In my travels, I keep running across signs for races for offices that I've never heard of, much less where I knew anything about any of the candidates.
One of those races is the one for "CAWCD." Not knowing what that stands for, I did a quick search, and found out that CAWCD is the acronym for "Central Arizona Water Conservation District."
Those elected to it serve as the board of directors for the Central Arizona Project (CAP).
For those of you who live under a rock, or in another state, CAP is a canal built to bring water from the Colorado River to central and southern Arizona. The CAWCD was formed to administer and operate the infrastructure needed to do that.
According to the Maricopa County Recorder's office, there are 11 candidates for 5 open spots on the 15-member board.
I decided to write up a listing of the official candidates, with a brief bio culled from online sources. While I will mention party affiliation where known, this is a non-partisan board, and the party affiliation info is only for a little context. I won't be endorsing any of the candidates until I learn more about them.
On edit2: I've decided on my votes, though they are subject to change. I haven't met any of them in person, so my evaluations are based on their backgrounds. The list of the candidates that I'll be voting for at the end of the post.
Oh, and for the record, I believe that any candidate who believes that water management in our desert is a partisan issue is not qualified for the office. Period.
The Arizona Republic's recommendations here. The Rep states that they interviewed 12 candidates. If anyone knows who the 12th is, let me know, and I'll update this post.
Note: I was pondering this post before I knew that the Rep had done any pieces on this race.
Candidates, listed in alphabetical order:
Lisa Atkins. Incumbent. Ran for the Republican nomination for the CD2 Congressional seat in 2002, later won by Trent Franks. Currently employed by the County Supervisors Association of Arizona as Executive Director. She was/is also a member of a number of boards in the area.
Frank Barrios. Incumbent. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Now retired from a career working with water resources (he has a civil engineering degree), he is currently very active with charitable, historical, and cultural organizations in Maricopa county.
George Brooks. Incumbent. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Currently employed by the Gila River Indian Community, among other places. He is very actively involved in environmental management, as his education background would indicate - BS, Zoology; MS, Biology; PhD, Wildlife and Fisheries resources.
Gayle Burns. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Wife of State Senator Bob Burns. Most of the search hits for her came back as some variation on the "spouse of Bob Burns" theme. Her questionnaire lists 'property management and investments' as her occupation. She is active in some merchants' organizations in Glendale.
Sam George. I'm having trouble doing a search for info. He's got a profoundly lousy name to use in search parameters. He did get the most signatures on his nominating petitions of all of the candidates, even the incumbents. He had 1064; of the other candidates, only Lisa Atkins had more than 500. That speaks well for his organization, if nothing else. While the Rep didn't endorse him, they didn't trash him either. They listed him in the "Several of the challengers have done their homework and would be credible additions to the board " paragraph of their editorial.
I'll continue to look for info on him.
On edit: I drove by one of Mr. George's signs today, and noted that there was a website listed on it, AZWater.org. While the website is listed on his campaign signs, it doesn't read like a campaign site. There's no candidate bio, no donations page, no 'vote for me' request.
There *is* a lot of information on water issues in AZ, though.
end edit.
Ed King. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Retired farmer and former member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Active in GPEC and other local organizations.
Jean McGrath. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Former Republican legislator in the AZ House. Currently owns a nursery and a self-storage business. Active with the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations.
Richard Morrison. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Campaign website here. Currently an attorney and heavily involved with family agricultural businesses (farming and ranching.) Also has served with many local civic organizations.
William Perry. Not The Fridge. :) Incumbent. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Currently serves as president of CAWCD. Lists his occupation as farmer. His educational background includes a degree in agribusiness. He has served/is active in a number of organizations.
Pam Pickard. Currently an elementary school administrator in the Littleton Elementary School District. A strong supporter of Jon Kyl. [Hey, it seems that everything that comes back on her search is either related to her job, or to Republican politics. I didn't want to include it, but it's what I have available.]
George Renner. Incumbent. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Retired from insurance and real estate sales. Former mayor and city councilmember in Glendale. Active in a number of civic organizations.
Janie Thom. AZ Rep questionnaire here. Campaign website here. Lists occupation as investor. Former member of the Mesa City Council. She was something of a controversial figure while she was a member of the council. Very active in local civic organizations and the Republican party.
Note: most of the information above was culled from the AZ Rep questionnaires that I linked to, or from the CAWCD bios of incumbents that I also linked to. Any factual errors are either from the sources, or were from my own attempts at brevity. I apologize now for any that are my responsibility.
If any of the candidates or their supporters wish to correct any info given here, please leave a comment or contact me at cpmaz at yahoo.com.
Note2: I did a quick search through the Maricopa County Recorder's Office campaign finance reporting database on most of these candidates. I didn't find anything really interesting in terms of the contributions that they have received, but haven't had time for a really thorough search as yet.
On edit2 (continued from above): I'll be voting for the following candidates:
Frank Barrios and George Brooks are no-brainers. The educational and professional backgrounds that they bring to the board are different but both have focused on water resource management for their entire professional lives. If those two aren't qualified for the job, no one in Arizona is.
Lisa Atkins' background is a little less strong, but is still more than enough to qualify her for a job where part of the job it to negotiate water allocations with other western states. Perhaps she's more of a pure politician than the others, but that can be useful.
The next two choices are tougher. George Renner, Sam George, and Richard Morrison all have their strengths, but none of them is overwhelmingly qualified, at least based on what I can find online. When it comes time to fill out my ballot, two of those three will get my vote.
As for most of the rest, they're ok, but not better than the ones I've named.
I do think that three candidates stand out for their utter lack of qualifications for the position.
Janie Thom was noted for bringing partisanship to a non-partisan body when she was a member of the Mesa City Council. There's no reason to think that she would be any different here, and that's not was the CAWCD or the state needs.
Gayle Burns is most notable, at least based on what I can find, for being married to Bob Burns. Ummm...it's the 21st century. It's OK for a woman to be recognized for who she is more than who she's married to.
Jean McGrath..hmmm. How do I put this? When she was in the lege, her crowning achievement was to propose a bill to ban opposite sex visitation in the dorms of Arizona's public universities. See the link in the above blurb on her.
With apologies to some of the legislators and candidates for the lege that I have come to know and respect over the past few months, we can ignore that kind of stuff from our legislature. It's pretty much a playpen for overgrown Republican infantilists. So long as the Governor's veto is protected, the damage they can do is limited.
However, the CAWCD deals with our *water*. That's a serious subject that affects all of us, and it requires serious people to address it.
Jean McGrath? Not. Even. Close.
End edit2.
Gotta go. Later!
10 comments:
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter and for sharing your results.
Thanks a lot Craig! I'm going over my ballot now (got it in the mail yesterday!). I think I agree with you on your recommendations.
cpmaz,
Thanks for putting the CAWCD thread together. Well done. I too had a huge difficulty finding information about the board members and candidates. I wish I found your blog the last election.
I find it camp that I recognize most names and have met a few and many of their cohorts. Shoot, Jane Hull's husband delivered both of my kids. She appointed some of the board? Perhaps I have been in AZ too long.
I find it abhorrant that there is only one person on the list that is technically trained. It is also interesting that most on and running for the board are from the westside of town. (Gosh do I sound like I grew up on the southside of Chicago?)
I have lived in AZ quite a bit longer than you. While I understand your need for more Democrats, I would advise you to stop inviting more californians and easterners to this place. There are too many people in AZ now. I can assure you there is a contingent of ex-californians that have a plan to "do Arizona right", since they screwed up their state.
I am digressing. Water in this state is about money.
If you want to have fun, try to find the records of the deal the City of Peoria did with their water rights a few years before they got the big fancy Taj Mahaly City Hall. I bet there were some closed door sessions so Anthem could be built accross I-17!!!!
It is also interesting to note what is going on in the Hassyampa drainage. The development will suck the aquifier dry from the folks that live up stream. Wells will be going dry in places up there in short order after the new developments are put in. Very sad.
I should stop.
Thanks for your great blog.
This is great! I'm voting by mail today and this saved me a lot of time.
Thanks for the pointers on this obscure topic! The only candidate for whom I held any opinion was Janie Thom. After watching her on the Mesa City Council, I was amazed that someone could be so woefully unqualified for public office. In a group that featured more than its share of dim bulbs, Thom stood out as a black hole.
As a retiree from SRP, I had cause to become familiar with the CAP and the CAWCD and the importance of water issues to Arizona. I had to search a long time before I found your blog, which fit the bill. While I had already chosen several candidates you listed, you helped me choose the rest and, more importantly, avoid voting for unqualified people. Thanks.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.
Candidate
CAWCD
Thanks for compiling this information in one place! Researching candidates can be a real pain, particularly for the more obscure offices, and especially when there are so many alternatives. It's too bad there aren't more folks as qualified as Brooks running, but at least the selection isn't horrendously bad.
Cheers!
By now I'm sure that you have long since mailed in your ballot, but for those who will be voting at the polls next week...I'd like to add, Richard Morrison received an outstanding endorsement from the AZ Republic. From what I can gather Richard's qualifications have prepared him to play an integral role on the CAWCD board from day 1. Richard says "experience counts" and I agree. He's in my top 5.
You can't find info on Sam George because his birth name is Sam Vagenas. He was assistant to Secretary of State Dick Mahoney about 15 years or so ago. He also worked with John Sperling from Apollo Group, the parent company of University of Phoenix. I don't know anyone who ever felt comfortable with Sam or ever really trusted him.
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