Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Tucson's all-mail balloting for Tucson City Council elections produced a 26.94% turnout rate, according to the City Clerk's election results page this morning. There are an estimated 6,000 ballots yet to be prcoessed, but outstanding ballots are fewer than the margins of victory for the Democratic incumbents.
As expected, this was a no drama campaign with the Democratic city council members cruising to victory over their lackluster Tea-Publican challengers. Not in our house!
WARD 3
Karin Uhlich (D) Incumbent 34,708 58.38%
Ben Buehler-Garcia (R) 24,589 41.36%
WARD 5
Richard Fimbres (D) Incumbent 35,464 60.31%
Mike Polak (R) 23,206 39,46%
WARD 6
Steve Kozachik (D) Incumbent 42,398 92,93%
(Unopposed)
The two propositions on the Tucson City Council ballot also passed by similar lopsided votes:
Proposition 401 62.09%
Proposition 402 65.83%
The Democratic city council incumbents ran a positive campaign, able to point to a record of successes and recovery over the past four years since the city, and the country, was at the nadir of the Bush Great Recession in 2009. Their GOP challengers were left to run a campaign of "don't believe your lying eyes," things aren't getting better, the sky is falling!
The only televison ad that ran in this cycle was an attack ad against Karin Uhlich from the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, led by its Tea-Publican president and CEO, Michael Varney. That poor quality ad probably encouraged more votes for Karin Uhlich than it cost her.
The other support for the GOP candidates came from the Tucson Tea Party and the haters of Tucson talk radio. Ben Buehler Garcia hangs the albatross of hate radio about his neck in a losing bid for Tucson City Council. These always angry and negative individuals who constantly denigrate the city of Tucson were an albatross around the neck of the GOP candidates dragging them down to a convincing defeat.
Polling in the wake of the Tea-Publican government shutdown and debt ceiling hostage taking in Washington has the GOP, and especially its Tea Party wing, polling at the lowest level of public support ever. If establishment Republicans want to be competitive in a Democratic city like Tucson, they need to boot out the radical Tea Party extremists in the Pima County GOP, and they need to turn away from the Pied Pipers of Tucson talk radio, and the conservative media entertainment complex in general. This far-right freak show is killing the GOP.
Congratulations to the winners! From my perspective, they are obviously doing something right. I was in Tucson for the weekend several weeks ago to attend an event at the TCC. On both Friday and Saturday night, Downtown Tucson was vibrant, buzzing, and packed with people. I had such a blast! I have never seen or felt anything like that in downtown Phoenix (I know they are trying).
Well, maybe. The whole thing shows the lethargy, the lack of energy, the lack of edginess of public policy in Tucson. Drive down speedway and look at the pavemnent under your car, feel your car vibrate. Tucson city government can’t even take care of the fundamentals in a mediocre fashion, much less achieve excellence. This is a city that is in one of the most dynamic states in the nation, 5th fastest over the last 20 years. Yet, Tucson is dying on the vine, only able to breathe with cast off oxygen from Maricopa county. Soon, even Pinal county will eclipse Pima.
What got me was, after all the Sturm und Drang over Koz’s “defection” all those true believers couldn’t manage to get anyone on the ballot to oppose him. Kinda shows their toothlessness.