Tim Steller's Political Notebook: Mystery reporter appears, disappears

In Pima County’s latest political caper, an upstart news organization appeared online last week, sent out a few emails to candidates on Sunday, then suddenly disappeared this week.

The emails related to Supervisor Ally Miller’s recently released road-repair plan. And the editor-in-chief of the short-lived publication appears to have close connections to a Miller staffer, or is the staffer’s alter ego.

Last week, an online persona named Jim Falken began making “friend” connections with Pima County politicos and journalists on Facebook. He identified himself as senior reporter and chief editor of the Arizona Daily Herald. I received one of those Facebook requests.

On May 12, Falken also requested to be put on the mailing list for Pima County press releases, saying in an online message: “I am the editor of newly founded paper and would like to stay informed with the workings of your office. Sincere Regards, Jim Falken Editor of the Arizona Daily Herald”

Then on Saturday, Miller’s campaign released her proposal to pay for road repairs. The next day, Sunday, Jim Falken got down to journalistic work. He emailed the campaigns of Republican candidates for supervisor Steve Christy, Marla Closen and John Winchester. Subject line: “Statement Requested Regarding Supervisor Miller’s Road Plan.”

Here’s how the email to Christy’s campaign went:

Hi,

Over this weekend, Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller has released a proposed plan she says will fix Pima County’s roads. The details of her plan include extending the RTA, dedicating 50% of its revenue to road repair instead of road creation, halting the issuance of 1997 road bonds, and allocating all HURF monies to go towards road repairs. Supervisor Miller says that none of the RTA’s funds are going towards road/pavement repair. The full plan has been attached to this email in a PDF format.

We are aware you are one of the Republican contenders for the Pima County Supervisor seat in District 4, and we would like a statement from you in response to Supervisor Miller’s proposed “plan.” Do you believe the conditions of roads in Pima County should be a major issue for the 2016 election? If so, do you support Supervisor Miller’s plan or do you have your own proposal? If so, please elaborate on how you plan to fix Pima County roads.

Sincerely Yours,

Jim Falken | Senior Reporter/Chief Editor

The emails to Closen’s campaign and Winchester’s were similar. All the recipients found them fishy.

“Anyone who wants to talk to me usually contacts me by phone,” said Winchester, who is challenging Miller in the Republican primary for the District 1 seat. “It’s usually personal, not random email.”

Beth Borozan, Christy’s campaign director, said “I immediately clicked on the link. There was a WordPress (a blogging platform) shell with no content and no contact information.”

She checked on when the Azdailyherald.com website had been established — about a week before, on May 7.

Said Closen: “I clicked on the Herald and realized it wasn’t a newspaper.”

Winchester began scouring the Internet for references to Falken. It wasn’t hard to find connections between Jim Falken and Timothy DesJarlais, a young member of Miller’s Pima County staff who is also running for Marana school board.

DesJarlais, who did not return my emails or phone calls seeking comment, has for years played around online with a fictional republic, apparently named after the street where he lives. He had called himself the president of said republic, created a national anthem and otherwise had fun with this new country.

Eventually, DesJarlais reported that Jim Falken had deposed him as president of the republic. DesJarlais even delivered a Thanksgiving Day address to the republic, published on YouTube, under the name Jim Falken, back in 2014. DesJarlais’ picture also was featured on the Twitter page of Jim Falken.

The story started circulating this week, and Tuesday evening Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel contacted DesJarlais about Falken and the Arizona Daily Herald. Soon after, Jim Falken started disappearing from the Internet. His Thanksgiving address, his Twitter feed, the Facebook character who had asked to be my friend — all gone.

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Miller told me Thursday that she asked DesJarlais if he had sent out the emails, and he said no.

“He thinks that someone took that name and sent those emails,” Miller said. “He was very adamant.”

Theft 1: Trump signs

For months, Nadia Larsen has been putting up Trump campaign signs on her East River Road property. And for months, they’ve been disappearing.

After the last theft, a couple of weeks ago, the count is up to 32 signs stolen, she said. Neighbors have witnessed some thefts, but so far the Pima County Sheriff’s Department hasn’t been able to catch the thief or thieves.

“I put up 5, 6, 7 at a time,” Larsen told me Thursday.

It takes more work, and risk, to pull out six signs than to pull out one.

Whenever signs are stolen, Larsen simply asks for more. But, of course, that costs the campaign money. And, c’mon — in what world is it OK to steal a campaign sign from someone’s private property?

Theft 2:  Campaign checks

It was a crazy legislative session, and Rep. Stefanie Mach, D-Tucson, ended up staying in Phoenix for a couple of weekends.

Unfortunately, one of those weekends, in late April or early May, is when her special-election ballot and campaign checkbooks arrived in her mailbox. Neither made it into her home.

Someone passed about $4,000 in checks before Mach was able to catch up to the crime. She called her bank, had those checks canceled and has had part of the money returned already, with the rest of it to return soon.

“It’s not the worst thing that could have happened,” she said. “I’m not really spending a lot right now.”

Trump the next Reagan?

The impending nomination of Donald Trump has put some Republican leaders in a pickle: They’re not comfortable with him as the GOP candidate, but they feel obligated to respect the voters’ choice.

Who knows if that’s how Robert Graham, the chairman of Arizona’s GOP, feels inside? But he put his best into a defense of Trump in a column published in TownHall.com this week. Its title: “Is Trump a Modern Reagan?”

Now, it’s easy to simply answer, “No” and move on. But it’s interesting to watch Graham make his case, which centers on the news media underestimating the two candidates during their campaigns. But Graham doesn’t sound thoroughly convinced about Trump near the end of his piece either:

“In a government of We the People, I think conservatives should think about the stakes,” Graham writes. “People can change. People can surround themselves with quality advisers, and there are many similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan at this stage of the campaign.”