September 28 - October 4, 1995

B y  D a v i d  D e v i n e

IN HIS BOOK The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux told the story of a fellow passenger who went looking for food and was left behind by a departing train. He termed this act "Duffilled," after the name of the stranded traveler, and defined it as "to be abandoned by one's own train." After recent events in Tucson, to be "Saggaued" has entered the local political terminology in a similar way.

When some neighborhood and environmental activists met with Tom Saggau in early 1991 in the living room of his modest home to discuss the possibility of his running for mayor, there were several attractions to the idea.

This was a man who had worked very hard as a plumber to make a living, but who had not been able to accumulate many material possessions. He knew what it meant to live without medical insurance and a guaranteed pay check with benefits every two weeks. He seemed to hold personal beliefs opposed to the Tucson political establishment and what it was doing to the community. So, although we knew it was a hopeless cause, some of us helped Tom in that campaign. He was articulate, studious and believed the city was headed in the wrong direction.

After he lost that race, he was appointed to the city's Budget Advisory Committee. In 1992 he was the committee member who correctly pointed out to city council members that if they approved the recommended city employee salary increases, the budget discussion would be over before it began. There simply would be no other money to spend on needed programs, it would have all gone to the employees. Privately, he bitterly criticized the city bureaucracy for its lack of concern for the average citizen.

Those of us who worked with him then chose to ignore his previous lack of interest in local politics and the fact that he hadn't been a registered voter for years. We also ignored his total lack of involvement with groups trying to change the way business-as-usual was done in Tucson. Instead, we took his anti-establishment rhetoric at face value and thanked him for his help.

In 1993 he ran for the Ward 3 city council seat. He'd learned a lot of political lessons from the previous campaign and applied them well. Plus he had the help of a lot of people who believed he'd be a political outsider who wouldn't accept the status quo at city hall.

But that campaign also revealed someone who was more interested in the job than in doing anything to help citizens. He gossiped incessantly about the personalities involved, while talking very little about the political philosophy he'd follow. We just assumed he was the same Tom Saggau we'd known in 1991.

Shortly after he took office, however, his growing ego, poor professional work habits and inept relationships with some of the other city council members quickly became a cause for real concern among those who'd supported him. Then came the rumors of excessive drinking, no preparation for council meetings, and a lack of will to stand up for the things we thought he believed in.

By the summer of last year, it had become apparent the candidate from 1991 was not the same man who occupied the council seat. Instead of being a voice for change, he'd become a pawn of the establishment. He voted consistently with Mayor George Miller and Councilman Roger Sedlmayr, the very people who'd opposed his election. If he'd ever had any personal political beliefs, they'd leaked out of the cracks which had developed in his personality.

For some of us in the neighborhood/environmental movement, "to be Saggaued" has come to mean the mistake of backing a political chameleon. Someone who will say and do anything to get elected. We can help people run for the office, but if they turn out to be establishment allies in the end, we'll have been "Saggaued."

In the future, neighborhood and environmental groups will need a better litmus test for those they'll support for local political office. A few catch phrases and a cursory knowledge of the issues won't suffice. The personal belief that our city government must be changed will have to be demonstrated. Because the lesson Tom Saggau taught us will be remembered long after he's gone from Tucson.

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