Larry Bodine

Larry is an intelligent, articulate, and insightful commentator whose views are shaped by a combination of journalism, entrepreneurship, law practice, and leadership.‎ ✍ He is an experienced leader, having served as Chair of the LD18 Democrats, and President of the Democrats of Greater Tucson, a teacher at the UA Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Video Manager for Iskashitaa Refugee Network, ‎ ✍ A common-sense business leader, he operated a successful marketing consultancy for 20 years. He is skilled in fundraising, artificial intelligence, and online communications.‎ ✍He considers multiple viewpoints before forming an opinion. His ethos is the Boy Scout Law.‎ ✍ Larry is a lifelong writer, having worked as a seven-time award-winning journalist for the New York Daily News and as the author of 600 articles for the Blog for Arizona.‎ ✍He is a graduate of Amherst College and Seton Hall Law School and has also attended the University of Munich in Germany.‎ ✍He is not all work and no play. Larry enjoys singing and playing the guitar, hiking Tucson's beautiful trails, going on outings with his Portuguese Water Dog, weight training, and meeting his many friends for breakfast.‎ ‎** Scroll down to see my articles below. **

In a Surprise Victory, Alison Jones Elected as New Pima Democratic Chair 156 to 151

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Alison Jones addresses the precinct committeepeople of Pima County
Alison Jones addresses the precinct committee people of Pima County

In a surprise upset, precinct committee person and Democratic activist Alison Jones won election as the Pima County Democratic Chair, ousting Jo Holt.

Jones got 156 votes and Holt got 151.

A total of 307 of Pima County’s 427 Democratic precinct committeemen arrived at the ENR2 Building on the UA campus for the vote.

“I am ready to make the party more efficient, inclusive and more powerful,” Jones said. “We need to reach out the Arizona Ground Game, Indivisible, AZBlue2020, and organized labor. They are entitled to claim some credit for our election victories, and there are hundreds more who could be and should be in this room.” She is a precinct committee person from LD9.

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Saudis Buy Huge Arizona Farmland After Sucking their own Aquifers Dry

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Fifteen years ago, the Saudi government told its farmers to grow wheat and paid them 5 times the market price to do so. In a county without a single lake or river, they told farmers to drill as deep as they wanted for water.

Flash forward to 2011: the aquifers were sucked dry. Totally depleted. Bone dry in a country with scant rainfall. What did they do next? The Saudi dairy Almarai came to western Arizona and bought 15 square miles of farmland. They are sucking our aquifers dry by planting alfalfa for export, which requires 4 times more irrigation than wheat.

This is how climate change is bringing competition for water to Arizona, according to a new book, This Is the Way the World Ends: How Droughts and Die-offs, Heat Waves and Hurricanes Are Converging on America. Author Jeff Nesbit says, “This $47.5 million transaction is an example of the Saudi’s efforts to ensure the country’s dairy business as well as conserving the nation’s resources.”

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Listen: Racist Rep. Stringer and Zinke vs Grijalva on the Victoria Steele Report Radio Show

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Click to hear the Dec. 1 Steele Report with newly-elected state Senator Victoria Steele and Blog for Arizona journalist and Precinct Committeeman Larry Bodine. Topics you’ll want to hear about: Vile racist Rep. David Stringer of Prescott must resign now, says Victoria (see below). We’re sick of haters in government. The Blue Wave just keeps … Read more

Jo Holt, Pima County Democratic Party Chair

Jo Holt Will Work Behind the Scenes as Pima County Democratic Chair

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Jo Holt, Pima County Democratic Party Chair
Jo Holt, Pima County Democratic Party Chair

Jo Holt, the Pima County Democratic Party Chair since 2015, will continue to work behind the scenes to elect Democrats — coordinating action between the state party and local legislative districts (LDs) — if she is re-elected on December 15.

Holt redefined the role of the county chair to leave direct voter contact to the LDs. “The nature of the county party’s support is behind the scenes,” she said. “It’s a little quiet.”

She has three priorities for her next term:

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Suppressed Memo Shows Tucson Police have Abandoned Traffic Enforcement

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A suppressed memo from a civilian oversight commission studying the Tucson Police Department reveals that the department has shut down the Traffic Enforcement Division and a night patrol program, cutting the number of traffic stops and tickets by more than half.

“The Tucson police have just gotten out of traffic enforcement business. It’s rare to see someone getting a ticket pull over, but it’s so common to see people running red lights. We spend too much on the police department to tolerate this,” says Jim Hannley, a former member of the Independent Audit and Performance Commission, and author of the suppressed TPD IAPC Memo.

Hannley, a safety advocate and TPD critic, was appointed to the commission in 2014. He wrote the 10-page memo calling on the mayor and city council to confront the Police Department about abandoning traffic enforcement. “It seems that the interests of public safety must prevail over the discretion of the officers whose job it is to make our streets and roads safer,” he said in the Feb. 4, 2016 memo.

The commission voted on April 6, 2017, to suppress the memo, according to an April 10, 2017 email sent by Joyce Garland, CFO/Assistant City Manager.

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