MOORE OPTIONS: The question on everyone's mind these days: Is District 3 Pima County Supervisor Special Ed Moore running for re-election as a Republican or an Independent? The District 3 race is already lining up to be a full-blown slugfest, with GOP candidates Vicki Cox Golder and Ann Holden lining up to take on Ed in the primary, and Demos Sharon Bronson and Randy Thiel vying for a ballot spot in the general election. For months, strategists from all the campaigns have been wondering if Ed would bolt from the Republican ticket and run as an Independent to avoid a costly--and quite likely fatal--primary election. It seems Moore is trying to keep his options open. Spies tell The Skinny that Ed is collecting two separate nominating petitions--one as an R and one as an I. Does this mean he may file both, so that if he loses the GOP primary, he's still on the ballot? Or if he wins, he's on the ballot twice? We don't know--but that June 27 filing deadline is looming right around the corner. TUBE BOOBS: The Neighborhood Coalition of Greater Tucson hosted a candidate forum recently, with almost every candidate for the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Most of the media ignored it, but the guys from KOLD-TV did show up. And guess what they did? They interviewed supervisors Raul Grijalva and Ed Moore. And then they went back home to the Channel 13 Newsplex, without even once panning the other candidates. Now you know why incumbents have an advantage. BAD FIGURING: As you may recall, Gov. J. Fife Deadbeat III is battling his creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Now Michael Manning, attorney for the union pension funds that Gov. Deadbeat is trying to stiff for more than $10 million, has discovered a little problem with the Fifester's math. Seems the Guv accidentally listed the value of one of his developments, the Camelback Esplanade, at $67.5 million--even though an appraisal he held in his hand showed it to be worth only $44.6 million. Well, that's only a $23 million difference. Anyone could make a teeny mistake like that when applying for a $10 million loan. Fife says he thought it was the long-term value of the project. Besides, he argues, the union pension funds were obligated to loan him the money, because the loan had been set up years previously. What Fife doesn't say--and what none of us would probably know if it hadn't been for outstanding investigative reporting by John Dougherty at the Phoenix New Times--is that the man managing the pension funds set up the loan after getting a $10,000 kickback from Fife. Or that the guy is now in federal prison after similar financial shenanigans here in Tucson. Details, details. But what really amused us about the reports about the Governor last week was the "revelation" that one of Fife's former partners, Jerome Hirsh, had agreed to forgive up to $800,000 of a debt if Fife became President of the United States by the year 2000 (A looney-toon arrangement actually first reported by New Times editor Mike Lacey months ago). Asked about the deal, Gov. Deadbeat only commented that Hirsh "felt that I was great potential to go for national office." Really? Seems like Hirsh was betting $800,000 against Symington ending up in the White House. Or was he just trying to buy a president? Guess only Fife knows the answer to that one. But we don't imagine Hirsh sees Fife in the Oval Office these days. In January, he filed a suit accusing Gov. Deadbeat of fraud in connection to the bankruptcy. IN DEPTH AT KOLD-TV: Channel 13 weekend weather clown Jim Becker was recently busted in the parking lot of his northside apartment complex for rummaging through a number of automobiles. Neighbors called 911 and Pima County Sheriff's deputies released him after charging him with tampering with a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor. Guess Bud and Mindy, or whatever plastic clone is reading their news over at 13 these days, won't be telling us about that one. SIGNS OF TROUBLE: At the request of Oro Valley Town Councilman Rudy Roszak, authorities in the once-posh, now rapidly expanding future foothills slum will be patrolling extra hard the last few days before their election. Roszak wants to see to it nobody violates Oro Valley's strict sign code (which could in itself violate the First Amendment, but that's not the issue). Roszak whined to the Tucson Citizen that a day of what he claims was illegal sign posting before the town's primary election may have determined the outcome of that vote. Boy, does Rudy have a low opinion of his own voters. But what both Rudy and the Citizen failed to mention is that there are no strict sign restrictions all around Oro Valley, where tons of candidates' signs have been up for weeks and visible to everybody but a few shut-ins. Endangered Species? If there were an award for shallowest display of local media coverage, it would be jointly shared by just about everybody on their cumulative reporting that County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has eliminated the Department of Environmental Quality from this year's budget. Most who saw and heard these stories think that means the department's wide-ranging functions will no longer occur. Wrong. It means someone else will pick up the work. Here's the real story: County DEQ director David Esposito is the target. Esposito has his detractors, who think he's arrogant and spends too much. His defenders think he occasionally shows solid judgment and independence. Supervisors Special Ed Moore and Paul Marsh--not exactly known for their sensitivity to Mother Earth--don't like Esposito and want his wings clipped. They want to make his department subordinate to another, or to peel off his functions and parcel them out to bureaucrats more to their liking. And Supervisor Dan Eckstrom is no fan of Esposito, either, for his own reasons. Which leaves Esposito with the firm support of Supervisor Raul Grijalva and the murky support of Supervisor Mikey "The Flaky Waffleman" Boyd. Boyd had previously joined Marsh and Moore to cut back on an earlier request for higher environmental standards, but it's an election year and Mikey has to throw some bone to the greens, right? Esposito's fate rests in Eckstrom's hands, but the real functions of his department will be carried on regardless of what reorganization plan they fall under.

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