Thank goodness and the Tucson Fire Department that Sharon Bronson survived being swept into the ominously named Cemetery Wash.
The Pima County supervisor’s experience Tuesday shows again how easy it is to get caught in a wash filling with storm water. If even Bronson, a veteran of driving western Pima County’s back roads, can end up pinned against a culvert, any of us can.
“Even though we’re seasoned drivers, events overtake us,” she told me Thursday. “Sometimes, as much as we think we control things, we don’t.”
Still, you can expect her explanation of the incident to enter the debate in the District 3 supervisor’s race. That’s in part because Bronson was driving a county-owned, 2014 Ford Escape. Also, her opponent, Republican Kim DeMarco has signaled via two Facebook posts that she doesn’t really believe Bronson’s explanation of the incident.
On Wednesday, DeMarco wrote: “I will be willing to come down to the tow yard and do the investigation myself. I am sorry, but her statement seems a little late and an attempt to cover up her bad judgment.”
In an exchange of messages, DeMarco wouldn’t tell me if she is going to use the incident further in her campaign.
Bronson said she had turned from North Oracle Road east onto a flooded Fort Lowell Road when she felt something bump the vehicle. Thursday, she told me it was probably floating debris.
In response to the bad conditions on Fort Lowell, she said, she turned south onto North Balboa Avenue, the next north-south street to the east of Oracle. There, she was unable to brake and ended up driving the 75 yards or so into the wash, which was rising.
On Thursday, she told me she lost power, which allowed the car to coast into the wash. (The Cemetery Wash, by the way, apparently takes its name from the Evergreen Cemetery, which it passes through just west of North Oracle Road.)
The document she filed with the county explaining the incident was extremely short on details. Considering that Bronson was driving a county-owned vehicle, it’s fair to ask what exactly happened.
Are there marks of anything having bumped the rear of the car? Do the brakes appear to have been stuck? What happened to the electrical system.
Mark Evans, the Pima County spokesman, told me they’re still evaluating the vehicle. They don’t even know yet if it’s a total loss.
Bronson, thankfully is not. But her campaign? It may take a few dings, depending on how events unfold. Or DeMarco may, depending on how she handles this.
She said on her Facebook page: “If the evidence shows that her statement is true then I will be the first to apologize.”
Gowan quits, endorses Kiehne for Congress
The state of the race has been clear in Congressional District 1’s GOP primary for some weeks. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is the leader, the polls say, with somewhere north of 30 percent. Gary Kiehne has been in second place, with somewhere around 20 percent.
David Gowan? He’s barely registered, with less than 5 percent support in polls.
So it was not a huge surprise that Gowan suspended his campaign Thursday. The man who embarrassed Southern Arizona as speaker of the House will have to find another line of work soon.
What was surprising was his take-down of the leading candidate, Babeu.
“For all of our various differences, what every other candidate in this race can agree on is that Paul Babeu must not be our nominee if we are to prevail in November. The baggage he brings to the race simply cannot survive the millions of dollars that the Democrats will bring to this race,” Gowan’s news release says.
Gowan also asked that other conservatives in the race bow out and endorse Kiehne. His objective now, it seems, is to beat Babeu. And also to beat the rap as the Arizona Attorney General’s Office investigates possible misuse of state vehicles for campaign purposes.
The other Republican candidates remaining in the race are Ken Bennett, Wendy Rogers and Shawn Redd.
‘Spanish/Mexican’ angers mayor
Don’t talk with Huachuca City’s mayor about binational cooperation.
It emerged Thursday that Mayor Ken Taylor grew enraged at John Cook, the former mayor of El Paso, for sending him a message that was written in English with a Spanish translation.
Never mind that the message was intended for a group of mayors from Mexico and the United States, people who speak both languages.
Perhaps Taylor’s most embarrassing line: “I will NOT attend a function that is sent to me in Spanish/Mexican. One nation means one language and I am insulted by the division caused by language.”
Cook noted near the end of the exchange his work is a five-minute walk from the border and added: “Speaking and writing in Spanish is not giving up our sovereignty. I have been blessed to learn three foreign languages. It makes me no less an American, just a better educated one.”
Mexico and the border don’t just represent problems — that’s a lesson too many angry Americans, even border-area mayors, have yet to learn.
TUSD: Can’t speak to board without address
When DA Morales addressed the TUSD board meeting Tuesday night, he brought a lot of history.
Morales has been one of the most persistent critics of Board Chair Adelita Grijalva since the Mexican-American Studies flare-up of 2011.
When he tried to speak at the call-to-the-audience portion of the meeting, Grijalva asked for his address, information that the board requires speakers give.
He said “1010 E. 10th St.” That’s the address of the TUSD offices.
When he refused to give a valid address and kept speaking into the microphone, Grijalva had him removed.
These are tricky areas in that it is a board policy, not state law, under which speakers are asked to give their address. If applied fairly, the rule doesn’t seem offensive.
In any case, the conflict that has lasted for years won’t end there. Opponents of Grijalva and the board majority plan to flood the next meeting with speakers who do not offer their addresses.
