Board Games Supervisor Raul Grijalva's Latest Election Opponent Seems Ill-Prepared For The Fight. By Jim Nintzel PIMA COUNTY Supervisor Raul Grijalva expected his foes to launch a campaign against him this year. He's made plenty of enemies with his relentless criticism of unplanned growth and his strong push for impact fees. Months ago, a rumor surfaced that a staffer in the county's planning department was being courted by developers to challenge the two-term incumbent in the District 5 Democratic primary. Although that campaign never got off the ground, the talk was enough to get Grijalva onto the fundraising circuit. By May 31, the end of the most recent reporting period, Grijalva had collected $28,000. It seems he's going to need the money after all, since a challenger has come forward: Susan Chambers Casteloes, who switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party and began collecting her signatures just weeks before the deadline to file ballot petitions. Casteloes admits one reason she switched was because a Republican doesn't stand a chance in the district--nearly 57 percent of the voters are registered Democrats, while only 25 percent are registered with the GOP--but she says she was a Democrat until she moved to south Georgia in the early '80s and changed parties. And while she was registered here in Arizona as a Republican until the end of May of this year, she insists she has come home to the Democrats because she agrees with the party on "social issues." "I am neither a Democrat or a Republican," says Casteloes, a former schoolteacher who nows does part-time public relations work. "I am a Tucsonan and an American and I want to do what's best for this community. It doesn't matter what the tag is after my name." Casteloes also insists she's no shill for the development industry. In fact, she says she was driven to seek office by the sight of unchecked, unplanned and unmanaged growth in Tucson. "The growth is a very emotional issue with me," says Casteloes. "Everything's kind of helter-skelter and it's hodge-podge and I understand there is a master plan but it's never really been implemented. I just don't like what happened to my town, which I just love." Listen to Casteloes talk and you'd almost think you were hearing Raul Grijalva, the man she seeks to replace. "I don't have to oppose him," she explains. "I feel that if he has been on that board for eight years and you only need two other votes, I don't see that he has done a whole lot to stop (development)... The unprecedented growth that we've had in the last eight years has been while Grijalva was on the board." "I've been on the losing side, but I've been right," Grijalva responds. "This is not Camelot here, it's the Board of Supervisors. Sometimes it's not just the issue of getting along, it's about having some convictions and standing up for them and--quite frankly--fighting for them. And that does, will and should cause friction with your colleagues." If he's been on the losing side of most votes in the last four years, Grijalva can claim one victory: He was the supervisor who led the charge for impact fees to help pay for the road improvements Casteloes says are so desperately needed in the northwest. Despite her claims that she's sickened by the work of local developers, Casteloes waffles when it comes to the sticky subject of impact fees. She says a $1,500-per-home fee won't raise enough money, but she's afraid anything higher will drive the cost of housing too high. "I don't feel much can be done with a $1,500 impact fee," she says. "I need to study this issue a little bit more, because there's a lot involved. There's a sales tax, there's a gasoline tax.... Fifteen-hundred dollars isn't going to make a dent in anything. And then you're looking at $8,000 or $9,000 for a house and having purchased homes myself and barely able to come up with a downpayment, what's an extra $10,000 on a house going to do?" While a $1,500 fee may not sound like a lot, county staffers estimate the take over the next 10 years could be $40 million. To understand Casteloes' relunctance to back impact fees, it helps to understand that one of her campaign strategists is Don Golos, a real estate investor who recently told Inside Tucson Business impact fees were "selective persecution" and "the greatest weapon that no-growthers have ever thought of." "Don has given me some advice," Casteloes admits. "Don is a friend I have known since 1959." Although there are other issues she's yet to stake out a position on--for example, she doesn't yet know if she'd provide funding for the Copper Bowl (Grijalva wouldn't)--Casteloes brushes off concerns that she has failed to do her homework for a job that requires her to set policy and watch over the budget for the second-largest county in the state. She envisions creating a sort of cabinent to guide her once she's in office. "This is the one thing I want you to know: I do not know the answers," Casteloes says. "And if I am elected, I will always surround myself with and go to the experts." Although she doesn't fault any specific votes Grijalva has made in the last four years, Casteloes says his inability to get along with GOP Supervisors Ed Moore and Paul Marsh makes him unsuitable for the office. "It's ridiculous for him to say, 'I've been here eight years and I can't get along with anybody,' " Casteloes complains. "You know, that entire board could get re-elected. Is he saying that for four more years everything is just going to be stagnant because he can't get along with them?" "To say that you're coming into office to be a sponge and to get along and to be accepted, that's not the criteria for being in public office, especially on the Board of Supervisors," Grijalva says. "I was a neccessary and effective adversary in the last four years. Let's say the same board comes back: I think my role is more important than it was the last time around."

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