John Winchester must think the voters are all stupid. Frankly, his interview on Tuesday insulted all Pima County residents’ intelligence. Does he think nobody in the county remembers the games the Board of Supervisors has played to the detriment of the county and especially to the detriment of District 1, all just to spite Ally Miller personally? Come on, Winchester. And shame on Huckelberry and Carroll for insulting the voting public with this sham candidate. Every one of them should be ashamed.
That interview was Tuesday. They made it worse Wednesday, starting to run reprehensible radio commercials that reek of Ray Carroll’s lack of couth: The childish, unconscionable ads actually stoop to calling Ally Miller goofy pejorative names. Either Winchester is that petty–and thus unworthy of public office–or Ray Carroll arranged the ads–and we already know he is unworthy of his office. Either way, Winchester “approve[s] of this message”, and every person involved in John Winchester’s slimy campaign should be embarrassed and ashamed. That goes double or triple for Winchester, Carroll, and Huckelberry. Which all makes Winchester unworthy of office. The campaign slogan says, “Win with Winchester.” This is not what a winner sounds like. Neither was his astonishingly bad interview on Tuesday, which we finish mucking through now:
Winchester: “There’s a problem in that she actually hasn’t presented any solutions… You have to have a counter offer. You have to have an offer… What has Supervisor Miller offered? And you will find absolutely nothing.”
Retort: We open today with a Flat. Out. Lie. Shortly after this blazingly asinine statement, Winchester mentions the road plan Miller floated. How is that not presenting a solution? And who but Miller stood up to the ludicrous balloon port? And what about when Miller proposed using discretionary funds to repair roads, got stopped by the establishment, and later discovered that the establishment had been using discretionary funds to contribute to their causes and cronies? Or Miller asking that HURF funds be spent on transportation as they were earmarked instead of on frivolous county waste? Winchester is running on roads as one of his key tenets. Could he at least make a token effort to research his statements and his core issues before he blurts out nonsense? How foolhardy.
Winchester: “She’s even at odds with the other Republican on the Board.”
Retort: Ray Carroll is the only other Supervisor who calls himself a Republican, but his impropriety transcends party labels: Ray Carroll is whole-heartedly establishment. And he is one of Winchester’s biggest benefactors. Birds of a feather cut offensive campaign ads together. Winchester wouldn’t dare argue against this point: Ray Carroll is at odds with the taxpayers of this county.
Winchester: “Ally Miller and I have more in common ideologically than we do, uh, methodologically.”
Retort: So Winchester and Miller have one ideal in common and zero methods? Because up until this point, Winchester’s ideology is full-tilt establishment and has nothing to do with curbing waste and graft. As he ends the interview, he drops a bombshell from a near-space balloon that proves his ideology is diametrically opposed to Miller’s. Let’s chalk this up to another lie.
Winchester: “My argument is against what she has been able to do.”
Retort: Then Winchester’s argument is with the rest of the establishment, not Miller. She has been limited in her accomplishments because of the withering headwinds from the likes of Bronson and Carroll, two of the most opaque Supervisors ever to hold county office in the State of Arizona.
Winchester: “If you want to vote for somebody who’s not going to get anything done for the next four years, she’s your candidate. If you want to keep seeing what you’ve been seeing, the Board is not moving forward… she’s your candidate.”
Retort: Dead damned wrong. This is a good time to laugh audibly, as Winchester’s claim here is absurdity. If you want to vote for somebody who’s not going to get anything done for the next four years, if you want to keep seeing what we’re seeing, the Board is not moving forward, just reelect the other incumbents running for reelection and add Winchester to the Board.
Winchester: “We have to get past the political rhetoric… We have an infrastructure deficit here, 300, 350 million dollars… [Here he starts stumbling, badly.] Almost anyone who’s actually tried to tackle the issue of roads, including Supervisor Miller, has proposed an extension or early re-up of the RTA… and I support that.”
Retort: With this one statement, Winchester deftly invalidates his own previous statement that Miller has produced nothing. Never mind that he lost mastery of his thoughts and words in this response of his and was clearly unprepared to discuss one of the key issues on which he predicated his campaign.
Winchester: “You actually cannot, it is inequitable for us to take large chunks of money out of the general fund and put it in transportation because that money comes from a, uh, uh, comes from unincorporated and incorporated areas… there would be a lawsuit from the City of Tucson against Pima County for those funds. And that would cost the taxpayers even more.”
Retort: How magnanimous this sounds. Winchester, with this line, attempts to position himself as a hawk for the taxpayer. Except that he brought suit against the City of Tucson after he clumsily wrecked his own bicycle downtown. If Winchester wants to show a commitment to protecting the taxpayer, he should immediately renounce his lawsuit, never attempt to bring the suit again, and apologize to the taxpayers.
Winchester: “We do have an issue of trust.”
Retort: With every additional FOIA email we see, Huckelberry, Carroll, Bronson, and the rest of the Board demonstrate the good cause we all have not to trust the County, or the ringers they prop up for election.
Winchester: “If it’s legal… I do approve of [the expenditure of $15 million for World View].”
Retort: So much for being the one candidate who could get something done to improve the County. Behold John Winchester, the rubber-stamp candidate. This bombshell proves that he would play right into the hands of the establishment.
Winchester: “Yes. [I am running as a Republican.]”
Retort: So does John McCain. So did Ray Carroll. So did Steve Kozachik. This author would love to see if Winchester’s party affiliation has changed in the recent past.
Are you disgusted yet? Unless you’re one of the headliners at last night’s invitation-only dinner at Skyline Country Club that Carroll hosted for Winchester–“Because it’s more important for you to have an open mind in this Republican Primary for Supervisor,” according to the invite–you probably are sick of the games and finished with this lousy candidate.
Winchester and his backers have thrown staggering amounts of money at his campaign and have started running insult campaign ads. Enough!
It is time for all of us in Pima County, no matter what district, to call for John Winchester to terminate his campaign immediately, tear down his campaign signs everywhere, and leave politics. His Facebook page might be a good place to do that, but since Winchester does not have his own Twitter account up, tweeting Ray Carroll with hashtag #QuitWithWinchester might get the point across, and spectacularly.
John Winchester might truly benefit from getting out of the race: the recently-relocated Winchester family probably still has boxes to unpack.
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