Nowakowski is the first Hispanic to become Vice-Mayor in this century as well as the first Polish-Mexican to achieve this distinction since statehood.

It’s funny to watch Rose, with his innumerable fingers in the punch bowl, going after a candidate because of the ties of her consultants. Given how much money the payday lenders have been spreading around (say it ain’t so Mike Vespoli!), is it inevitable that we will see Rose talk up the wonders of the payday loan industry in his relentless Twitstream?

Only one of Rose’s clients is the talk of politicos in the Valley of the Yakes this week: that he is now doing public relations work for Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. The scandal that prompted this has been given coverage elsewhere. The folks over at Sonoran Alliance, who have been skeptical of Rose in the past, are asking why Rose would be working with a Democrat. The response from many Democrats is, Gordon is a Democrat?

It’s actually even more complicated than that, something that Los Sonorenses seem to recognize. Rose does PR work for Joe Arpaio, who Gordon has a very public dispute with. This means that Rose was likely shaping the message against Gordon when he was calling out Arpaio. Rose has been doing work for J. D. Hayworth, who is prepping for a run against John McCain. Gordon is a McCain supporter and his federal PAC (yes, he’s got a federal PAC, that’s what caused this problem in the first place) gave McCain $5000. It goes beyond Rose: the woman at the center of the dispute has also worked for the very conservative Sal DiCiccio.

The tangled web of the same group of consultants getting work and interests getting their way no matter who is in charge is a symptom of a trouble I’ve had with Phoenix politics for a while.

Despite Gordon being sold to us Democrats as a “centrist” who can get elected, it looks like he surrounds himself with the exact same crowd as would be around if a Republican got elected. He and his supporters would argue that because of Phoenix’s non-partisan elections, he works with Republicans. Well, Republicans work with Democrats in partisan systems too, but the two sides bring different sets of interests to the table. It seems that the constant talk of “non-partisanship” is just a cloak for enforcing a right-of-center consensus among one portion of Phoenix’s civic leadership.

Any wonder why these guys want non-partisan elections in Tucson here too?

Ruben Gallego is is finishing off the last of his case files for Councilman Michael Nowakowski’s office and will make a run for the State House in Distict 16. Gallego is part of a new crop of younger Hispanics running for the legislature up in Phoenix this year that includes Jimmie Muñoz Jr., Cristy Lopez (both of whom are running in District 16 as well) and Martín Quezada.

Gallego served in the United States Marine Corps and did a tour of duty along the Syrian border in Iraq. The company he was with was responsible for capturing insurgents and had some of the highest casualty rates of any Marine company in the war. Some of the stories of his unit were documented in a movie called Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company, which I’ve been told is worth seeking out.

Let me give you a frinstance: one of the major bones of contention between Dana Kennedy and Sal DiCiccio is the extension of the loop 202. The extension is opposed by neighborhood activists and evironmentalists who just see this as a boon to developers who want to open up yet more land to development. DiCiccio is actually campaigning as a supporter of this project, and, unfortunately, the media and many parts of the political establishment up in Phoenix seem to be lauding him for it.

What’s worse is that DiCiccio’s enthusiasm for this project is more because of his real estate holdings than any sort of care about the future of Phoenix.

- Shaun McClusky addressed a meeting of NAWBO. He was asked if, under proposition 200, the city council could change the fire response provisions should standards change. He said they could. Of course, they can’t since 200 is a charter amendment that can’t be changed by council fiat. You know, the Republican argument that the council are all incompetent idiots would be more credible if weren’t supporting a candidate that continues to show a lack of knowledge of the basics of Tucson government.

- The Tea Party folks continue to shop around the story that anti-200 activists who attended the event at the tax-payer financed Tucson Electric Park had some secret plan to “rush the stage” when Andrew Napolitano spoke. “DowntownHipster” (probably Tea Party organizer Robert Meyer, who refers to himself as such) posted news of this “secret plan” to the Weekly’s comment section. There are a bunch of reasons that this is an idiotic charge, most of all because it would have been a poor way for the anti-200 folks to make their case. Think about this for a second: these guys were trying to get support from the crowd, but they wanted to disrupt the event? Does that make any sense? I mean, that sort of tactic would be downright teabaggerish.

- From the Glass Houses and Motes in Your Neighbor’s Eye Department: Sal DiCiccio thought he could get all sorts of traction by alleging that Dana Kennedy was supported by out of state donors. The score: Kennedy has raised $5,600 out of state, while DiCiccio has raised $24,000. Oops.

By the way, DiCiccio has spent over $15,000 dollars on his website. What the heck is up with that?

- Democrats hit Steve Kozachik last week for statements Kozachik has made saying that the city should not finance a downtown convention center hotel. Wow. Has he talked to his fellow party members in the legislature who have all but mandated that Rio Nuevo funds must go to convention center improvements? Improvements that would be useless without the new hotel? Hey, this might be an example of Kozachik applying his expertise managing projects for the U of A athletic department. He’ll just get Richard Jefferson to write a check, right?

- Oh, I suppose we should give a “flower” now that the Star has put Rhonda Bodfield, an excellent reporter with actual campaign experience too, on the political beat full time. What galls me, and here is the “thorn,” is that we went weeks with little or no political coverage on the verge of a city election.
In that time, the Star made a big deal about a new wine column. Obviously, much more important than who is running our community.