The Pima County Republican Party definitely showed up this weekend. On Friday evening our Trunk and Tusk members were treated to dessert and a briefing from Congressman Andy Biggs. Congressman Biggs discussed some of the political antics that are taking place in the House of Representatives. It became very clear that we all need to work and get conservative Republicans elected. The swamp is deep in DC and some of the moderate Republicans are not negotiating and holding the line against the democrats. As our candidate season begins to unfold, we need to question our candidates and hold them to the promises they make following the primary and their 2022 election.
Saturday and Sunday the Independent Redistricting Commission was in Tucson on a listening tour. The Saturday session was held at the Westin La Paloma and approximately 200 people were in attendance. The Republicans had a great showing and out of the 59 speakers, about 90% were Republicans. We were impressive. There was a common theme: KEEP US OUT OF TUCSON! Many speakers suggested making Tucson a Legislative District of its own and creating a “backward C” from Green Valley/Sahuarita through Corona de Tucson to Vail and around to Tanque Verde, the Foothills, Oro Valley up to Saddlebrook and back around to Marana. This could be two conservative Legislative Districts. All of our speakers were excellent, and we outnumbered the Ds by about 5 to 1. You want to know how effective we were? Within a couple of hours of the meeting ending, democrats like Kyrsten Sinema (US Senator), Gabriella Cázares-Kelly (Pima County Recorder), and the Pima County Democrat Party were tweeting out to attend the session on Sunday. The PCDP tweeted:
“The IRC meeting will be held tomorrow at the Sheraton , 5151 E Grant Rd, from 10AM to 1PM. Please send me a message if you can attend. We need to show the IRC that the GOP gerrymandering plans do not represent the desire of Southern Arizona.”
Another democrat tweet said “…At the IRC meeting today, 40 of the 50 speakers were Republican.”
Meanwhile, tucked away with his keyboard, BlogforAZ, whined about Republicans crowding the meeting—translation, ‘there were way more of them than us!’
On Sunday at the Sheraton on Grant, about 125 people assembled to speak and listen. Again there were 50+ speakers and the ratio of Rs to Ds was about 1:2. The Republicans continued to speak about communities of interest—shopping, worship, entertainment, industry—while the democrats couldn’t get off the word ‘competitiveness’. They want the districts competitive. I couldn’t agree more! With Legislative District 2 at a deficit of 12,000 more Ds than Rs, LD 3 at a deficit of 34,000, LD 4 at a deficit of about 6,000, LD 9 at a deficit of 20,000, and LD 10 at a deficit of 15,000 I understand their concern that the lines have not been drawn such that all parties have a competitive chance. And, as one speaker noted the City of Tucson should also be concerned about competitiveness and have ward only voting in the general election. Board of Supervisor Grijalva and County Recorder Cázares-Kelly joined the speakers on Sunday and spoke about the importance of keeping Native Americans together and Hispanics together. Not communities of interest; communities of race. I will leave it at that.
Thank you to all of those who came out this weekend to ensure that the next decade in Pima County is not a repeat of what we have seen since 2011. To those of you who were not able to attend one of the meetings, may I ask that you please complete the Community of Interest Survey to provide the Commissioners with your input. Pima County Republicans, we are playing a long game and this is the first move. Congratulations on the work you did this weekend. Please join me in keeping the pressure on.