Tucson Speaks Out: October 23

Strings attached

The money certain individuals are pouring into the midterms is appalling. It shouldn’t matter whether you're Republican or Democrat to know that it’s flat-out wrong for billionaires to curry favor by contributing millions toward a particular candidate.

Case in point: Elon Musk alone has donated $366M in the 2026 midterm election cycle, including $276M since July . He and other billionaires rely on government contracts to fuel their business success and grow personal wealth. Musk’s business empire has reportedly received over $37B in government contracts, subsidies, tax credits, etc.

When watching the negative and distorted ads polluting the airwaves, think about who paid for many of them and what they get in return. Corruption? What strings are attached?

There’s a fairer and better system to inform voters about candidates. We should demand campaign financing reform so that those elected serve the masses rather than be beholden to billionaires who helped elect them.

Robert Holl

Foothills

Trump and sex change lies

Trump continues to claim that schools provide sex change surgery, saying that Johnny goes to school and comes back as Jill. Everyone, except Trump cultists, knows that is not true.

What is true, however, is that hundreds of kids, over the years, went to school and never came back. They were shot to death in their classrooms and hallways. But let’s worry about something that is impossible to even happen and forget about children and teachers being gunned down in our schools.

What also is true is that many children go to school and do go back home. But, the home is empty because their parents were taken away by ICE. Were they in the country illegally ? Were they the “worst of the worst?” Had they broken any laws? That does not matter. Quotas matter, and spending millions of dollars to send them to some African nation will somehow make us safer?

Where are those Epstein files?

Gary Haslett

SaddleBrooke

Whose kids are hungry?

One of Rep. Juan Ciscomani's TV ads closes showing him with his wife and kids smiling into the camera. Those kids look happy and well-fed. Do you think the thousands of Arizona kids Ciscomani voted to knock off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program look that way?

Sandy Salz

Oro Valley

A very important vote

There are many important candidates and propositions on our ballots for the election on Nov. 3. But the most important for our personal economic well-being is one you may not know about. The Arizona Corporation Commission is responsible for the rates we pay for electricity, gas and telephone. Have you noticed your electric rates increasing? That’s because the current commissioners approve whatever Tucson Electric Power asks for. Gas rates? CenturyLink telephone service rates? The ACC sets these rates. There are five commissioners. All of them currently are Republicans. If you do not like the decisions they have made about your rates, and if you are concerned about the decision they will make on TEP’s request for a 14% increase, then vote for the Democrat candidates for the ACC: Jonathon Hill and Clara Pratte.

Eloise Gore

Northeast side

2026 campaign ads

I hope I’m not the only Arizona voter who is sick nigh unto death with the tenor of political ads being aired on Tucson’s television stations. To me, the ads are hateful, derogatory, juvenile, quite likely untrue, and designed to manipulate me with hot-button issues lacking merit. I want to know what plans candidates have for addressing some very serious issues facing Arizona, to include: 1. Water scarcity and long-term water security; 2. Housing affordability and cost of living challenges; 3. Affordable and accessible healthcare; 4. Improving our public schools; 5. Jobs creation; 6. Extreme heat and climate-related risks.

Saying your opponent is too liberal or too conservative for Arizona just doesn’t cut it anymore. The people deserve solutions to problems facing them.

Robert Bishop

East side

Healthy communities start close to home

Healthcare isn't just what happens when we walk into a hospital. It's also the care and resources available in our communities that help people stay healthy in the first place. Pima County helps provide public health services, including affordable healthcare, immunizations, and heat mitigation through community health clinics.

Yet the county is working under an expenditure-limit formula established 46 years ago — before decades of population growth and increasing demands on health and community services. Prop. 425 will update that formula so Pima County can make fuller use of funding it already has. It does not increase the tax rate by a single penny.

Public health needs don't get easier or less expensive when we wait to address them. Prop. 425 gives our county greater flexibility to invest in the wide array of health needs of the people who call Pima County home.

Dennis Regnier

Midtown

Reply to Clara Luna

As Tim Steller points out, politics can be a very dirty game, and no one is pure. To understand American interest in the region and Israeli history, I recommend books by historians like Walter Russell Mead, Michael Oren, Tom Segev and Benny Morris. While not as ideologically satisfying, they shed light, as opposed to heat, on the subject.

Lewis Bernstein

Marana

Very shortly now ...

We have the opportunity to “right our ship.” Please consider the global humiliation we've suffered at the hands of Trump's administration. Reflect on Trump’s embarrassing behaviors and the vile, childish words that spill from his mouth. Please reject MAGA nonsense. Trump’s “instincts” haven't been right . The honorable judges curtailing Trump’s endless lawlessness are saviors of America, not people “looking for 15 minutes of fame.” The fantasy of significant “ineligible voters” is false and has been proven so over and over. Reject fear-mongering about Democratic Socialists wanting to “nuke the Constitution.” Please reject the election deniers who maintain this gross lie . Let’s see what a return to decency and competence can do for America’s pride and credibility.

Hope Gastelum

East side

Young readers lose under Prop. 320

I urge a no vote on Prop. 320. I am a Reading Seed coach. This Literacy Connects volunteer program provides one-on-one coaching that helps first- and second-graders build a love of books and literacy skills. Last year, coaches gave more than 15,000 hours to 20 Tucson public schools. Teachers reported that participating students gained academic confidence and increased classroom engagement, and 98% identified as readers.

Reading Seed depends on school support staff.

I see the classroom teacher only briefly; it is the office staff, speech pathologist and librarian who analyze data, identify students and coordinate schedules so my volunteer time strengthens student learning. None of these positions count toward Prop. 320’s instructional spending mandate, but all are essential to student success.

To meet that one-size-fits-all 60% mandate, districts will be forced to cut student support positions like speech pathologists and librarians. Lose them, and Reading Seed loses the backbone that makes it work. Fewer children will become readers. Vote no.

Melinda Burke

Midtown