I guess I’m wondering what councilmembers say about the suggestion that Project Blue would bring additional business to Tucson. The chamber thought it wise to tank Prop 414 under the guise of excessive taxation (while we now face growing homelessness and understaffed law enforcement that many expect to enforce new homeless deterrents). It makes me wonder if the chamber was worried that the Prop 414 sales tax increase would harm the county’s chances of landing the Project Blue deal, because surely the county and business leaders knew the deal was in the works. I tend to worry when businessmen make long-term economic promises with the goal of growth. Could Tucson’s infrastructure meet the demands of this business boom? We saw how that panned out in a city like Austin when its tech boom hit. It all seems outside Tucson’s capacity and resources (from an environmental and infrastructure perspective), even if it would bring economic gains.
We will know more soon, but our initial conversations suggests Data Centers bring in ... more data centers.
Prop 414 would have hit Project Blue fairly hard, but their arguments publicly were never focused on business attraction per se. (Although it would have been as you point out, a valid concern.)
As for infrastructure concerns, I can only offer a journalistic tease for now. We will very soon directly talk about Project Blue's impact on one important aspect of the community.
Thank you Joe for keeping us informed. I am very suspicious of a project that doesn't want itself to be known. I don't want to see anyone come into our wonderful town and take precious water and perhaps bring blight or cause environmental damage.
I just bought my Gen-Z kiddo a subscription at the sales price. They sometimes hit a vein of “doomer” news, and I often get worried texts about topics that might be factual, but have been sensationalized for the younger audience. I’m happy I can give the gift of local news that I trust to be factual as well as entertaining. Thanks TA!
Juan Ciscomani is a Chickenshit coward! What a bullshitter! Come to Tucson and hold your first ever town hall meeting and we Tucson citizens will get to see what a BS chickenshit you are!!!
Giving Fox monies and I live in District 6 because this political dynasty must end after what she did while on the Tucson School District Board!!! She was horrible!!!
I find it incredibly suspicious a company/corporation doesn't want to disclose who an 'end user' is basically tying the hands of a deliberative body that is supposed to work on behalf of their constituents and town? I don't give a F how much money they can bring to an area. This is extremely predatory. Age of Trumpism .......
Jennifer May is the treasurer of Tucson Voters Fed Up PAC. A longtime Democratic political operative, she has been involved in similar dark money hijinks in Democratic primaries for decades. Her involvement in the 2022 Rhode Island 2nd CD race with the superPAC Ocean State Forward seems very similar to what is going on here. In that race, the group never supported another of the attacked (and winning) candidate's five opponents, so it's not clear what they were after.
I thought this was an interesting comment on Reddit (no, I am not smart enough to have written it:
--If I want to influence a race, I need someone on speed-dial who can file all the paperwork to make it legal, and basically respond to developments in the race and in the news in nearly real-time, to get targeted mailers out and contract robo-calls and research plausible lines of attack and whatever else politcal consultants do as quickly as possible.
In this case it did happen crazy fast. Somebody decided to spend $100,000-ish on this race and the mailers were out, like, the next day. Or close to it.
So, this case is unusual because it is a special election to replace a congressperson who died in office. It is taking place in the middle of the summer. Low-propensity voters won't really care because there is nothing else on the ballot. Whoever wins the Democratic primary is for sure going to win the general. Or so the conventional wisdom goes. This district has sent the most progressive person in congress to Washington for the last 2o years.
Corporations hate regulations and labor is a nuisance. They also favor stability over chaos, though, so many (though not all) wealthy donors tend to spread their money around a little and play both sides. Observers know that this district is deep blue, but it's worth at least a little money to someone to take the temperature here. Is voter dissatisfaction so strong right now that some of the most reliable progressive voters in the country can be convinced that the right move right now is the "vibe shift" (essentially) that Deja Foxx represents? I think she is a real progressive, but we don't really know her yet. We'll know what her character is like when Adelita Grijalva wins the primary and then Deja Foxx robustly endorses and then proceeds to leverage her Tik Tok vibe machine or whatever to make sure this district stays blue. Or she doesn't do that and her "we need a fighter" stuff is just a bunch of slick BS.
I'm no expert, just a casual observer with a little more time on my hands to pay a little more attention than I normally do. What seems to be happening in this race to me is that some more centrist corporate-friendly Democrats are using this race as a sandbox to play around in, working on tactics and strategies to use against progressives in future primaries in tighter races. Where does the "smart money" go in a race like this? To what extent can a young, online vibe candidate be boosted with more traditional mailers and robo-calls?
Thanks for the link to the poll's methodology, but that is to the May 2025 poll, not the newer one. Even so, a comparison of the demographics seems to indicate that highly educated people and white non-Hispanic/Latina-Latino people are overrepresented.
I guess I’m wondering what councilmembers say about the suggestion that Project Blue would bring additional business to Tucson. The chamber thought it wise to tank Prop 414 under the guise of excessive taxation (while we now face growing homelessness and understaffed law enforcement that many expect to enforce new homeless deterrents). It makes me wonder if the chamber was worried that the Prop 414 sales tax increase would harm the county’s chances of landing the Project Blue deal, because surely the county and business leaders knew the deal was in the works. I tend to worry when businessmen make long-term economic promises with the goal of growth. Could Tucson’s infrastructure meet the demands of this business boom? We saw how that panned out in a city like Austin when its tech boom hit. It all seems outside Tucson’s capacity and resources (from an environmental and infrastructure perspective), even if it would bring economic gains.
We will know more soon, but our initial conversations suggests Data Centers bring in ... more data centers.
Prop 414 would have hit Project Blue fairly hard, but their arguments publicly were never focused on business attraction per se. (Although it would have been as you point out, a valid concern.)
As for infrastructure concerns, I can only offer a journalistic tease for now. We will very soon directly talk about Project Blue's impact on one important aspect of the community.
Thank you Joe for keeping us informed. I am very suspicious of a project that doesn't want itself to be known. I don't want to see anyone come into our wonderful town and take precious water and perhaps bring blight or cause environmental damage.
Your welcome! We will have more on Project Blue this week, including something in tomorrow's Agenda.
I just bought my Gen-Z kiddo a subscription at the sales price. They sometimes hit a vein of “doomer” news, and I often get worried texts about topics that might be factual, but have been sensationalized for the younger audience. I’m happy I can give the gift of local news that I trust to be factual as well as entertaining. Thanks TA!
Juan Ciscomani is a Chickenshit coward! What a bullshitter! Come to Tucson and hold your first ever town hall meeting and we Tucson citizens will get to see what a BS chickenshit you are!!!
Giving Fox monies and I live in District 6 because this political dynasty must end after what she did while on the Tucson School District Board!!! She was horrible!!!
I find it incredibly suspicious a company/corporation doesn't want to disclose who an 'end user' is basically tying the hands of a deliberative body that is supposed to work on behalf of their constituents and town? I don't give a F how much money they can bring to an area. This is extremely predatory. Age of Trumpism .......
While they were able to move forward with the Pima County Board of Supervisors, that dog won't hunt over at the Council.
They - and as quickly as I can report on it -and us should know the name of the developer very soon.
Jennifer May is the treasurer of Tucson Voters Fed Up PAC. A longtime Democratic political operative, she has been involved in similar dark money hijinks in Democratic primaries for decades. Her involvement in the 2022 Rhode Island 2nd CD race with the superPAC Ocean State Forward seems very similar to what is going on here. In that race, the group never supported another of the attacked (and winning) candidate's five opponents, so it's not clear what they were after.
https://x.com/TedNesi/status/1568051153325236224
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-primary-rhode-island-retiring_n_631d6772e4b0eac9f4d81d5a
I thought this was an interesting comment on Reddit (no, I am not smart enough to have written it:
--If I want to influence a race, I need someone on speed-dial who can file all the paperwork to make it legal, and basically respond to developments in the race and in the news in nearly real-time, to get targeted mailers out and contract robo-calls and research plausible lines of attack and whatever else politcal consultants do as quickly as possible.
In this case it did happen crazy fast. Somebody decided to spend $100,000-ish on this race and the mailers were out, like, the next day. Or close to it.
So, this case is unusual because it is a special election to replace a congressperson who died in office. It is taking place in the middle of the summer. Low-propensity voters won't really care because there is nothing else on the ballot. Whoever wins the Democratic primary is for sure going to win the general. Or so the conventional wisdom goes. This district has sent the most progressive person in congress to Washington for the last 2o years.
Corporations hate regulations and labor is a nuisance. They also favor stability over chaos, though, so many (though not all) wealthy donors tend to spread their money around a little and play both sides. Observers know that this district is deep blue, but it's worth at least a little money to someone to take the temperature here. Is voter dissatisfaction so strong right now that some of the most reliable progressive voters in the country can be convinced that the right move right now is the "vibe shift" (essentially) that Deja Foxx represents? I think she is a real progressive, but we don't really know her yet. We'll know what her character is like when Adelita Grijalva wins the primary and then Deja Foxx robustly endorses and then proceeds to leverage her Tik Tok vibe machine or whatever to make sure this district stays blue. Or she doesn't do that and her "we need a fighter" stuff is just a bunch of slick BS.
I'm no expert, just a casual observer with a little more time on my hands to pay a little more attention than I normally do. What seems to be happening in this race to me is that some more centrist corporate-friendly Democrats are using this race as a sandbox to play around in, working on tactics and strategies to use against progressives in future primaries in tighter races. Where does the "smart money" go in a race like this? To what extent can a young, online vibe candidate be boosted with more traditional mailers and robo-calls?
Thanks for the link to the poll's methodology, but that is to the May 2025 poll, not the newer one. Even so, a comparison of the demographics seems to indicate that highly educated people and white non-Hispanic/Latina-Latino people are overrepresented.