What's on tap in District 5

Supervisor Adelita Grijalva is set up to win in District 5 ... But Val Romero might make it difficult ... Trump coming to town.

Without any primary election competition, the race for the Pima County supervisor seat in District 5 didn’t get much scrutiny this summer.

There aren’t any Republican candidates, so the race comes down to Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat, trying to win a second term, while independent Val Romero launches his challenge.

At first blush, it looks like Grijalva could easily beat Romero. She has widespread name recognition, she comes from a well-known political family, and she can point to decades of public service.

But the race might not be quite that cut-and-dried.

Democrats have a huge advantage over Republicans in District 5. But Romero isn’t running as a Republican. Voters outside of the two main political parties account for 35%, which might give Romero a long-shot chance to win the seat.

Romero has some name recognition, too. He is a small-business owner at Arizona Grill and Hearth, and he won a seat on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board in 2022, a year after coming up short in a race for a seat on the Tucson City Council.

Grijalva served on the TUSD board for 20 years before she was elected to her first term as county supervisor in 2020, when she beat her opponent by a nearly 3-1 margin.

She runs the board meetings as chair, which often makes her the board’s public face, including when they deal with rambunctious speakers at call-to-the-public. She’s championed gun control measures, expansion of environmental conservation efforts, and often pushes for regional approaches to solving problems.

Romero is known for his pugnacious attitude, and flirtations with the MAGA crowd. And he was somewhat welcome to having armed police officers in schools during his run for the TUSD seat.

As for fundraising, Grijalva has $15,500 in campaign cash on hand, which isn’t nearly as much as candidates for county attorney or other supervisor seats raised.

But she can bring in big dollars. Her biggest donations were $5,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99, $3,500 from real estate investor Thomas Warne, and $2,000 from Azhar Dabdoub of Funeraria Azahares.

Romero lags Grijalva quite a bit on the fundraising front. He has about $1,700 in campaign cash on hand.

Voters could get a much clearer picture of where Grijalva and Romero stand on the county’s main issues when they answer questions at a candidate forum on September 28. The forum will be hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson at the Quincie Douglas Library.

Tucson is the place to be this week: Former President Donald Trump and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will visit Tucson on Thursday for campaign events, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. Trump will hold a rally at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall. No word yet on where Emhoff will speak.

Border basics: The U.S.-Mexico border is expected to be a hot topic when Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump debate tonight. The Arizona Republic’s Rafael Carranza and Raphael Romero Ruiz get readers up to speed on what’s happening at the border and immigration in general.

Taking steps: In the wake of the brazen shooting last month, talks could start later this month on city ordinances to address crime near hookah lounges. Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said in her newsletter that she and Councilman Richard Fimbres requested the item come up on the agenda at the council’s September 25 meeting.

Heating up: Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott isn’t happy about claims his opponent in the November election, Republican Steve Spain, is making about the county budget. Spain, who Scott narrowly beat in 2020, is putting up signs that say the county is engaged in deficit spending and bankrupt. In his first issue-related post on his campaign website since February, Scott gave a detailed rebuttal outlining state statutes, federal funding, and other issues.

Zoning rules: Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock dives into the zoning changes the Tucson City Council will consider at their meeting tomorrow, and the needle the council members are trying to thread to make those changes happen.

Mugshot galleries on their way out: The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is reviewing a recent appeals court ruling that said Maricopa County’s practice of posting mugshots online violated pretrial detainees’ right to be presumed innocent, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. Pima County posts mugshots, but provides less information about detainees than Maricopa County did. Cochise, Yuma, and Gila counties all stopped posting mugshots after the ruling.

1,923: The number of children in Pima County who were served by the Pima Early Education Program (PEEPs) in fiscal 2023-24, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo. That was a 29 percent increase over the previous year.