How quickly they forget

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rhonda Bodfield reports in the Arizona Daily Star's Political notebook:

Where are Prop. 200 backers?

The backers of Proposition 200 have not been overly eager to play to potentially hostile crowds this election season.

Proponents refused to debate the opposition at a recent Drinking Liberally meeting, failed to send someone to a debate on public-access television and didn't show at a debate sponsored by the Primavera Foundation.

Then last week, the Pima Association of Taxpayers held what was purportedly a debate — except the pro side was, again, a no-show. Instead, for an hour, three opponents, including former Tucson Mayor George Miller, held a one-sided "debate" about why they think the city can't afford the measure.

Bill Arnold, chairman of the Prop. 200 campaign, said he wasn't ducking debates. Instead, he said, the events were setups. The taxpayer association already had taken a position against the measure and didn't allow him to present his side before making that decision, he complained.

A reliable source told me that a Prop. 200 supporter was sent to the Primavera Foundation debate with a camera to record the debate, but not to participate. It sounded like an odd thing to do, and yet, vaguely familiar…

Bill Arnold is chairman of the Prop. 200 campaign. This seems a poor choice to me. Let's just say that Bill Arnold is a "colorful" politico who has a "checkered" past in this community. The Tucson Weekly has reported at length on the exploits of Bill Arnold over the years. (Here is an archive search that you can peruse. Tucson Weekly | Search) How quickly they forget.

It was the Tucson Weekly that reported in The Skinny (August 24, 2006):

HOUSE HUNT

For months now, state Sen. Toni Hellon has been the target of an anonymous Web site–www.hellontoni.com–that sprung up after news broke that she had reported using some of her campaign funds to remodel her home office. The brain behind the Web site–who identified himself as one "Thomas Paine"–accused Hellon of remodeling other parts of her home and misappropriating campaign funds for personal use.

To make his case, our mysterious Mr. Paine went the extra step of actually creeping around the Hellon home and taking photos of the windows, as well as posting diagrams of the home's layout on the Web site–which strikes us as just a wee bit invasive.

According to Hellon, authorities tracked the Web site back to Republican Todd Clodfelter, a one-time candidate for the Tucson City Council and sign maker who prints up political billboards for candidates.

But Clodfelter, who denied maintaining the Web site but declined further comment, is a small fish in this fetid tank. Hellon also went down to Pima County Justice Court earlier this week and got an injunction against William "Bill" Arnold, a past president of the Tucson Association of Realtors, accusing him of being the peculiar man in a ballcap and sunglasses who was taking photos outside her home. Wonder if that sort of behavior could earn you a thorn from the Arizona Daily Star?

Hellon struck back this week, filing an invasion of privacy lawsuit against both Arnold and Clodfelter.

"I am just not going to put up with this anymore, doggone it," an exasperated Hellon said. "I don't know why he's doing this or anything like that. Makes no sense to me, for crying out loud."

Arnold, who ignored our phone calls, is well-known in political circles. He's a member of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan steering committee and sits on the county's Conservation Advisory Committee.

He's also a political junkie. Until he quit earlier this week, about the same time as Hellon went all "you've-been-served" on his ass, Arnold was serving as treasurer of Steve Huffman's congressional campaign–which, if Hellon's accusations are true, makes his sneaking around her house even more curious, given that one of Huffman's rivals for the Congressional District 8 seat is none other than Mike Hellon, Toni Hellon's ex-husband. And don't forget: Before Congressman Jim Kolbe announced his retirement, Huffman had planned to run against Toni Hellon for the Senate seat.

In his resignation letter, Arnold called the allegations "politically motivated and baseless."

To think that at one time all these folks were such good friends!

The Tucson Weekly reprised the 2006 election with this The Skinny (November 9, 2006):

BEST STALKING EPISODE

District 26 Sen. Toni Hellon, who lost her re-election bid in the GOP primary to Al Melvin, filed a lawsuit before the election accusing real estate broker Bill Arnold of creeping around her house, taking pictures and posting them anonymously on the Internet to substantiate his allegations that she had misspent campaign funds on a home makeover.

Arnold quit his job as treasurer of Steve Huffman's campaign on the day that Hellon filed the lawsuit and requested a restraining order against him.

And finally, the Tucson Weekly awarded Bill Arnold its infamous Get Out of Town! award (December 14, 2006):

BILL ARNOLD

Finley Peter Dunne once observed that "politics ain't beanbag." We'd certainly agree that it's a contact sport.

But that doesn't mean that some acts can't cross over the line. It's one thing to bust on a politician for misusing campaign funds. It's another to go sneaking around her home taking pictures through the windows.

That's what local real estate broker Bill Arnold evidently did to outgoing state Sen. Toni Hellon when he came to the conclusion that she used campaign contributions to remodel parts of her home. Hellon maintains she used the money to remodel a home office; Arnold, according to a lawsuit filed against him by Hellon, attempted to disprove her assertions by snooping around her property and snapping pictures that he then anonymously posted on the Internet, along with a floorplan of her home.

That's not politics. That's a creepy invasion of privacy.

In his only statement since Hellon filed her lawsuit against him, Arnold called the charges "baseless." But if someone were saying those things about you, and you knew they weren't true, wouldn't you be out talking to every TV station and newspaper, telling them that these were crazy and false accusations? Of course you would–unless you knew that you'd be shown to be a liar in an upcoming legal case.

Get out of town, Bill Arnold–and take your camera with you.

I find it curious that the usually dogged Tucson Weekly has largely given Bill Arnold a pass in this election cycle with respect to his chairmanship of Prop. 200. Knowing something about the character of the individuals behind a proposition often is indicative of the merits of the proposition.