Interference in Local Elections

To the National Republican Congressional Committee:

To quote the Arizona Daily Star August 31, 2006, “In a highly unorthodox move, national Republicans have decided to spend more than $122,000 on primary race television ads endorsing Steve Huffman for Congress”.

Tell me this is not true! Do you know who you are supporting? Steve Huffman has a 57% attendance race in the Arizona Congress. He was a member of the Environmental Committee and managed to attend 4 out of 9 meetings. Anyone else would have been told not to come back if they had shirked their job to that degree. And now the National Republican Congressional Committee is attempting to forward Steve Huffman’s candidacy. This lack of attention to the elected position is of great concern to me. I want to support a candidate who will actually attend, not a candidate who only bothers to attend when he is pushing some special interest.

I reviewed the House Bills sponsored by Mr. Huffman and was not pleased with his agenda, which was mostly to provide tax breaks for special interests who have contributed to his campaigns. Since Mr. Huffman is a real estate broker, it did not surprise me that he was against a bill that would have forced any landowner to disclose a lack of water resources on land sold to unsuspecting buyers. Arizona is having problems coping with growth and groundwater resources are failing, according to Tucson Water. Mr. Huffman and his contributors appear relentless in setting things up for their own profits, while ignoring the public good and the possibility of water rationing if the Central Arizona Project water infusions to southern Arizona are decreased or even cut off due to a water shortfall in the Colorado River System.

Mr. Huffman apparently considers himself to be an Arizona constitutional expert, since he introduced 2 amendments to it during the last session. Both amendments were designed for special interests to circumvent current law and cater to the wealthy in a state where most people are not wealthy. Mr. Huffman has been reputed as saying that winning an election is all about money and that the candidate with the most money wins. Currently, about 40% of Mr. Huffman’s campaign contributions are from those who profit from real estate sales, while the average home price in Arizona has climbed to the point where many people are left permanently landless due to an inability to pay the inflated prices. We do not need further negative influence in our economy that results in impoverishment and possible social unrest.

Mr. Huffman also exhibits a lack of respect for the vote. He introduced HB 2702, the Rio Nuevo extension. Rio Nuevo is a special tax district within Tucson that was enabled by a popular vote that allowed for matching funds to be contributed by the city of Tucson, which amounts to about $750,000 a month for city to pay in return to tax rebates to be used for downtown renovation. Mr. Huffman did not believe this 12 year extension of the Rio Nuevo tax obligation needed another vote, while I feel that the voters should have been able to OK further expenditures, and possibly not be forced to pay and pay for special upscale interests downtown. Tucson is not a rich city. Homelessness is pervasive, the crime rate is high, and the police are seriously understaffed, yet this $750,000 a month is earmarked by HB 2702 for 12 more years. We should have had the right to vote on this expenditure, but thanks to Mr. Huffman and his contributors and an apparent vote trading scheme that benefited telecommunications companies, Rio Nuevo is siphoning needed funds from the city’s coffers. This is despotism and corruption from the top down and we certainly don’t need this kind of attitude in Washington D.C.

Mr. Huffman was also supporting the Regional Transportation Authority bond election and a large portion of the work proposed will heavily benefit Diamond Ventures, a powerful campaign donor to Mr. Huffman. Scandal swirled around this election. The pro RTA committee bought 22 spots in the election literature mailed out to voters, but took credit for only two, which left voters thinking those people had actually paid for expressing their opinions, when they had been subsidized by the pro RTA committee. I believe this was voter information fraud but the pro RTA committee people shrugged it off as an oversight.

I do hope you reconsider this interference in Arizona elections. The locals know their candidates and you are apparently unaware of the issues facing Arizona or you would not be propping up this candidate. If you have accepted a huge donation in return for this support, then please review your priorities. This kind of candidate is why the Republican Party is in trouble. Mr. Huffman is definitely not a moderate in any sense of the word. He is beholden to the wealthy and is ignoring the needs of the majority of the populace. Somebody needs to research Mr. Huffman’s campaign donations due to the repetitive nature of donations from several sources, which may or may not have been coerced as a condition of employment. Perhaps some phone calls are in order.

At a recent Candidates’ Breakfast hosted by Tucson Republican Women, Mr. Huffman made a poor showing and was heavily criticized for negative campaigning. Did you do any real research before making the decision to infuse $122,000 into Mr. Huffman’s moribund campaign? I protest this interference in our election.