Nothing changes if nothing changes, and it appears as if nothing is going to change in the Tucson Unified and Sunnyside Unified school districts except enrollment numbers. Those numbers will continue to decline, but Congressman Raul Grijalva’s power remains intact with the re-election of his daughter Adelita and acolyte Eva Dong.
TUSD board member Michael Hicks was in second place as of 2:00 a.m. Wednesday. Hicks, a republican, was beating out Grijalva-camp candidate Jen Darland, in the heavily democrat district. Don Cotton, a moderate democrat was trailing in fourth place.
GOP Debe Campos Fleenor was far behind in a near tie with Democrat Betts Putnam Hidalgo. Campos Fleenor was hindered by the assistance of previously unsuccessful operatives in the Republican Party. Putnam Hidlago was stomped on by the Grijalvas, who control the Pima County Democrat Party. The poor performance of both women at the polls surprised many.
Adelita Grijalva was re-elected to the Tucson Unified School District board for her third term. Despite the fact that her tenure has been marked with failing schools and multiple school closing, no other candidate could compete with her father’s political machine.
That machine pulled out all the stops to keep Sunnyside board member Dong in office. Frivilous lawsuits, hate mail and other dirty tricks guaranteed that the under-funded challenger, Malcom Pavey, had little chance for success.
The Republicans for their part, used the same failed strategists and strategies presumably expecting different results.