Dem. State Senator pulls endorsement of Cam Juarez after he failed to return kickback donation
State Senator Bruce Wheeler has become the first Democratic elected official to take a stand for integrity by rescinding his support and endorsement for TUSD board incumbent Cam Juarez.
“With his failure to return the tainted $5,000 I am no longer supporting him,” said Wheeler.
Juarez has been in the media spotlight lately after being caught in a pay-to-play donation scandal that led to him and another board member to publicly announce that they would be giving back a hefty $5,000 donation from a Republican housewife in Paradise Valley.
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Investigations by the local media unveiled the fact that this donation was from the Vice President of a company, ESI, that just received a whopping $21 million contract a few weeks prior. Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez voted yes on the contract and both received a $5K donations; Mark Stegeman voted no and receive no donation making this a clear kickback donation.
After promising at least twice publicly to return that money, once to the Arizona Daily Star…
Two TUSD Governing Board members who are running for re-election have decided to return $5,000 contributions made to their campaigns last month.
Donations of $5,000 each were made to Cam Juarez and Kristel Foster by a Phoenix couple — one half of whom is an executive for a business that holds a multi-million dollar contract with the Tucson Unified School District.
The contributions from Carly and Rob Brooks on Aug. 14 accounted for more than half of the donations Juarez and Foster have received over the course of their campaigns.
… and another at a candidate forum (video above), the most recently campaign finance reports that were revealed last Thursday show that Cam Juarez did not keep his promise to return the kickback funds.
In fact, Cam has already spent his kickback money and apparently cannot afford to do the right thing, keeping his word, and giving that money back.
It appears that all the work being done to fundraise for Cam Juarez at this point only serve the purpose of raising $5K just to give back to a Republican from Phoenix; that is, if Cam Juarez is truly a man of integrity who will indeed give back the money that his colleague Kristel Foster has already returned.
A true man of integrity is someone such as State Senator Bruce Wheeler who will stand up for what is right. Other Democratic officials have been saying that they may consider Wheeler’s brave stand for justice, and after giving Cam Juarez a chance to do the right thing, only leading to another broken promise from a Democratic politician, Juarez has only made it easier for the Democratic Party to do the right thing and not let one rotten apple spoil the bunch.
Originally published at TSON News.
