District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll spoke at the Eastside Republican Club (at Miller-Golf Links branch library), on Wednesday night, and announced his re-election bid for his seat in 2016. He mostly spoke about issues affecting his district — road improvements to the Colossal Cave road, his support of an increase in a gasoline user tax, the discretionary funds that his fellow Pima County Supervisors have been using on non-profits and the need to set up a firm policy about such spending, a proposed bike ranch in the “buffer zone” outside Saguaro East National Park, and the need to seek alternative ideas for Colossal Cave use (i.e. eco tourism camping) following a recent audit.
Carroll was a strong supporter of the Proposition 415 to improve the Pima Animal Care Center, which passed by 145,153 (59.02%) to 100,777 (40.98%) votes on November 4, 2014. He also congratulated recent Republican winners CD 2 House Martha McSally (facing an automatic recount as she has prevailed by 161 votes over Congressman Barber) and LD 2 House rep. Chris Ackerley, who upset incumbent Rep. Demion Clinco in that race.
Then Carroll answered a question about the Sunday newspaper article about District 1 Supervisor Ally Miller’s former aide retracting his bullying allegations against Carroll, which allegedly occurred about 6 months ago. The Star article about this was on page C1 of the 11/16/14 paper: http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/alleged-bullying-victim-withdraws-complaint-against-carroll/article_0078c29c-33f2-5e49-bffd-026acdf0f8bd.html
Despite these troubles with Supervisor Miller, Carroll said that he could “forgive” her for her actions and that he had supported her as a fellow Republican in her 2012 bid for election in District 1. He said that he and his staff had helped her staff learn the ins and outs of Pima County departments after Miller was sworn in early 2013.
The Tucson Weekly has also run an article about Supervisor Miller’s personnel problems and this aide’s retraction, which is on page 4 of the 11/20/14 issue (and online) :http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/11/18/ally-millers-personnel-problems. Apparently Miller has had a lot of staff changeovers since taking office in January 2013.
Finally toward the end of his talk Supervisor Carroll announced his re-election bid for 2016, saying that he was ready to continue to work for District 4. Carroll was first appointed to that seat in May, 1997 and was elected in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. He beat his last opponent Sean Collins in the 2012 Republican primary 13,793 to 10,339 votes, 57.07% to 42.78% , then faced no Democratic opposition in the General Election.
His Pima County website: http://webcms.pima.gov/government/board_of_supervisors/supervisor_raymond_carroll_district_4/
All Pima County Supervisors are up for election in 2016. Miller is a Republican and the other 3 Supervisors Sharon Bronson, Richard Elias, Ramon Valadez are Democrats.