Tim Steller's Political Notebook: County choices trouble titans of Tucson industry

Crosscurrents are buffeting leaders of Tucson’s business community as this year’s election for the Pima County Board of Supervisors takes shape.

On the one hand, voters’ rejection of last November’s county bond issues awoke the Republicans among them — and they are mostly Republicans — to the possibility that a GOP majority could take over the Board of Supervisors this year. Some have met and committed to contribute money toward that end.

On the other hand, the lawsuit against the county’s business-incentive deal with World View Enterprises does not sit well with many of these same leaders. And that legal challenge was inspired by a key Republican many are supporting, incumbent Supervisor Ally Miller, and carried out by the Goldwater Institute, the state’s bastion of free-market Republicanism.

Auto dealer Jim Click told me he is supporting Republicans Steve Christy, Kim DeMarco and Miller for the Board of Supervisors.

“I’ve committed to help Ally Miller,” Click said. But he acknowledged, “I think there are people who might be concerned about Goldwater.”

Click himself is one of them. He’s encouraging Goldwater and Pima County to work out their differences outside of court.

Another is Caid Industries CEO Bill Assenmacher, who also plans to work to get “business-friendly” candidates elected to the supervisors.

“I suggested to my wife that she stop mailing checks to the Goldwater Institute, which she does every month,” Assenmacher said Thursday.

Longtime local developer Don Diamond is on the edges of these discussions, a Republican but not much of a partisan, and isn’t completely comfortable with the idea of revolutionary change on the board. The current board has a 3-2 Democratic majority.

“Maybe I’m showing my age, but I don’t like big sweeps of anything. I’m for improving from within,” he said.

Diamond supports incumbent Democrat Sharon Bronson in her race against Republican challenger DeMarco. He may also support Republican John Winchester in his primary race against Miller, a bridge the others aren’t quite prepared to cross, despite the Goldwater suit.

While many business leaders aren’t comfortable with the acrimony Miller has brought to the board, they agree broadly with her on the issues and can imagine a GOP majority with Miller as a member and led by Christy, the former auto dealer they are all comfortable with. That would make supporting a Republican challenger, like Winchester, unnecessary.

“If we get a majority, it would be nice if everybody would work together,” Click said.

Separately, the leaders of six local business organizations sent a letter Tuesday to Goldwater CEO Darcy Olsen asking that the institute withdraw its lawsuit against the county.

“The Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit already has negatively impacted Tucson and Southern Arizona,” the letter says. “If the suit proceeds, it will further hurt the city, region and entire state at a time when our economy is showing signs of improvement.”

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The letter is signed by Ron Shoopman of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Mike Varney of the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce, Stephen Zylstra of the Arizona Tech Council, Gonzalo de la Melena of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Joe Snell of Sun Corridor Inc. and Michael Keith of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

Pro-Hart letter emerges

Some Republican legislators, unhappy with the ire directed at UA President Ann Weaver Hart, have penned a letter in support of her and her appointment to the DeVry Educational Group board. Sen. Steve Pierce, a UA graduate who represents the Prescott area, led the effort in the Senate and Rep. T.J. Shope, a Republican from Coolidge, led it in the state House.

“We should be encouraging collaboration and communication between educational institutions, not attempting to shut it down,” the letter says.

It’s signed by 13 members of the Legislature.

Pierce told me Thursday he thinks Hart’s appointment to the DeVry board has been blown out of proportion and has become political. Previously, 22 legislators, largely Democrats, signed a letter demanding that Hart step down from her UA post or her DeVry job.

DuVal disappoints Dems

It came as a shock to Democrats Wednesday when their former gubernatorial candidate, Fred DuVal, embraced Prop. 123, the ballot issue that would use increasing withdrawals from the state land trust to improve school funding.

It wasn’t so much that DuVal supported the measure — plenty of Democrats do, though it seems to be a minority position in the party. It’s that DuVal appeared in an ad supporting the proposition with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, whom DuVal had accused in the campaign of waging class warfare with his approach to public education.

Even his former Southern Arizona campaign manager, Janet Marcotte, was dismayed. She called the appearance in the ad “a bridge too far.”

“Speaking out on the issue is one thing,” she said. “Aligning yourself with the architect of this horrible choice people are being asked to make is quite another.”

Gowan goes national

Rep. David Gowan’s term as House speaker has drawn even the attention of the New York Times. Reporter Fernanda Santos, who is based in Phoenix, reported in a piece that appeared Saturday on the ups and downs of the performance of the man from Sierra Vista, noting especially his since-rescinded policy of requiring reporters to go through background checks in order to report from the floor.

Local Republicans Frank Antenori and Jonathan Paton are quoted in support of Gowan, and local Democrat Bruce Wheeler, a current member, is quoted as calling Gowan’s speakership “disastrous.”