Steller's Notebook: Tucson spirals down the symbolic toilet

It’s been a downward spiral of symbolic gestures around here.

We know where the first one came from: Candidate Donald Trump promised to build a big, beautiful wall across the U.S.-Mexico border. People who don’t live near the border ate it up, and the promise helped him get elected.

Many people, even supporters, knew the idea of a “great wall” was symbolic, not real. A wall could not be built for geographic reasons, would be too expensive, and would not work as hoped.

In short, the idea of a wall was symbolic.

But Tucson and Pima County reacted strongly to the symbolic gesture. With their own symbolic gestures.

Last week, the City Council and county Board of Supervisors both passed resolutions rejecting the idea of Trump’s border wall.

Ironically, the one jurisdiction with skin in the game is the one that made the most purely symbolic move.

Pima County shares about 123 miles of border with Mexico, about 62 of which are on the Tohono O’odham Nation. But the county’s measure was a purely rhetorical opposition, laying out arguments against the wall.

The city of Tucson, which of course is about 60 miles from the border, put some teeth in its symbolic gesture. Baby teeth, let’s say. Its resolution opposed the wall and directed the city to divest from any company involved in building the wall. Still symbolic.

Then the symbolism spiraled to its lowest point — yet.

TUSD board president Michael Hicks put on Tuesday’s board agenda a “Resolution in Opposition to Anti-Education, Anti-Prosperity Actions by the Tucson Mayor and City Council, and the Pima County Board of Supervisors.”

The idea was to express opposition to the resolutions by the supervisors and council against the border wall.

As Hicks said of the city’s resolution, “To me, that’s an attack on businesses within the city of Tucson.”

The other TUSD board members all seemed to grasp the absurdity of Hicks’ logic in this resolution. The city and county, he argued, were harming businesses with their symbolic gestures, which in turn harms the local economy, the schools and the students.

Board member Rachael Sedgwick, who opposed the city’s and county’s border-wall resolutions, nevertheless panned his resolution as an effort at personal political gain.

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Hicks, you see, is rumored to be considering a run for the Tucson City Council.

This effort at achieving a meaningless symbolic victory will surely prepare him for that seat, if he should win. But it won’t win him a place on the border wall of symbolic fame.

DOODLES FUNDRAISER

Raúl Grijalva likes to draw.

As a congressman, he also needs to raise campaign money.

So in an unusual turn, Grijalva, the Democrat who represents Congressional District 3, is combining the two: He’s raffling off doodles that he drew during important moments. One is labeled “Election Day 2016”; another, “The Comey Hearing, June 8 2017.”

Both are line drawings featuring rough-hewn faces that remind me of Easter Island statues. A weird idea, but whatever floats your… campaign.

Gov’s race polls

David Garcia claimed this week to be the leading Democrat in the race to challenge Republican Gov. Doug Ducey next year. He cited a poll carried out for him by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning outfit, which showed him leading a potential head-to-head race with Ducey by 44 percent to 42 percent.

But more likely the real point of the poll was to position Garcia as the leading Democratic candidate. The poll did not disappoint in that way. It gave Garcia a 53 percent to 11 percent lead over state Sen. Steve Farley, the other leading candidate. Of course that was after asking leading questions that pumped up Garcia’s bona fides.

Strangely, the poll didn’t show Farley performing much worse than Garcia in a head-to-head matchup against Ducey. It showed Ducey leading Farley by a 42 percent to 40 percent margin.

New PAC formed

The people who have been organizing to oppose U.S. Rep. Martha McSally have formed a new group they say is intended to provide information about candidates. Represent Me AZ is compiling information on the positions of the Democrat and Republican candidates in Congressional District 2.

“The idea is to give the voters of this district a clear understanding of where the candidates who are running for this district stand on the issues,” said Teresa Zimmerman, who is helping lead the effort.

While they describe the effort as informational, the organization is formed as a Super PAC. That means it may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money intended to influence a campaign.