Getting caught up

We’re back after a quick break … The big, beautiful border … And it’s too soon, Juan.

How do we catch everyone up when talking about the special election in Congressional District 7 that’s just eight days away?

To start, social media consultant Deja Foxx released a poll putting her in second place in the race, eight points behind former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva.

We spoke to several pollsters not connected to the CD7 race and they voiced the same concerns about the polling methodologies — specifically using targeted advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

With no other public polling available, we don’t have much else to go on.

Anecdotally, our social feeds are filled with CD7 Democrats arguing about who makes the better candidate — Grijalva vs Foxx.

David Hogg’s political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, endorsed Foxx last week citing in part her recent poll numbers. In April, Hogg announced he would spend $20 million to primary Democratic incumbents who he felt were “asleep at the wheel.”

The PAC gave Foxx just $5,000 for her campaign as of the reporting deadline.

A new mailer from the same anonymous PAC that got our first fact-check — Tucson Families Fed Up — sent out another mailer attacking Grijalva, but this time making an endorsement backing Foxx.

PACs, as independent expenditure groups, cannot coordinate with campaigns directly but Tucson Families Fed Up has spent roughly $94,000 so far attacking Grijalva.

We still find it suspicious that the mailer attacks Grijalva on three out of four specific topics outlined in Daniel Hernandez’s campaign website’s redbox.

The fourth point accurately said Grijalva politically supported Proposition 414 earlier this year, which Tucson voters overwhelming rejected.

The new ad from Tucson Families Fed Up also earns a three out of five chupacabras for its false or largely overstated attacks on Grijalva.

Speaking of the CD7 special election, today is the last day to request a ballot from the Pima County Recorder’s Office to be mailed to you and tomorrow is the recommended deadline to mail your ballot back in.

Project Blue revisited — sort of

Last week’s Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting was also filled with some notable surprises.

Many were Project Blue-related, but the supervisors did not reconsider the sale of the land to the developer of the proposed data centers as some had hoped.

It was during a discussion about a contract for economic development with the newly formed Chamber of Southern Arizona — a merger of Sun Corridor and the Tucson Chamber of Commerce — that we heard some pretty big bombshells.

Chamber of Southern Arizona Treasurer Fletcher McCusker told the supervisors that once Project Blue’s end-user is officially announced, it will spark a new wave of interest in companies looking to expand to the Old Pueblo.

“Tucson is going to be on everybody's radar in the world,” McCusker said, signaling he is one of a handful of Tucsonans who knows who the developer is and is bound to a non-disclosure agreement.

Later in the same discussion, McCusker warned the same end-user would pull up stakes if their name was made public before they wanted it disclosed.

”They do not want their name in the public domain,” McCusker said. “They've made it crystal clear to us that ‘if our name gets out there, we're done, we walk.’ So it's an all or nothing proposition.”

The supervisors are deadlocked on the chamber contract vote 2-2, with Supervisor Matt Heinz expected to be the tie-breaker when the contract comes back for another vote.

Two items added to the agenda by Supervisor Jennifer Allen passed along party lines, instructing county administration to draw up new policies to require environmental impact reviews for proposed economic development projects in Pima County and to revisit the county’s use of non-disclosure agreements with private companies.

We found this nugget in the Project Blue FAQ. For the record, we don’t know how much water it will use, how much power it will need, how many data centers will ultimately be built, how much traffic it will generate, nor the name of the end user, which apparently is so secret, the company would back out of the deal if we found out.

Both items are by-products of the county’s handling of Project Blue, which led to multiple supervisors complaining they were signing agreements with third-party proxies and have no clue who the end user would be at the data centers, nor do they know how much power and water they would be using.

A lack of an environmental assessment also means the supervisors are largely in the dark about the impact these planned data centers will have on the environment, including the region’s air quality.

Don’t get too optimistic about the two policies until they come back before the supervisors in September.

County staff and economic development experts cautioned that these changes could work against the county in the long-term.

Specifically, they’re concerned the new policies could make Pima County less competitive with rival communities trying to attract new businesses.

Big, beautiful bill — bad vibes

Tucson Congressman Juan Ciscomani put out a statement after voting with the GOP majority to pass the controversial federal spending bill.

It didn’t take long for his would-be Congressional District 6 rivals — all Democrats — to throw major shade after the bill passed.

Retired Marine JoAnna Mendoza called him “a coward.” Immigration attorney Mo Goldman recorded a video in front of Ciscomani’s office saying the Republican congressman was loyal to “Trump and the billionaire class.”

Engineer Chris Donat asked what Trump promised him to betray CD6 and followed-up with a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog meme.

Aiden Swallow, who recently announced their candidacy, called used the term “Simpcomani” in their Instagram post criticizing the Republican congressman.

Suiting up for a crackdown: The federal budget that Congress approved last week delivered a massive boost to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, Ariana Figueroa reports for the Arizona Mirror. The bill includes $170 billion for ICE agents, detention centers, border walls, and other tools President Donald Trump needs for a mass deportation program. During a previous era of hardline immigration policies, Tucson humanitarian volunteer Dora Rodriguez barely survived a trek through the Sonoran Desert, a harrowing ordeal she recounts in her new memoir, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. At the same time as the Trump administration is trying to get rid of Latin Americans in the U.S., they’re also adopting the political tactics of Latin American dictators, Star columnist Tim Steller writes.

“The masked men seizing people from the streets. The browbeating and threats against judges. The targeting of critical news outlets. The companies, law firms, and universities forced to bow and pay tribute or face punishment. The leader using his power to enrich himself and his family. The cult of personality that dominates our politics,” Steller writes.

Moral documents: While ICE is sitting on a pile of cash, federal grants for education in Tucson are in limbo due to a funding freeze, the Arizona Luminaria’s Shannon Conner reports. The Tucson Unified School District doesn’t know what’s going to happen to $6 million that was meant to pay for a wide array of programs, including after-school programs and English language instruction. The Trump administration is reviewing $6 billion in grants, which administration officials say could be used to support immigrants who are in the country without authorization or to promote LGBTQ+ programs.

Unanswered questions: Arizona’s new water law is being hailed as a balm for the housing shortage, but it doesn’t fully address groundwater, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. The new policy, known as “Ag to Urban,” allows housing developers to use water that previously would have been used on farms. Now, officials have to find more water to replenish aquifers, even as the methods they already rely on are getting shaky.

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Oumuamua’s cousin: A sharp-eyed engineer at the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, David Rankin, captured an image of what could be just the third interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the New York Times reports. Astronomers from all over the globe are watching the object, known as 3I/ATLAS, make its way from the Jupiter region toward the inner solar system.

New face on the bench: Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed a new judge to Pima County Superior Court. Judge Kristin Schriner, a Democrat, will take over the vacancy left by Judge James Marner’s retirement earlier this year, the Tucson Sentinel’s Adrian O’Farrill reports. Schriner served as a commissioner in the county’s juvenile court and spent 15 years at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Publicly celebrating Independence Day — especially when you’re in Congress — is expected in the age of social media.

But innocuously posting to social media the same day that a deeply unpopular budget bill that reshapes countless American institutions is signed into law might not get the responses you want.

For Ciscomani, even posting to the increasingly right-leaning echo chamber of Twitter, did not go over well.

Ciscomani got some colorful reactions from angry residents who want to see him out of Congress in 2026.

Here are a few of our favorites, capped with one positive note from a very questionable supporter.