In private, Ally Miller denies her Tea Party denial. In public, meanwhile . . .

by David Safier

Ally Miller's bizarre public relationship with the Tea Party continues. She's a proud Tea Party member when she's among friends, sometimes mentioning it unprompted, but in her stump speech, it never comes up. She's just an aw shucks, moderate, good government type who wants to make Pima County more efficient and accountable. The one time she was asked on a nonpartisan radio show if she's a "Tea Party candidate" — by Mark Evans on the Bill Buckmaster show — her answer avoided mentioning the-group-that-has-no-name. She called it "name calling" and fabricating "horrible stories" about her. Heres' a clip of Mark's question and Ally's answer.

On October 23, Ally gave her standard Tea-Party-free stump speech at Christ the King Church. Afterwards while she was talking with members of the audience, someone asked if she was a Tea Party member. Ally's response: I never backed away from it. She said she's not currently a member of the Pima County Tea Party Patriots which she helped found — something about a problem with being a member of a nonprofit while running for office. Asked if she still supports the Tea Party principles, she said of course she does! It's Nancy Young Wright who wants to say Ally has backed away from her Tea Party affiliation, but that's just lies and politics.

So the lie isn't that Ally is a member of the Tea Party. It's that she's trying to back away from her attachment to the group. Yet she never talks about it unless she's in a safe, friendly environment.

A video for Nancy Young Wright's campaign begins, "To date, the far right Tea Party organization
hasn't been able to infiltrate [Pima] County government. But that could
all change if we as voters are not vigilant." Ally knows her extreme right wing position is why she won the primary, but it is her biggest liability in the general election.

You can watch Nancy Young Wright's video below the fold.

[Full disclosure: I volunteer for Nancy Young Wright's campaign. I'm also a paid-up member of the fact-based community.]