Looks like Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall might have a tough time keeping her dirt in a nice neat pile next year.
There's a new Web site attacking her for orchestrating a "catastrophic deterioration in vital legal services."
Citizens for Justice — citizensforjustice2008.com — is an Independent Expenditure Committee headed by local attorney Joe Machado. The group has designs on unseating LaWall, citing everything from her handling of the Bradley Schwartz saga to high staff turnover.
Still unknown is who the group will support in '08.
A primary-election challenge could come in the form of Paul Eckerstrom, an assistant attorney general and former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party. Eckerstrom has been traveling to groups around town talking about what he sees as an increasingly corrupt judicial system — from Pima County all the way up to the Washington big-leagues.
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Republican Brad Roach, a former prosecutor under LaWall, is also exploring a run.
The bottom line: This will be a real departure from the cruise LaWall enjoyed in her 2004 reelection campaign. So this time, our county attorney best get her battleship in gear.
Oien channels her inner poltergeist
Ward 2 City Council candidate Lori Oien had a supernatural experience Wednesday at the University of Arizona.
Asked her opinion of Proposition 200, it seems Oien started blurting out non sequiturs as if she had Tourette's syndrome — only her lips weren't moving.
Somehow audio from another location was accidentally pumped into the room while the Republican was speaking.
Oien took the odd situation well, quipping: "I hope that wasn't taken off my time, by the way."
Elect me, I don't know
You would think that a candidate running for City Council would want to know every issue inside and out, so as to be prepared for any question she might face.
If you assumed that, you probably never met Ward 1 Green Party candidate Beryl Baker, who has stood out in recent forums for not knowing much. Heck, she hasn't even been able to tell voters why she's running for office.
At a West Side forum in September, Baker told the crowd she was running to sell Green Party ideas, and highlighted her neighborhood work. OK, good start. But then she paused and said she was "drawing a blank."
Later she told a forum hosted by a gay and lesbian rights organization that she didn't know much about Proposition 107 — the 2006 failed gay-marriage ban that quite possibly was the biggest issue in the history of Arizona for the gay and lesbian community.
Again showing a knack for being out of touch with her audience, Baker told a group of UA students who complained about the city's red-tag ordinance that she didn't know what it was. "Could you give me an example?" she asked.
Note to third party candidates: Before you complain to us — as you always do — that you're losing because we're not giving you enough coverage, you might want to practice in front of a mirror.
South Side scuffle?
After turning down the opportunity to get pulverized by Bob Walkup in this year's mayoral race, Democrat Daniel Patterson has now filed papers as a candidate for a House seat in legislative District 29 next November.
Unlike everyone else these days, Patterson isn't exploring — he's actually in.
The district takes in most of Tucson's South Side, and with state Rep. Linda Lopez termed out and eyeing the Senate, expect some fighting among Dems for control there. That would put incumbent Rep. Tom Prezelski in the middle of the action, but he says he's not concerned.
"They've made it clear that they're not running against me," he says of Patterson and other potential candidates.
Local doctor Matt Heinz, who ran a disciplined campaign in neighboring District 28 last year, has moved to the area and we hear he's positioning himself for a run in 29, too.
But more and more, Demo- crats are sounding hopeful they can pick up a seat in District 30, a nearby Republican stronghold.
With Dems' sights set on a House takeover, candidates are being encouraged to spread themselves around town rather than engaging in contested primaries in easy districts.
Political Notebook
Rob O'dell & Daniel Scarpinato
