Would your next congressman bomb Iran?

Post hoc ergo propter hoc … Project Blue redo? … And you had one, $17 billion job.

Last Wednesday, we asked the candidates in the special election for Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 7 where they stood on U.S. military intervention in Iran.

At the time, it seemed like a relevant — if not terribly urgent — topic. We might have believed it when President Donald Trump hinted that any action was still at least two weeks away.

That changed on Saturday night, after the U.S. bombed nuclear sites in Iran. We updated the question accordingly.

Of the five Democrats and three Republicans vying for their party’s nomination on July 15, more than half got back to us with an answer. One responded, but didn’t give us a definitive answer.

Former County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva told us she doesn’t support the strikes.

“The United States Congress has the sole authority to declare war; Trump’s unilateral actions are unconstitutional. Instead of entangling us in another endless conflict in the Middle East, we should be focused on the crises happening at home; rising costs, unaffordable healthcare, and a President that is ripping families apart with illegal ICE raids,” Grijalva said.

Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez was critical of the decision to move ahead without Congressional approval, but said Iran can never be allowed to be a nuclear state.

"Let me be clear: Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. That’s non-negotiable,” Hernandez said. “Their nuclear ambitions are a threat to American and global security. Trump’s decision to strike Iran without involving Congress was wrong. And Congress must exert its role as a co-equal branch of government.”

He added that Americans do not want to be dragged into another war and urged diplomacy over any further military action by the U.S.

Social media strategist Deja Foxx offered an unequivocal “no” on the strikes.

“I don’t support our military being dragged into another endless foreign war by the short sighted reality TV show host in the White House. Abroad, we need to focus on ending the violence in Gaza and bringing humanitarian aid to the people there,” Foxx told us.

Democratic candidate and retired health care executive Patrick Harris said he could not answer the question, saying he didn’t have enough information to be placed into White House Situation Room.

“If I'm ever read into classified intel, then I could render an opinion, but I'm not in that position today. I continue to support peace/trade over conflict/war, but I don't have enough information to know if this was a necessary condition for lasting peace or not,” Harris said.

He added a short list of hard truths surrounding the bombing, calling Israel an ally in the region, a general consensus that the world doesn’t need additional nuclear states and his concern the conflict could draw in other nuclear-armed nations.

For his first run for public office, Harris sounds like a politician.

Democrat Jose Malvido did not respond to our question, neither did Republicans Daniel Butierez and Jorge Rivas.

But Republican Jim Rodriguez condemned the attacks, questioning whether Trump should have sought Congressional approval.

“Iran’s program was set back two to three years by Israel’s June 13 strike. They posed no imminent threat to the U.S. Trump’s strike likely violated Article I and the War Powers Resolution. Israel started this war, America shouldn’t escalate it,” Rodriguez said. “With 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, Trump’s strikes risk retaliation, including sleeper cell attacks at home. As a House member, I would have demanded a congressional vote to challenge this action.”

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Meanwhile, Southern Arizona’s only sitting member of Congress, Republican Juan Ciscomani, who represents the neighboring CD6, was pretty supportive of Trump joining Israel’s war on Iran.

Don’t get too excited about Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz’s motion to bring Project Blue back before the board on July 1 — it might not happen.

Heinz’s request to revisit the decision to sell 290 acres of county-owned land for a data center is in legal limbo after the county attorney got involved.

A legal analysis of his request has not been made public — at least not yet.

But the core issue is whether the land sale vote violated a board policy that forbids reconsidering a contract once a deal has been finalized.

Opponents of the energy-hungry, water-thirsty data centers might focus on that unresolved legal question, but the reality is we still don’t know enough about Project Blue to say anything definitively — including whether anything improper occurred.

Heinz’s main issue appears to be with Tucson Electric Power, which released a statement shortly after the board voted to sell the land to a developer tied to Project Blue.

Although TEP is one of the project’s key local partners, it issued a letter denying that its proposed 14% rate increase has anything to do with the planned data centers.

That doesn’t mean the county is done with Project Blue. We’ll know more by the end of the week, depending on whether another supervisor can find a legal path to get the item on the July 1 agenda.

There’s also a chance the board could revisit another vote related to the project — a decision on rezoning the land.

If Project Blue moves forward, the project leaders still have to convince the Tucson City Council to annex the land, and agree to provide a massive amount of reclaimed water to the facility essentially forever.

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Political price hike: Beyond the lack of information about Project Blue, such as how much electricity and water it would use, the local political friction over the project might boil down to electricity prices going up and up, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. And while the state corporation commissioners support requests from Tucson Electric Power to raise rates, the company isn’t doing as well close to home.

“TEP won a key victory Tuesday but is losing what may be more valuable over the long run — credibility with the key government entities in the area it serves, and the faith of consumers that this monopoly utility really serves us best,” Steller writes.

With or without you: Over the weekend, more than 250 people gathered in midtown Tucson to discuss President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The town hall was the latest in a string of public meetings critical of Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and his refusal to hold public, in-person town halls in his district. These events are not new — but the panel of high-profile Democrats, including Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott, state Sen. Priya Sundareshan and state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, as well as congressional candidates JoAnna Mendoza and Deja Foxx¹ show the dwindling list of Democrats in Pima County willing to work with Ciscomani.

Changing times: The Trump administration got its first convictions under a new legal strategy that plays off the fact that officials turned the border in New Mexico into a military installation, KJZZ’s Alisa Reznick reports. Two people were convicted of trespassing on military property, and hundreds of others face similar charges. The legal strategy got off to a rocky start last month when federal judges dismissed the charges in at least 100 cases, saying officials hadn’t done enough to ensure migrants would know they were entering a military base.

Changing roles: For many years, volunteers at the Kino Border Initiative supported asylum seekers and migrants in Nogales, Sonora, who were headed to the United States. But KBI’s role shifted after former President Joe Biden shut down access to asylum at the border last summer and Trump went even further to target asylum seekers. Now, volunteers are helping people who are stuck on the Mexico side of the border for the long term, including getting haircuts for job interviews, the Star’s Emily Bregel reports.

Time to check your mailbox: Ballots for the July 15 special election in Congressional District 7 should be in your mailbox by now. They went out to registered Republicans, Democrats, and independents who requested one. If yours hasn’t arrived, you have until July 7 to request a ballot by mail. In Pima County, you can also vote early this week at either of the county recorder’s offices or at Palo Verde High School.

Vote for the Tucson Agenda! You don’t even need a ballot.

You had one job, Arizona lawmakers.

It is late June and and factionalism between House Republicans and their Senate counterparts means they can’t get on the same page on the state budget.

Senate Republicans passed their budget bills (which they had negotiated with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs) and adjourned on Thursday, despite not coming to an agreement with House Republicans, as the Arizona Agenda explains.

Right now, they plan to pass a short-term spending bill.

House Speaker Steve Montenegro said House Republicans didn’t want to be forced into a “take-it-or-leave-it deal” and would instead “take action” on the budget.

Senate President Pro Tem T.J. Shope really summed up the vibe of these never-ending late June negotiations.

“I truly don’t know what (Montenegro) thinks can be negotiated that after June 30th that couldn’t have been negotiated in January, February, March, April, May, and last week,” he told the Mirror.

1. Foxx, who is running for the CD7 nomination, acknowledged she wasn’t in her district.