Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Mark Kimble is a decent enough guy, plus he reads this blog which means he is a well informed Tucsonense. The last time I spoke to him, he took issue with my love of the beautiful game, but I won’t hold that against him.

I do, however, take issue with his piece in yesterday’s Citizen. He implies that Ken Green, the losing candidate in Tuesday’s Ward 1 primary was a Don Quixote spurned and mistreated by the Establishment. Let’s leave aside how silly it is for an editor of one of our daily newspapers to complain about the Establishment. Last I checked, the Tucson Citizen is firmly a part of this town’s Establishment.

Green, who I only met once in passing, is a solid citizen. His leadership of the A-Mountain Neighborhood Association and community involvement are laudable. However, he often demonstrated that he wasn’t well versed in the issues facing the council. “We need to do something about it,” may be how most of us feel about the problems facing our city, but it is well short of an adequate answer from someone who wants us to grant him leadership.

Green’s showing in the race had a lot to do with his inability to come up with solid answers. He was called “vague” at one point. That wasn’t from me, that was from the Tucson Citizen’s endorsement of Regina Romero. That’s right, Kimble’s own paper didn’t endorse Green. So much for taking sides with the poor, beleaguered little guy.

As for the notion that somehow the Establishment didn’t give the guy a chance, this is another piece of silliness. A perusal of his finance reports show that he took contributions from Steve Emerine (who created the Establishment’s secret handshake) and former council member Chuck Ford. He even got a check from Vince Rabago, chair of the Pima County Democratic Party.

Kimble gives as evidence of the shabby treatment of Green his lack of an invitation to the primary night party, comparing him to a losing high school student council candidate dissed by the “cool kids.” Here’s the funny thing about those parties: nobody actually gets invited. People hear about them (details were published here and on the party’s website). In fact, the party sent out e-mails to its list of around 4000 people telling folks about the get-together. Green, when giving his contact information to the Democrats, neglected to include an e-mail address. No conspiracy here to keep Green down. No shutting him out. No disinvitation to the party’s reindeer games. By the way: Kimble was at the party too. Apparently, he missed it when Rabago heaped praise on both Green and Robert Reuss.

Rabago, as he did with all the candidates, offered party resources, such as the bulk mail stamp and use of the headquarters. Green didn’t take him up on the offer. Doesn’t exactly sound like the guy got snubbed.

The funniest part about all of this is that here this woman, who grew up the youngest of six siblings to farmworkers in Somerton, is being cast as the big bad insider.

Does this mean that the next time SAHBA and crew try to take someone down we’ll see another Kimble article decrying the Establishment?