Congressional District 8 Debates

Please join the Tucson Tea Party on the 11th of February for the “Debate in the Desert”.

Come meet the candidates running against Gabrielle Giffords; Jonathan Paton, Brian Miller, Jesse Kelly and Andy Goss

Date: February 11th, 2010
Time: Doors open at 6, seating begins at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Ironwood Highschool 2475 W. Naranja Drive in Oro Valley
(Map).

Admission is free, but bring a can of food as your entry to be donated to the Food Bank

January 14th Honking for Health Care Freedom

Please Join the Tucson Tea Party as well as Americans for Prosperity on Thursday January 14th
from 4 to 6 p.m outside Representative Gabrielle Gifford’s Office.

We will have huge signs asking commuters to “Honk to STOP Washington DC’s CORRUPT takeover of our health care!”.

Bring your signs and wear your red. We hope to see you out.

January 13th Townhall In Tucson With Senator Jon Kyl

Please Join us on January 13th from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene (map) for a Townhall meeting with Senator Jon Kyl.

Since our last tele- townhall with the Senator a lot has happened and we appreciate the Senator’s willingness to meet with us in person.

It would be a good idea to arrive early as space within the church will be limited.

For those of you who have been asking, yes, we are finally having an event on the Northwest side of Town!

Jan. 5: Protest City Council vote to raise taxes and cut public safety

Hi everyone,

It was just announced by City Manager Mike Letcher that he is recommending to the City Council combined tax increases and cuts to public safety positions in order to deal with the budget crisis.

This will result in a 2% renter’s tax as well as more than 200 combined positions eliminated in our police and fire departments. While no active commissioned personnel will be laid off, the positions will be cut permanently, making public safety staffing woefully inadequate for our crime-ridden city.

Our city government has and continues to fail the people of Tucson. They have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years while chasing business like the plague. They warned us that increasing public safety funding would lead to tax increases; now, we’ll be paying more taxes in exchange for less public safety. This is a rotten deal and the blame lies solely at the feet of our Mayor and Council.

The time for action is now.

Join us and several other organizations on January 5 at 4:30 pm at the Tucson Convention Center (map).

Please forward this to all your friends! This should be one of the biggest street protests we have yet seen. People from all sections of society will send a message that this is unacceptable and that there will be consequences for their actions.

This city government simply wants to avoid tough decisions. Rather than funding core city priorities, they have used the General Fund and Rio Nuevo for years as a slush fund for pet projects. Now that there is a crisis, they don’t want to tighten their belt as much as they need to. The people of Tucson have already done so during this recession — but instead of doing what’s right, the City Council will ask us to tighten our belts even more (by taxing us) so that they don’t have to!

We will also be making a huge announcement at the City Council meeting on January 5. If you can attend, please be there wearing your red tea shirt. These people have run our city into the ground and it’s time to take back Tucson.

Parking is free after 5 and we will let you know if there is a change of location due to the amount of people attending.

Feel free to let us know if you have any comments or questions.

We hope your had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year as well! It appears that 2010 is shaping up to be the fight of the century for our city, county, state, and congressional district. We hope you will continue to join us in the fight as we go into the new year.

Trent Humphries & Robert Mayer
Organizers, Tucson Tea Party

Dec. 22: Rally to Support Small Business

Hi everyone,

I apologize for getting this out so late, but we were having problems with our newsletter software. Even though it’s short notice, I hope some of you will be able to make it to the following event.

Eric Ruden, the small business owner who helped us fund the Tucson’s Last Stand event this past October, has started a coalition of other small business owners called Tucson First Coalition that hopes to make big changes at the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. The city’s anti-business atmosphere created over the decades has led to a stagnant economy, and rather than fight for policies that help businesses and create jobs, the Chamber of Commerce has twiddled its thumbs.

They are starting out with a protest downtown tomorrow, December 22, between 3:30 and 5:30 pm in front of Maynard’s Market at 400 N Toole Ave (map). The purpose of the protest is to highlight the plight of a local business in Tucson. The reasoning for protesting at Maynard’s is not coincidental — to read the whole story, click here.

They will also be doing more events throughout January, and we will keep you apprised of them. If you are a small business owner that wants to get involved with the Tucson First Coalition, please visit their website.

Thanks again everyone. We have some big news for all of you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Trent Humphries & Robert Mayer
Organizers, Tucson Tea Party

Tuesday, Dec 15: Important City Council Budget Meeting!

Hi everyone,

We urge you all to attend the City Council’s study session and regular meeting on Tuesday, December 15 at 255 W Alameda St, City Hall, Mayor and Council Chambers (map).

We will meet at 1 p.m. for the study session, which is a detailed discussion of the city’s major upcoming budget cuts; the regular session at 5:30 p.m. includes a public call to the audience in which you may voice your opinion to the council. If you can make both, great! If not, then make your voice heard at 5:30! Many groups are getting the word out, so it should be a good showing.

The City of Tucson is now facing a more dire financial future than previously predicted. Just following November’s City Council election, the new finance director reported that the city, due to decreased tax revenues, is now facing an additional $32 million dollar deficit in 2009. Further, there will be a $45 million dollar deficit in 2010 on top of $20 million dollars the city can’t spend because Prop 400 didn’t pass. This is obviously a massive budget shortfall.

City Manager Mike Letcher has recommended that every city department cut 15% across the board.

The Arizona Daily Star identifies what will take the biggest whack: Public Safety. Combined, more than 200 police and fire positions will be cut along with 3 fire stations closed, for a combined savings of $31 million dollars. Parks and Recreations takes the next slot, with $6 million in cuts.

The Tucson Tea Party has advocated for responsible city budget cuts since its inception on Tax Day 2009. This means prioritizing what is most important for a city government to fund and cutting funds to non-essential services and agencies much deeper than to these.

Our City Council gets a failing grade on both of these marks. The government has not just failed, but outright neglected to set basic budget priorities. They do not have the backbone necessary to make the right decisions for our community.

Yes, the looming budget crisis in our city may yet prove that some form of cuts or cost-saving measures are required of our public safety departments, but as of now our police officers and basic services are being put on the same level as funding to outside special interest groups. This is unacceptable.

Both Steve Kozachik (R) and Richard Fimbres (D) said in an interview that they do not support cutting public safety personnel and that tough decisions will have to be made regarding the rest of the city budget.

Last year, the City Council raised taxes by several million dollars in order to reduce cuts to city employee benefits and pensions, as well as grants to outside agencies. Rather than make the tough call, they made the wrong call.

We urge you all to attend these important City Council sessions on Tuesday, December 15, at 1 and 5:30 p.m. in order to make your voice heard on the city’s messed up priorities. Make sure to wear your red Tea Shirts!

Further, if you would like to contact the Mayor and Council, visit this website to obtain their phone numbers and email addresses.

See you on Tuesday!

Dec 2: Tele-Townhall with Senator Jon Kyl

Nov 10: Health Care Rally at Gabrielle Giffords’ Office

The Tucson Tea party has scheduled a health care rally outside of Representative Gabrielle Gifford’s office (Map)for Tuesday, November 10th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.

This bill is even worse than the last and violates many of the tenets that the Representative herself said that she would not vote for during her most recent set of town hall meetings. This could very well be her defining moment. Will she represent her people and her word, or her party leadership?

There is a chance that the vote could take place this weekend before the rally. Perhaps Representative Giffords will choose to do the right thing and we welcome that. The Tucson Tea Party isn’t necessarily “anti-Gifford’s”, but we do need to make sure that her votes and actions get the attention they deserve. Voting against insane government policy could do a lot to stifle some of the anti-incumbent sentiment that most recently bit several of the members of the Tucson City Council.

Come and join us, bring your on message signs, friends and family, and wear red. After the rally we will be meeting at the Fat Greek restaurant located on Swan (Map).

November 3: Election Day Rallies

Hi everyone,

This Tuesday, November 3, we will be holding election day rallies all around the city during the morning and evening rush hours to remind people to vote in this fateful city council election!

Please join us at one of the locations listed below between the hours of 7 am and 9 am as well as between 4 pm and 6 pm:

Mervyns — Broadway Blvd and Craycroft Rd
5555 E Broadway Blvd (map)

Dunkin Donuts — Swan Rd and Grant Blvd
4676 E Grant Rd (map)

Chuy’s — Pima / Tanque Verde / Wilmot Intersection
6310 E Tanque Verde Rd (map)

Davis-Monthan AFB Main Entrance — Craycroft Rd and Golf Links Blvd
2550 S Craycroft Rd (map)

Fry’s Grocery Store — Houghton Rd and Rita Rd
8080 S Houghton Rd (map)

Java Edge — Valencia and Nexus
9136 E Valencia Rd. (map)

If you plan on attending, please fill out this brief form letting us know which rally you plan to attend. This will help us plan accordingly.

We know that it is very tough to make it during these hours, but if you can, please do attend. One of our volunteers will be at every location to guide everyone. The rallies will begin at 7 am, at which point everyone will go to the street corners to remind oncoming traffic to vote.

Don’t forget to bring a sign that encourages people to vote, advocates for your favorite candidate, or gives a good reason why the city council needs a clean sweep! Also, please wear your red tea party shirt!

AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE ON TUESDAY!

Email, call, go door-to-door in your neighborhood, do whatever it takes to get your friends, family, and neighbors to the polling stations on Tuesday. Let them know how important it is that we have a change of leadership in this city.

If you don’t know where your polling station is, visit the Pima County Recorder’s website and type in your address.

Thank you all for keeping up the fight as we go into this election on Tuesday. This is an extremely close race, one of the closest Tucson has seen in a long time… and we can win it. We can turn this city around. So on Monday and Tuesday, let’s give it everything we can!

Trent Humphries & Robert Mayer
Organizers, Tucson Tea Party

Get Out The Vote Events

Hi everyone,

There is less than a week to go before City Council elections, which take place on Tuesday, November 3.

The opposition candidates Steve Kozachik and Ben Buehler-Garcia are neck-and-neck with Democratic incumbents Nina Trasoff and Karin Uhlich, and Shaun McClusky is gaining on Richard Gimbres.

Democrats and Independents are swinging over to support them in droves because our current Tucson City Council is just that bad.

The winners of this election will be determined by turnout, which means we need to GET OUT THE VOTE! This time, every vote really does matter!

If there was ever a time when you could make a difference, it is now. Please clear your schedules this Saturday and Tuesday mornings to join us at our Get-Out-The-Vote efforts. We need every last person available if we are going to unseat the incumbents.

Saturday, October 31: Get Out The Vote Walking

WHO: Tucson Tea Party and other organizations
WHAT: Walking with door hangers to remind people to vote
WHERE: Morris Udall Park, Ramada 7. 7290 E Tanque Verde Rd (map).
WHEN: 9 a.m.

Coffee and breakfast snacks will be provided. Please join us as we walk districts and remind people to vote! We really need as many people as possible.

Don’t forget to wear your red tea shirt!

Tuesday, November 3: City-wide Election Day Rallies

The Tucson Tea Party and the Jon Justice Show are teaming up to sponsor rallies all across the city on the morning of Tuesday, November 3, to remind people to vote that day. The rallies will be through the morning rush hour at critical locations around the city.

Please prepare and make time to be at the rally nearest you. We will be releasing a list of locations over the weekend.

And don’t forget to make a sign and wear your red tea shirt!

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