UPDATE II: Opposition to Prop. 200 continues to grow

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I am hearing through the grapevine that Southwest Gas, Tucson Electric Power and Qwest will soon join the growing opposition to the ill-conceived Prop. 200. Jim Nintzel at the Tucson Weekly reports the latest organization to join the opposition to Prop. 200 More Opposition to Public Safety First Initiative: Metropolitan Pima Alliance Urges "No" Vote on Prop 200:

The Metropolitan Pima Alliance, a group of commercial real-estate developers, engineers and architects, has voted to oppose Prop 200, the Public Safety First initiative that city voters will decide on Nov. 3.

Michael Guymon, executive director of MPA, says the initiative strips the Tucson City Council of too much authority to make decisions for the city.

"We think that the tenets of the proposition are commendable, but we cannot support tying the hands of our elected officials, who we elect to make budgetary decisions on our behalf," Guymon says. "With a charter change, if anything were to change in the future—if standards change or what have you—it would have to go back to the voters. To us, that's not responsible public policy."

The Metropolitan Pima Alliance joins several other business organizations, including the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Multihousing Association and Cox Cable, in opposing the initiative, which has been largely funded by the Tucson Association of Realtors.

Reasons to think twice about supporting the initiative can be found here.

Despite the opposition from the business community, the Republican candidates for City Council are supporting the initiative.

This is turning into an ironic twist of "Rovian" politics. GOP honchos like Jim Click, Bill Arnold, and Bruce Ash cooked up this "Public Safety First" initiative gimmick around which three weak and politically inexperienced candidates could wrap themselves and hope to ride it to victory. Now the supposed strength of their campaigns is turning into their greatest weakness. It is an anchor around their necks and will sink their campaigns as voters learn more about the ill-conceived Prop. 200 and community opposition continues to grow. Without Prop. 200, the GOP candidates stand for nothing else — it is their whole campaign.