Many Pima County residents got to know John Backer during his campaign for Pima County Board of Supervisor – District 4 in 2016. Although he came up short, Backer’s humor and gentle but fearless conduct during candidate forums, radio interviews, and debates earned him fans.
Now, his willingness to tackle tough issues and stand up to the establishment has made him the focus of a witch hunt by leaders in the AZGOP.
|
Who is John Backer? After his loss in the Pima County Republican Primary, John found other ways to serve his community including:
|
On Monday, Backer appeared on the James T. Harris radio show to discuss the AZGOP’s source of angst.
Backer explained that he and many others have been hearing grumblings from GOP activists about AZGOP Chairman Jonathon Lines, who was elected in January 2017.
Those grumblings first focused on the secrecy surrounding the AZGOP finances. The grumblings turned to a roar when Lines went against personal commitments he had made to the AZGOP faithful to not name Matthew Kenney to serve as AZGOP Executive Director.
Kenney had referred to candidate Trump as a coward in a tweet and had attempted to whip up anti-Trump support at the State Convention. Kenney is a highly controversial figure, and his appointment by Lines was seen as a slap in the face for grass roots conservatives.
Backer first appeared on the James T. Harris show in April and talked about the situation, but carefully avoided calling for a recall at that time – instead he simply said “something has to be done.”
On Monday, Backer explained that he had created a website http://RecallLines.com and sent out an email to a number of the AZGOP State Committeemen to solicit opinions and comments to see if providing a way to share feedback in confidence could measure the level of support for a recall effort.
With more than 25 years of technical experience, Backer appears to be taking a careful, measured approach to addressing the issue. Backer says he has been solving problems for a long time including serving in the Air Force as an Aircraft Electrician on the A-10 and helping customers fight terrorism and find fraud, waste, and abuse.
Dissatisfaction with Lines is growing. Just this past Saturday, during the AZGOP Executive Committee meeting tempers flared. One attendee described the treatment of the grassroots by AZGOP leaders on the Arizona Freedom Alliance website: “It said that there is something more than just a difference of opinion, here. There seems to me to be the desire to vanquish, to control, to render conservatives ineffectual to the point of enforced nonparticipation. That is more than a difference of opinion. And there is an aggressiveness about it that alarmingly exceeds the occasion….”
During his campaign, Backer used humor and clever ideas to make the most of a limited budget. It will be interesting to see how Backer, and those who feel as he does, strive to bring about the changes grassroots conservatives have been asking for over five months now with no success.
| On the RecallLines.com website you can find a biography of Backer, an option to subscribe for updates, the text of the email he first sent out, links to several news articles, and the contents of another email he sent to those who have subscribed to receive updates posted on the “Feedback” menu option. |