Anyone who wants to know where the newest candidate for Tucson’s District 28 House of Representatives seat stands on the issues needs only check one of the most popular liberal blogs in the state.
Ted Prezelski, who runs the blog Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, filed on March 12 to run for the seat, which will be vacated next year by term-limited Rep. David Bradley. Prezelski, known as “Tedski” to many of his fans, ran for the seat in 2006 and is the brother of former Rep. Tom Prezelski.
“You know that I’m someone that follows this pretty closely because of my blog and my brother was up there for a while. I’m really dissatisfied with the way things have gone up there,” Ted Prezelski said. “I don’t actually have any trouble with the people that have been representing the district, but we’re losing one of them. Dave Bradley is going to be termed out, and I think it’s really important that we get someone up there who is strong and articulate, to keep the fight going.”
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Web site mistakenly lists Prezelski as a Senate candidate, but he said that is an error and that he is running for the House, not for Paula Aboud’s Senate seat.
Prezelski’s blog isn’t likely to earn him the votes of many Republicans, who are frequent targets at R-Cubed, as the blog is sometimes called. But considering the fact that Democrats have a voter-registration advantage of about 26,000 in the central Tucson district, he isn’t all that worried about his past blog posts coming back to haunt him.
“It’s not like I’m going to change the way I talk about things just because I’m running for office,” Prezelski said. “I don’t know how much I’ve said that will hurt me in a Democratic primary. The people that I seem to really make angry are Republicans, and frankly I don’t need to get their votes. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic.”
Prezelski said he plans to continue writing blog posts on a regular basis, at least until the campaign heats up in January. After that, he said he will likely bring on others who will contribute to the blog.
In his campaign and, he hopes, in the House, Prezelski said he wants to focus on education issues, including adult and vocational education. Arizona has extraordinarily high dropout rates, he said, and when the economy turns south it is often the least-educated employees who are the first to lose their jobs. Prezelski works for a program that assists high school dropouts, and he said they used to mostly see 16- and 17-year-olds, who would come to the program shortly after dropping out. Now, he said, many of the participants are 19, 20 and 21.
“We need to make sure that we have alternative ways for folks to get the education they need to get decent jobs,” Prezelski said.
Bradley still has his eyes on public office as well. He has filed an exploratory committee with the Secretary of State’s Office, though he has not listed the particular office he is running for. Bradley said he is considering runs for state Senate and, “as outlandish as it may seem,” for governor.
Which office he runs for will likely depend on what offices others are seeking, he said. Bradley said he might run for state Senate even if Aboud decides to run for re-election, though Bradley said he would prefer to avoid a primary fight. Bradley said his decision on which office to seek may depend on what other potential candidates decide to do, and over the next week or so he plans to meet with several people, including Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat who is widely expected to run for governor in 2010.
“I’m going to be meeting with some other folks next week about their plans to get a better picture of what everybody else is up to, and kind of take it from there,” Bradley said.
Bradley is not yet publicly backing any candidates for his House seat, though he said he would probably be inclined to support former Rep. Ted Downing, who has filed an exploratory committee to run in 2010, without listing the office he intends to seek. Bradley said former Tucson city councilman and state representative Bruce Wheeler, who served in the House from 1975-1976, plans to run for the District 28 seat.
“Rumor has it that there’s about eight people running,” Bradley said.