Republican congressional candidate Tim Bee has lost the help of former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe in his quest to snatch Kolbe's old Southern Arizona seat from Democratic incumbent Gabrielle Giffords.
The official word from the campaign is that Kolbe has broken ties for "personal reasons," although spokesman Tom Dunn would not elaborate.
Kolbe did not return calls from Notebook, but in an interview Thursday with the Sierra Vista Herald, he refused to say why he would no longer be "actively campaigning for Bee," as Kolbe put it.
According to Dunn, the switch came within the last week. Also in the last week: Bee, president of the state Senate, was the decisive vote on sending a measure to the ballot asking voters to define marriage in the Arizona Constitution as solely between one man and one woman.
And Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress before his retirement in 2006, had expressed disagreement with Bee on the issue shortly after it was announced in January that Kolbe would be the honorary chairman for Bee's campaign.
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For his part, Bee dodged questions about the measure all year — and avoided bringing it up for a vote until the final hours of a 166-day legislative session.
Up to that point, Kolbe had been active in the campaign throughout the spring and summer, hosting a fundraiser for Bee in Washington just last month.
For that help, Dunn said, Bee is appreciative. And though Dunn maintains that the race will be won on Bee's record in the state Senate, the disassociation is undoubtedly a blow to the campaign.
The support of Kolbe — a highly popular moderate during his 22-year tenure representing Southern Arizona — was a major highlight of Bee's long-awaited campaign kickoff in January. Kolbe had refused to endorse the GOP nominee for his seat in 2006, Randy Graf.
And we all remember how that ended.
Fireworks in Marana
The real fireworks at Friday's Independence Day celebration in Marana weren't in the sky.
On Thursday, the Bee campaign caught wind of the fact that Giffords was set to speak at the town's event. So Bee's people requested that he have the chance to say a few words, too.
Nope, said Mayor Ed Honea.
"It's not a political event," said Honea, a Republican who has crossed party lines to endorse Giffords. "It's just strictly a family day at the park to eat some watermelon and see some fireworks."
Honea said Giffords would get to speak because she's the sitting congresswoman, and his endorsement of her had nothing to do with allowing her some mic time. "She's a federally elected official," Honea said.
But Bee's people maintain that the whole thing was unfair, since, as Senate president, Bee represents the whole state.
And get this: The park where the festivities unfolded is named after a Bee supporter — longtime resident and former Marana Mayor Ora Mae Harn. Even she called to try to nudge Honea. But he wasn't budging.
"I'm not going to start to play tit for tat," he told Notebook.
In the end, though, even Giffords didn't get to speak — as a storm forced the event to start and end early.
Age issue
This year's presidential election is a test case for the impact a candidate's age has on electability, as John McCain would become the oldest person ever elected U.S. president if he wins in November. (He turns 72 in August.)
In Tucson, on a much smaller scale, age politics will also be playing out — but not the way you might think.
State Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Republican running for a state Senate seat, is 38. His Democratic opponent, Georgette Valle, is 83.
And that's a point that one of Valle's supporters brought up in a recent e-mail.
"She is less well-known," the e-mail said, "and her age may or may not be a handicap — (Paton) being a young pup — but she has experience, 13 years as a legislator in Washington state."
The real question won't be age, but rather who will have the stronger bite in what may prove to be one of the more interesting legislative races this year?
