After nearly 20 years serving on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Ray Carroll said it’s time to return to private life.
“I won’t run,” Carroll said. “I’m hanging up my spurs from politics.”
Carroll, 54, confirmed Friday afternoon that he won’t seek a sixth term representing District 4 on the Board of Supervisors. Carroll said he hoped to renew his career in the private sector.
“No one has ever had more fun as I have as a politician,” Carroll said during a Friday afternoon news conference that confirmed what had been circulating on social media this week.
From chicago’s South Side to the desert Southwest
Carroll grew up an ardent Catholic and Democrat on Chicago’s south side.
He moved to Denver after high school to attend Regis University, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy and religious cultures in 1984.
Before entering the public sector, Carroll worked as a car salesman, insurance agent and commercial real estate broker.
He also served as foundation manager for Casa de los Niños.
Carroll and his wife Ann have three adult children.
“I’m proud to say that my wife and I have raised three fine children under the watchful eye of this community,” Carroll said.
In the mid-1990s, Carroll switched his party affiliation to Republican before eyeing a career in politics.
After the sudden death of Pima County Supervisor John Even in 1997, Carroll was appointed to the Board of Supervisors.
He won the seat outright in 1998, claiming 79 percent of the vote against a Libertarian challenger.
Carroll ran unopposed in 2000, 2004 and again in 2008.
He beat a primary challenger in 2012, and went on to win unopposed in a general election.
a history of Working across party lines
Carroll said he’s always sought to stay true to his principle beliefs, while recognizing the need to work with others.
“I like to work with people who want to work with me,” he said.
Supervisor Sharon Bronson has worked almost her entire elected career with Carroll, having first been elected to the board in 1996.
“I’m going to miss his collegiality and perspective,” Bronson said. “We have different political perspectives, but he always approached it with civility and respect.”
Bronson said she and Carroll shared more common ground than expected, saying both have strong views on social issues and the environment.
“He’s left of the current Republicans on social issues, but he’s always been a fiscal conservative,” she said.
While priding himself on never supporting a tax increase that came before the board and voting against all county budget proposals, Carroll said his support for environmental protections stand as some of his proudest achievements.
Opposition to mining in the Santa Ritas has spanned his entire elected career.
“That was the first vote I took in 1997,” he said, recalling a plan at the time that would have allowed for a land swap for mining.
Early on, Carroll also opposed a proposal that would have opened up more than 5,000 acres of Canoa Ranch in Green Valley to development.
“On both, I’ve been vindicated,” he said, while acknowledging he lost support among some quarters of his party for those votes.
Carroll also counts the effort to rebuild Summerhaven after a wildfire, reforms made to Pima Animal Care, and his support of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan as highlights of his county work.
Bill Beard, chairman of the Pima County Republican Party, said Carroll has earned the respect of many in the party.
“Whatever future he decides, if it includes politics, he’ll have the same support he’s always received,” Beard said.
Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik said Carroll was an early supporter of his campaign, and remained an ally even after the councilman changed parties.
“I’ve had a good relationship with Ray before and after I switched parties,” Kozachik said.
Kozachik was elected in 2009, running as a Republican. He switched his party affiliation in 2013 to Democrat.
Despite the party change, Kozachik said he and Carroll were still able to work together.
“He’s not ideologically driven,” Kozachik said.
gop has changed
Over 20 years in public office, Carroll said he’s seen the dynamic on the Republican side change.
“It used to be a big, tolerant tent. Now the intolerance and bloodletting seems to have become the standard operating procedure for the Republican Party,” Carroll said. “I think the style of some of the current candidates and politicians lacks statesmanship.”
Today, Carroll notes, an ascendant right-wing, anti-government faction of the party, with allies on talk radio, has come to dominate in the battle for the soul of the Pima County GOP.
This fight takes place on the radio airwaves, in online comments of news sites, social media postings and even the call to the public portion of board meetings. The feuding has grown increasingly vitriolic, and at times has pitted party members against one another, he said.
The tense relationship between Carroll and fellow Republican Supervisor Ally Miller is indicative of this struggle.
An already rocky relationship was likely forever broken in February 2014, when the board voted to pull road repair funds from Miller’s district and put them into projects in Carroll’s district.
The relationship between the board’s only GOP members has been openly hostile since then.
In April 2014, Miller accused Carroll of bullying a now-former member of her staff. The employee filed a complaint against Carroll, but recanted months later, saying Miller pressured him to make the allegation.
Miller has frequently criticized Carroll on her Facebook accounts, accusing the District 4 supervisor of being wasteful with tax dollars and misleading residents on the 2015 bond election.
Carroll, too, has been critical of Miller in the public sphere, casting the supervisor as obstructionist and determined to damage the county.
In January, Carroll told the Arizona Daily Star that Miller was an “obstacle” to the county’s economic development.
Miller has also supported a Republican primary challenger seeking to unseat Carroll in this election. Carroll downplayed the slight, calling it “provocation” and “unprofessionalism.” Miller did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
his next move
Carroll said he plans to fulfill his final term, which expires in January.
“I don’t aim to pick my successor by winning an election and walking away,” he said.
After then, the supervisor doesn’t know where life will take him.
But years in politics and the work he’s done with groups like the Catholic Diocese of Tucson, Tucson Hebrew Academy, University of Arizona Parent and Alumni Association and the International Republican Institute have made him many friends and allies.
“I have no offers and no standing agreements, nothing but a lot of hope and faith in the community and a large Rolodex,” Carroll said. “There’s life after politics.”
