Lower-profile election races deserve your attention, too
By Steve Emerine, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, November 14, 2008
Last week’s column on political campaigns that use guilt by association brought some spirited and sharply divided reader comments.
I tried to show that a truth-bending opponent could accuse me — or perhaps you — of ties to all kinds of groups because of people we’ve known, worked with or lived near. I said no one should vote for or against John McCain or Barack Obama solely because of who they knew decades ago.
Some readers agreed, saying they judge presidential candidates on their stances on the economy, the national debt, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, education, Social Security and Medicare, climate change, energy issues, etc.
Others angrily accused me of being in cahoots with Obama in a plot to establish a Muslim-socialistic federal government that will destroy America. Interestingly, no one objected to my remarks that it’s unfair to judge McCain solely on people in his past.
I originally planned to write last week’s column about some lower-profile races on the Nov. 4 ballot that will affect Pima County business people. Here they come today.
• Arizona Corporation Commission — Three of the five Arizona Corporation Commission seats will be filled this year, and no incumbents are running.
The commission regulates and keeps track of incorporated businesses in the state and also plays a major role in many utility matters. Maricopa County residents have held nearly all of the seats for years.
You might consider promoting geographical diversity by giving two of your votes to Tucsonan Marian McClure, a four-term Republican legislator, and Bisbee Democrat Paul Newman, an ex-legislator and Cochise County supervisor.
• Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board — Six candidates are vying for Pima County’s four seats on the board that decides policy for the Central Arizona Project and its water. Maricopa County has 11 seats, and Pinal County has one.
I have worked with Tucsonans Warren Tenney, Carol Zimmerman and Sharon Megdal, and also with Oro Valley attorney Steve Lenihan.
Zimmerman, co-owner of a marketing and research firm, is an incumbent.
Tenney, assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, is a career water expert.
Megdal, a University of Arizona professor and administrator specializing in water and its economic impact, served briefly on the Arizona Corporation Commission to complete an incumbent’s term. Lenihan has a solid knowledge of business and water laws.
These four, who are running as a slate, will serve Pima County well.
• Pima County Joint Technological Education District — Voters will choose their first directly elected members of the board overseeing the cooperative among Pima County school districts that provides career and technical education programs for high school students. The JTED board will have five members, but only one is a contested race.
In District 3 — each JTED district’s boundaries are the same as the county supervisor districts — Christopher Weiss, who was one of the original appointed board members, is challenged by Brian Forstall.
Both live in Marana. Weiss owns Netcomm Computer Consulting. Forstall is a teacher in the Tucson Unified School District. Based on his incumbency and occupation, Weiss would be my choice.
• Pima County Board of Supervisors — Voters in District 3 also have a choice for who will represent them on the five-member board where Republican Barney Brenner is challenging three-term incumbent Democrat Sharon Bronson.
Bronson and I were consultants to Metro Water in the 1990s, before she ran for office. Brenner and I opposed the open-space bond package county voters approved in May of 2004.
No radio results from Austin’s
Radio host John C. Scott’s tradition of broadcasting election returns from Austin’s ice cream restaurant won’t happen this year.
For years, Scott and his guests have discussed elections starting at 7 p.m. when the polls close, to about 10 or 10:30 p.m. when most of the results have been reported.
But Pima County officials say they won’t have many numbers this year until the morning after the election. As a result The Voice KVOI 690-AM decided not to pre-preempt its regular evening programming schedule Nov. 4.
Instead, Scott and his guests will deliver vote counts and their commentaries during his regular show from 6 to 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon Nov. 5, the day after the election.
Contact Steve Emerine or e-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Emerine, a Tucson resident since 1960, has run Steve Emerine Strategic Public Relations since 1994. He is a former local newspaper reporter, editor and columnist and served as Pima County Assessor from 1973 to 1980. He is a regular Monday guest on the John C. Scott radio talk show, which airs from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays on The Voice KVOI 690-AM. This column appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.
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