Tim Steller's column: Bright blue Tucson area must show viable alternative to Trumpism

The results in the Tucson-area elections tell a political story almost as compelling as the presidential race.

Democratic incumbent Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, who barely won his District 1 seat in 2020, has run away in the race against the same Republican opponent, Steve Spain, this year.

Democrat Brian Johnson, a relative political unknown, is handily beating Republican Chris Ackerley in the race for county treasurer, although Ackerley already occupies the seat as an appointee and is a well-known and respected former legislator.

Steve Christy, the only Republican on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, is barely fending off a challenge by Democrat Vanessa Bechtol in the formerly solid-GOP District 4. If trends hold, the seat could well flip to Democrats next election.

The Democratic grip on Tucson and Pima County is becoming monopolistic, at the same time that the Republican hold on all three branches of the federal government appears to be near complete. This sets up a different challenge than the last time Donald Trump won: How to thrive as a Democratic city in a Republican country.

This time, I think it’s a question not so much of resistance as perseverance.

In November 2016, Trump’s win was a shock to Democrats that prompted angry protests across the country, including in Tucson. Large demonstrations occurred on the University of Arizona campus and downtown. “Not my president” was a favorite slogan, and “The Resistance” blossomed into a large protest movement that countered Trump.

This election victory was shattering to people like me, who can’t understand how so many people are willing to overlook the man’s low character and record, from the rape of E. Jean Carroll to the violent attempt to stop the democratic process in 2021. It’s even harder for women and girls who question whether one of them will ever be considered good enough to occupy our highest office.

But the result wasn’t so much of a shock as it was in 2016. And the finality of the margin allows for everyone to move on to the next stage without the awful uncertainty that we’ve suffered in the last two presidential elections.

Providing an alternative

For an ever-deeper-blue city in an ever-deeper-red country, I think the challenge is to offer a viable, successful alternative. It falls especially on people like Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the all-Democratic City Council, as well as Chair Adelita Grijalva and the nearly-all-Democratic Board of Supervisors to deliver excellent governance.

Romero, the Democrat in her second term, has been busily raking in federal grants for Tucson during the Biden administration. One of the biggest: $50 million for three housing projects, including renovating the 17-story Tucson House, awarded in 2023. A more recent example: $3 million for upgrading Jacobs Park, awarded in August.

“I’ve been very aggressive in going after federal funds,” Romero told me Friday. “I think we’ll see that story change.”

“It’s not just going to be Tucson,” she noted. “It’s going to be every city, wherever they lean (politically) — much less federal funds available for their most vulnerable communities.”

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That factor may improve the case for the sales-tax increase that the city is asking voters to approve in March, but the proposal must be built to solve the city’s most urgent problems, not just make the council’s budgeting easier.

Christy, who will likely be the only Republican elected official in Pima County’s nine higher offices come January, told me, “a diversity of thought is essential for a productive city council, or board of supervisors.”

I agree with him on that. He added that it’s important, in his view, for Tucson and Pima County not to take a reflexively adversarial position against the Trump administration, as some Democratic governors have.

“If we take that kind of adversarial stance and try to flex some sort of a far-left muscle in opposition to Trump, I think there are going to be ramifications,” Christy said. “I would strongly urge all the leaders and friends on the other side of the aisle to put away those left-wing policies that they’ve been championing and find areas that might be beneficial (to work) with the Trump administration.”

He suggested that working on infrastructure and homelessness might be areas of common interest.

Resist with excellence

I bristle at the idea that there might be “ramifications” for daring to cross the president. But we all know that’s how it works with Trump and leaders like him, in countries Turkey, Hungary, Russia and China. Those who support the leader are richly rewarded; those who cross him may be severely punished, with visits from agencies like the Justice Department and IRS.

There’s no point in a new “resistance” movement like the one that formed in 2016 after Trump’s first election. He won fair and square this year, despite everything.

The best resistance for ever-bluer cities is to persevere and become models of Democratic-governed excellence. Trump slammed blue cities frequently during his campaign, and though the emphasis was politically motivated, he’s right that we have some big problems with homelessness, addiction and, in some places, crime.

Tucson has long been dogged by a one-step-forward, one-step-back syndrome, where notable advances in areas like downtown redevelopment and transportation have been offset by surging problems like addiction and gun violence.

“We’re going to be left alone, and it’s OK,” Romero said. “We’ve done this before.”

I would go further and say we need to assertively be ourselves, hold onto our values even when they put us at odds with Trump, but also demonstrate more competence at governing than we do now, and fight against groupthink.

If the administration offers help fighting crime, one of our biggest problems, we ought to seriously consider it. We could really use help cultivating new job opportunities, too.

But if they start slapping us around for implementing “road diets” — shrinking the capacity of certain roads to improve safety — emphasizing transit improvements, or pursuing climate resilience, we ought to stick to our values.

Rather than resistance, we can pursue perseverance. We can persevere in pursuing the community we want, but we need to show the country a successful alternative.