Wednesday, October 15th, 2008...1:38 pm
D-Trip Out
There is an interesting bit of fall out to last week’s repudiation by Gabrielle Giffords’s campaign of ads run against Tim Bee by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
For those that don’t remember the gory details, the DCCC ran ads attacking Bee Line, the bus company owned by members of Bee’s family (the swarm?). Giffords and her crew were none too pleased. The trouble is, organizations like the DCCC, by legal necessity, don’t run these ads with prior approval of the candidates that they are being run to help. Giffords’s folks had only one way to voice their displeasure, and that was by sending out a press release disavowing the ad and asking that the DCCC pull it.
At the request of the DCCC, two local stations have cancelled the ad, while KVOA has a strict cancellation period that means ads will run until October 27th. The ads will be replaced with an older ad connecting Bee with President Bush.
Here’s the kicker: the DCCC has decided to pull out of the race entirely. They have no time reserved beyond the current ad run. They aren’t changing message; they are leaving. In other words, they are no longer bothering with a race they already believe is being won by the local campaign.
11 Comments
October 15th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I’m glad they pulled that ad. I hadn’t heard of the fallout, but I thought it was an irrelevant and seemingly desperate ad that would only need to be run if Gabby was behind. Have there been any polls released in AZ08? (your disdain for polls notwithstanding, of course) The DCCC certainly has the resources to continue to compete here, unlike the NRCC. So the fact that they’re comfortable pulling away means something different than the NRCC never really getting involved in the first place.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I’m not really surprised the DCCC is pulling out, Giffords is running a great campaign. She has great staff and a ton of great volunteers. This is coupled with a well targeted field effort and a coherent message.
Bee on the other hand, is all over the place. Is he a moderate, is he a conservative? And from what I hear he is not targeting the right group of voters to win this one.
It ain’t over til it’s over, but looks to me like this swarm of bees may be suffering from colony collapse disorder.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
No, haven’t you heard? Bee is an “Indepedent for a Change”. Won’t even identify himself as a Republican in his ads, in a plurality-R district!
October 16th, 2008 at 1:10 am
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=48994
PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2003:
Easy Ride
The Tanque Verde School Board is preparing to give a key politico’s company a sweetheart deal.
By CHRIS LIMBERIS email this author
The Tanque Verde School Board is primed to bail out a company owned by influential state Sen. Tim Bee and his brother with a real estate deal for a bus yard and office next to the district’s headquarters.
The Bee Line, operated by the second-term Republican and his brother and Senate predecessor, Keith Bee, wants to switch from tenant to landlord on a parcel that adjoins the Tanque Verde bus yard and is east of the district offices at 11150 E. Tanque Verde Road.
Taxpayers already subsidized the Bee Line this year after the company fell behind on the $725 monthly rent. Tanque Verde officials also allowed the Bees to use the property after the lease expired in February.
Rather than face eviction, Keith Bee eventually paid the back rent while he simultaneously pitched the proposal for Tanque Verde to use space on the adjoining Bee property. Such an arrangement will clear the Bee buses from the district’s lot. More important, Keith Bee is hoping his company will therefore be able to circumvent Pima County zoning and building codes, records show.
Under the proposal, set for board approval Sept. 11, the Bee Line will open its own bus yard and office on two acres of residential-zoned land just north of the district’s bus yard. The Bee brothers will then free up space for the Tanque Verde school buses and lease the parcel to the district for $1 a year.
Keith Bee, a five-term senator representing the Tanque Verde Valley and other east Tucson and Green Valley areas, bought the property for $135,000 in 1999, according to county records.
Zoning at CR1 allows not a bus yard but two homes. Without the nominal lease with Tanque Verde, the Bees “would not be able to fence, grade, put down gravel or house a portable office because of zoning issues,” Superintendent Denise Ryan told the school board in an Aug. 8 memo.
By signing the nominal lease with Tanque Verde schools, the Bee brothers are hoping to piggyback on land use law that generally allows school districts to use property as they please. County officials say there is no guarantee in this case.
Keith Bee has asserted that the new arrangement will save Tanque Verde taxpayers, but one proposal had the district paying an equal $6,500 share for initial improvements, records show.
Some neighbors already have issues with Bee Line’s use of the district’s property, particularly when the large touring coach is fired up.
Among the problems cited by Carolyn Gould, director of Tanque Verde school transportation, are “complaints from neighboring houses. Diesel smoke, noise late at night and on weekends. Bee Line has been asked to move their buses in the main parking lot in the morning to ‘pre-trip,’ them. Only a few drivers are doing this,” Gould said in an 2001 assessment.
Exhaust from the coach bus, Gould said, “creates a dust storm, which keeps our district vehicles and vans filthy.”
Gould listed five other problems in the 2001 memo and confirmed in a new memo on Aug. 6 to the Tanque Verde board that “all of the problems listed are still problems today.”
Tim Bee’s position in the Senate–and his role on the appropriations committee–as Tanque Verde progresses with its controversial plan for a new high school prompted at least one board member to demand kid-glove treatment for the Bee Line.
Board member Doug Hughes unilaterally ordered Ryan and Associate Superintendent Marty O’Shea to not rile the Bee brothers while start-stop funding for the high school was on legislative tables, O’Shea said.
“Doug came into my office and told me to back off,” O’Shea said. “He told Denise Ryan the same thing. This is when we were talking to Keith Bee about the late rent and the expired lease. You know me; I like to have the document. We didn’t have a lease.”
O’Shea said Hughes, who sells school textbooks, said he was not solely focused on Tim Bee’s vote to preserve funding for the high school, but for educational funding in general.
State policy prohibits members of school boards from issuing individual orders. Directives must be approved by the full board in open session.
But it worked. Tim Bee subsequently did not recuse himself from a key vote on funding for the high school, which has caused civil war in Tanque Verde and prompted a recall drive of Board President Dr. Sherrylyn Young.
Neither Hughes nor Tim Bee returned calls from The Weekly.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I notice the DCCC ad tying Bee to Bush and criticizing him for sticking the taxpayers with the security necessary for the Current Occupant’s fundraiser is still running. It’s a good ad. I hope the Giffords campaign is able to keep running it.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Charlie Cook has upgraded his ranking of AZ08 (and AZ05, for that matter) from Lean Democratic to Likely Democratic. Link (subscription is required for the original post, so I provide the link to the DCCC bragging page): http://dccc.org/blog/archives/cook_report_gop_staring_at_2008_worst_case_scenario/
Good news for Gabby (and Harry).
October 17th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Oh, and AZ01 got the same upgrade, so good news for Ann too. We’re very likely looking at a Dem majority in the AZ House delegation for the first time in a while…
October 18th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Also there is a politicker article that now says the DCCC is drastically scaling back its ads in AZ-5 too! The DCCC pulling out in 5 and 8 is a huge vote of confidence to Giffords and Mitchell and the campaigns that they have run.
http://www.politickeraz.com/evanbrown/2531/dccc-pulling-out-az-8-reducing-presence-az-5
October 18th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Awesome news…I knew it. Now they can spend more fighting for Lord and working hard on Shaddegg…and in other states.
October 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Can someone tell me what the Tim Bee Arizona Trust is? I am hearing conservative blogs claim it as adding to his total?
I am guessing…only guessing…it is a way for folk who have maxed out in donations, to continue donating? Am I wrong?
October 20th, 2008 at 11:29 am
These are the same jack-asses that bullied my Dad into hiring that twit Peter Fenn 2000 campaign. They promised us money and then withdrew support. From what I understand they weren’t very supportive of Volgy either. If Democrats don’t want to be accused of being Snooty, elitist East Coast condesceding bastards, they need to start respecting Arizona Democrats and not treating us like a bunch of hicks. This is right their with Donna Brazile’s brilliant decision to not allow Gore to spend Money in Arizona. Memo to DCCC and East Coast Democrats, pull your heads out…..we are all on the same team.