WUT radio spent Friday morning at the Viscount watching a candidate forum put on by Metropolitan Pima Alliance (MPA).  The crowd of 70+ was made up of engineers, architects and land planners mostly affiliated with the growth industry.  The audience sees first hand day in and day out how challenging it is to get projects through the maze of Tucson bureaucracy.

The forum was moderated by Bud Foster from KOLD News (see the video news coverage here) The format was commentary by candidates on predetermined questions. The topics discussed were predominately business focused. Each candidate and incumbent took their valuable time explaining just how business friendly our community is or will be in the next four years. 

The program ran out of time for question and answers but one audience member asked why so many Rio Nuevo design contracts were being sent out of state even with a room full of qualified professionals willing and able to do the work. If you follow Rio Nuevo over the past few years you’ll notice there are a lot of plans on top of plans on top of plans. Keeping  that money local is a justifiable concern.

I couldn’t help but leave the forum thinking that if Tucson were in fact as pro business and business friendly as the candidates had expressed we’d really have something to be proud of.  If we were just HALF as welcoming to business as the candidates claimed we’d have other communities visiting us from around the country to learn from our best practices. If we were 10% as business friendly as the speeches we heard that morning our shiny city on the hill would have smooth streets, low crime, rising property values, safe neighborhoods, after school programs, a vibrant art community, full employment and a growing middle class.   

Posted: Oct 23, 2009 1:50 PM MST Updated: Oct 23, 2009 1:50 PM MST

By Bud Foster – email

For Tucson city council candidates, election day has become like the move “Groundhog Day”. Every day, is election day.

Candidates shake more hands, speak to more groups and do more “one on ones” than they did in the past.

That’s because this is the first election in Tucson where the permanent early voting list is being used.

“In a city race which doesn’t get a lot of attention, these kinds of events are very important,” says Joe Higgins, host of the Tucson radio talk show, Wake Up Tucson. “Because it gives the candidates and elected officials to actually get one on one interaction with the people in the business community and neighborhood associations or whomever it might be.”

This morning local politics was at it’s finest at the Viscount for the Metropolitian Pima Alliance Tucson city council candidate forum. The crowd was made up of mostly business people from the growth industry. Architects, planners, engineers and general contractors that are on the front line were in attendance to hear a report of how our City Council is doing and to hear the agenda for the next four years.

The question and answers session was limited to one comment on Rio Nuevos propensity to hire out of area experts to do much of the design work – a lot of designs and redesigns and redesigns.

The candidates in attendance included Nina Trasoff, Karin Uhlich, Richard Fimbres and Ben Buehler-Garcia. Absent were Sean McKlusky and Steve Kozachik.  The candidates recieved the questions prior to the event and read or embelished on written notes.  Bud Foster from KOLD 13 News moderated the forum.

Most of the questions were business in nature and most revolved around fixing cultures, making the city more business friendly and removing barriers to getting projects moving forward.  Each candidate out did the other on how much has been done in the past four years and how great it’s going to be in the next. 

Let’s just say that if Tucson were half as pro-business as we heard today we’d be a national example on economic prosperity. We’d have city planners from around the world beating a path to our door to learn from our best practices. 

If we were 10% as easy as we heard this morning to grow and expand a business we’d have fully staffed police and fire, low crime, amazing parks, open space, low taxes, smooth streets, unlimited after school programs and virtually 0% unemployment.  You get the point. 

Bookmark this blog post and check back in 4 years and we’ll see if the promises made on the campaign trail actually came true.

Ballot changes cause campaign changes

In the past, the candidates would just blast the media a week before election. They can’t do that anymore.

“Some of the talk I’m hearing,” says Guymon, “some of the information I’m getting from people who conduct these polls suggests, that this could come right down to the wire.”

And in races where a few votes here or there could make a difference, each small forum could make the difference when the votes are counted.

That means tens of thousands of Tucson voters will get a ballot in the mail even if they don’t ask for it.

For some it’s a convenience they welcome. For others, it will be a reminder an election is just around the corner whether they welcome it or not.

But once it arrives in the mail, it will most likely be filled out and mailed back. It will probably mean a higher voter turnout.

But for the candidates themselves, it means election day runs from early October to November 3^rd.

“So every day they have to be on message, they have to be on target and they have to be sure they get their message out to the voters,” says Michael Guymon, executive director the Metropolitan Pima Alliance.

Guymon and the MPA held a forum for the Tucson city council candidates so the membership, made up mostly of business people and owners, could hear what they have to say about business and business operations in Tucson.

Some of the candidates say they attend and speak to as many as three forums a day.

It’s difficult to tell how many votes might be in a small audience.

66,908 of the ballots have been sent out. 20,315 have been returned and mail-in usually exceeds a 90% return. So many more are yet to come and the candidates have no way of knowing when or by whom.

So every day, they campaign.