Dear Voters ~
Thank you for voting against the Pima County Bonds. You have shown that democracy works – if we work it. However flawed, and downright gruesome when a vote doesn’t go the way we want, democracy – the right to make our choice peacefully through the ballot box – is still the best system humankind has yet developed for decision-making.
Despite being out-spent 30 to 1; despite Yes endorsements from the media, from business groups, from labor, from churches, from the Democrat Party, from special interest groups who would benefit from the bonds; from all the power-wielders in our society; and despite negative attacks from those who should know better – you still exercised your free choice to say, “Not this time.”
There were certainly some good projects in the bond package, and hopefully they will find their way to us again without the baggage and burden of being wrapped in corporate greed or political chicanery or misleading math.
In a parliamentary system the Pima County government would now step down and call for new elections, but that is not the way we work. Still, the November 3 vote was, in fact, a failed Vote of Confidence. The Board of Supervisors must look at the maneuvering and manipulation by the chief architect of the measures and perhaps encourage his retirement.
Just consider the “Sonoran Corridor:” Added to the bond measure late, then tied in with politically-popular road repairs, then moved up in priority while those repairs were stretched out over 12 years, then sold to federal legislators, its failure marks a rejection by the people, and in a democracy the people still count.
That highway, labeled “I-11” on maps from the County Administrator’s office more than once, might have won support if it simply linked I-10 and I-19 near Raytheon, the airport and the UA Tech Park. But dropping it south to gift a Diamond Ventures proposed development, and then west to link to his proposed Interstate 11 route that would destroy the communities, wildlife and archaeological riches of the Avra Valley – that inspired hundreds to stand up and fight the bonds to save their homeland.
It is important to remember, in this election, that all kinds of political lines were blurred in the No coalition that emerged. Tucson, for instance, is majority Democrat and reelected Democrats while turning down the bonds endorsed by the Democrat Party. Those to the Right who bemoan the “Demoncrats” need to rethink their prejudices, just as those to the Left should rethink theirs. What this election showed was that good people of all political persuasions can work together when the cause is just. Thank you all.
Albert Lannon, Avra Valley Coalition