You CAN fight City Hall! Steve Kozachik wins!

Hi everyone,

As you have seen, the Tucson Tea Party has been engaged in more than just the issues coming out of Washington, D.C. We have also been working tremendously hard to effect local change. The Democratic Party has controlled every seat on the city council since 2005, during which time we have seen hundreds of millions of dollars flushed down the drain, new taxes enacted, and a generally unfriendly business climate that drives away jobs from our community.

I am happy to inform you that this hard work is paying off! Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, the chairwoman of the board overseeing the hundreds of millions wasted on downtown redevelopment, is now no longer a councilwoman.

Steve Kozachik has defeated Nina Trasoff by approximately 1700 votes! The Tucson Tea Party fought Trasoff tooth-and-nail, and we beat her. This goes to show that you CAN fight city hall — and win! This is a major and unprecedented victory!

Many of us met Steve back at our first Tax Day Tea Party on April 15. He spoke to the crowd of nearly 4000 people, blasting the corruption and mismanagement in our city government. He ran on that platform, promising to clean up the city government and make Tucson business-friendly. He blasted the council for being asleep at the wheel.

Since April 15, outside of the massive events that we hold, many tea partiers have given Steve their time and money. Tea Partiers want to see a Tucson that welcomes new business, is fiscally responsible with its money, and has a vision for future growth and prosperity. It’s a pretty simple platform. Steve is, essentially, the tea party candidate.

The City Council needs leadership, not another rubber stamp. We hope that Steve will stick to his guns and work hard to bring about these changes as our new councilman.

The race between Ben Buehler-Garcia and incumbent Councilwoman Karin Uhlich has also finally drawn to a close. Unfortunately, Uhlich has scraped by and appears to have won her seat back by a mere 195 votes. Ben ran a great campaign and we hope to see more of him in the future.

There are broad lessons to be drawn from this election that we hope Councilwoman Uhlich and the rest of the incumbents will learn:

1. The voters are mad. Democrats out-register Republicans 2-1 in Tucson. Yet Nina Trasoff, who won 65.19% of the vote in 2005, just lost with 48.62% of the vote. Karin Uhlich had 61.45% of the vote in 2005 and barely won this time around with 46.99%. This means that the voters, by and large, understand that our current city council has sat on its hands for four years. They crossed party lines to vote no confidence.

2. People want competence and leadership, not party politics. This is the first time a Democratic incumbent has been defeated in a city council election since the 1977 water rates recall. Mary DeCamp, the Green Party candidate in ward 3, got 6.16% of the vote. I’m willing to bet that many of these votes came from independents and people of both registered Democrats and Republicans who are more disgusted than ever with both parties. The current city councilmen who were not up for re-election this time around should take notice and get to work.

3. The Tucson Tea Party is a force to be reckoned with. The Chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party, Jeff Rogers, has tried to paint Tea Partiers as marginalized extremists. What he doesn’t seem to understand is that our message of fiscal responsibility and economic growth is one that resonates with most people, which is why our movement has grown so large in just a few months. The influx of energy due to the tea parties has activated thousands of people previously not involved in politics. These new activists are not going away any time soon and will continue to put the pressure on our government.

4. You CAN fight city hall! There are common issues that most Tucsonans agree upon, and rather than be divided along party lines, we can come together to enact real change. In this election, every single vote really mattered. Your hard work is turning this city around. Let’s keep it up!

We believe that anyone without heaping globs of wax in their ears heard this message loud and clear. While we hope that the whole council gets it, we see great potential if city council Democrats like Shirley Scott, Rodney Glassman, and newly elected Richard Fimbres can work with Steve Kozachik to balance the budget, conduct a thorough external and independent audit of Rio Nuevo funds, and implement reforms to make this city business-friendly.

However, we will judge the new city council on its actions rather than its words. The voters will no longer stand for empty promises. Two years until the next city council election is not far away; indeed, it may come sooner if we don’t see change.

The Tucson Tea Party will continue the fight at all levels of government. We have an exciting year ahead of us, and we hope that you will continue to be involved as we head into the 2010 congressional election.

Remember to join us on Tuesday, November 10 at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ office. It is time to let her know that her YES votes on cap-and-trade as well as the upcoming healthcare bill are unacceptable to the residents of Congressional District 8.

Again, thank you for all the work you have done to see real change beginning to occur in our city. We will see you on Tuesday!

Trent Humphries & Robert Mayer
Organizers, Tucson Tea Party