Just weeks after posting a help wanted ad on Craig’s List in the hope of recruiting viable candidates to challenge incumbents, on Friday afternoon, John Backer applied for the job himself and filed as a candidate in the Pima County Supervisor District 4 race in the 2020 election cycle.
According to Backer, he received a great response from his ad and hopes others will join him in bringing change to Pima County.
Backer says he “immediately drove to Supervisor Steve Christy’s office to inform him directly that he had a challenger for the 2020 election, out of courtesy and respect,” but as is often the case, Christy was not in.
Christy’s support for tax increases that has caused him to lose considerable support with the residents of District 4. Because District 4 is comprised of the most fiscally conservative voters in the county, according to Backer, numerous activists have reached out to him to run for the position.
Backer won considerable name recognition during the 2016 primary election cycle. He won a respectable number of votes on a shoestring budget with virtually no name recognition in a 3-way race where he got a late start. Backer used creative approaches to reach people including his “Sign Wars” video and always performed well in debates and candidate forums.
Backer, a visual analytics expert, is very active in the Republican Party in his “spare time” while his work takes him across the globe.
After losing to Supervisor Christy in the 2016 election, Backer has remained active in local politics and community service. From serving as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner for the Town of Sahuarita and a Board of Adjustments Commissioner for Pima County District 4, to working on the successful defeat of Proposition 463 defending the GOP grassroots, Backer has kept busy.
“I feel compelled to enter the race based on Supervisor Christy’s troubling voting pattern. He has routinely supported new taxes for Pima county residents without requiring accountability for tax dollars that were, and are being wasted on questionable projects and crony deals,” stated John.
“Based on the record of Supervisor Christy and my track record during and after the 2016 election, the Supervisor race for District 4 will be interesting. We will bring creativity and good will to the race to build on the tremendous support we currently enjoy,” concluded John.