has a progressive background, having spent nine years as the
executive director of the Primavera Foundation, an organization that
provides shelter, job-training and other support for the homeless. In
addition to her council job, she also serves as the executive director
of the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, an organization that
helps people find firm financial footing and combats the payday-loan
industry.

While she has downplayed rumors that she’s considering a mayoral run
two years from now, she also won’t pledge to serve all four years of
her term if she wins in November.

Uhlich has drawn a challenge from Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia, who
came to Tucson from Springerville, Ariz., to study criminal justice at
the University of Arizona. After he started working on his degree,
Buehler-Garcia decided he didn’t want to be a police officer and found
himself drawn to the intersection between business and politics. He
landed a job at the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, where he
worked for more than a decade before becoming a consultant.

As a community activist, Buehler-Garcia has been involved in local
efforts to keep the Pentagon from closing Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,
preserve spring-training baseball and mentor youth.

Buehler-Garcia complains that Tucson’s crime problems are growing,
that small businesses are struggling with too much government
interference, and that the City Council is raising taxes instead of
cutting spending. He says the city needs to develop a new push for
international trade.

“Tucson reminds me of a child who should be getting A’s in school,
but keeps bringing home C’s and D’s,” says Buehler-Garcia. “That is the
frustration. Tucson is an amazing city with great potential that
remains unfulfilled.”

In Ward 6, incumbent Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, a former television
reporter and public-relations guru, also tapped into Democratic anger
when she defeated Republican Fred Ronstadt four years ago.

After taking office, Trasoff faced many of the same problems that
she criticized Ronstadt for failing to correct. Rio Nuevo redevelopment
moved slowly, and a major deal with developers apparently fell apart
just last week. Trasoff, who once promised to reduce the city’s
trash-collection fee, voted instead to increase it this year. And she’s
had to backtrack on promises to reduce other city fees as the city’s
budget woes have increased.

Trasoff has drawn an aggressive challenge from Republican Steve
Kozachik, who is making his first bid for public office. As an
associate director for facilities and project management with the
University of Arizona Athletics Department, Kozachik spearheaded the
recent development of the Richard Jefferson Gymnasium and the expansion
of the aquatics facilities.

“I’m tired of seeing our taxpayer money get wasted with nothing to
show for it,” Kozachik says. “I do this kind of stuff for a living. …
They’re just not getting it done.”

Kozachik promises to spur downtown redevelopment, spend more city
dollars on police, and support “accountability and
transparency—things that at other times might sound like empty
political rhetoric, but in this case, it’s not. There have been too
many behind-closed-doors deals.”

Kozachik is showing little mercy in his campaign. He pounced last
week after the morning daily reported that the city had spent $820,000
on a 12-minute video touting Tucson’s history. The film was supposed to
be shown at the historical museum built downtown as part of Rio Nuevo,
but that project is now on hold.

“That thing should have cost, maximum, $30,000,” Kozachik says.
“Maximum. And it should have used local talent. We have a ton of guys
here in Tucson who could have done that job in a heartbeat. Absolutely,
that was a waste of money.”

Trasoff caught a break last week when Green Party candidate Dave
Croteau withdrew from the race. Croteau, who got 28 percent of the vote
in a mayoral race against Republican Bob Walkup (who faced no
Democratic opponent in his third bid for mayor) two years ago, could
have drained some of Trasoff’s support on the left had he remained in
the race.

Croteau quit the race after Jeff Rogers, a local attorney and
chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party, filed a lawsuit to knock
the Green candidate off the ballot.

Rogers says that Croteau failed to turn in the seven valid
signatures he needed to make the ballot. Of the nine signatures that
Croteau submitted, five of them were from Green Party members who live
outside of Ward 6, Rogers claims.

“If you can’t get seven valid signatures, you’re probably not
somebody we want on the City Council,” Rogers says.

In Ward 5, City Councilman Steve Leal is stepping down after 20
years on the Tucson City Council. The open southside seat has attracted
only one Democrat, Richard Fimbres, 54, who has a long political
history in Ward 5.

In 2002, he was tapped by Democrat Janet Napolitano to head up the
Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Before that, he spent two decades
working in an administrative position for Pima County Sheriff Clarence
Dupnik.

On the side, Fimbres has served on the Pima Community College
governing board since 1997, although he plans to resign if elected.

He’s gathered a long list of awards, including being named Man of
the Year by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 2002, and
National Man of the Year by the League of United Latin American
Citizens in 2001.

Fimbres scared off potential Democratic challengers with a team of
supporters that includes Dan Eckstrom, the former Pima County
supervisor; Ramón Valadez, Eckstrom’s successor on the Pima
County Board of Supes; Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik; former
Tucson Mayor George Miller; and Leal himself.

He’ll face the winner of a rare GOP primary in Ward 5 that puts
Shaun McClusky against Judith Gomez.

A Chicago native, McClusky, 37, worked for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Country Club before joining the Air Force. In 1999, he was stationed at
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. He served four years as an A-10 crew
chief and then, after some knee trouble, worked in combat
communications.

Following an honorable discharge, he stayed in Tucson and sold cars
for Jim Click before going into real estate. He’s now the owner of
Rincon Ventures, a property-management and real-estate firm.

McClusky says he got into the race because “there’s an opportunity
for a little bit of diversity on the City Council at this time, and the
seat became available, and it’s one that needs to be filled so we can
get a little bit of a different look going forward so we can change the
path that the city’s been traveling on.”

Like the other Republicans, McClusky is stressing the need for
better police funding, improving downtown redevelopment and reducing
the regulatory burdens on local businesses.

Gomez, 27, took a break from her fledgling career in banking and
bookkeeping to raise her three children, work as a portrait
photographer and pursue a dream of writing novels. About six months
ago, she went back to work for Chase Bank.

She says she got into the Ward 5 race because she “was tired of
waiting for somebody else to do it. You wait so long for someone to
stand up and be the voice for you and for your family. Like my
grandmother always says, if you want something done, you do it
yourself.”

Gomez says she’s struggled with her political identity until
recently concluding that she feels most at home with the Republican
Party.

“I believe in smaller government,” Gomez says. “I believe that
people who work should be the ones who prosper. I don’t believe the
government should ever have the right to step in and tell me the best
way for my money to be spent.”

Ward 5 Republicans will have to look hard to find differences
between Gomez and McClusky on the issues. She also supports more
spending on police, faults the current council for the slow progress of
Rio Nuevo, wants to help small businesses prosper, and says that
“getting the budget under control is imperative.”

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.