Published in the Herald/Review 4/26/2023

I like Tom Crosby. Newflash: I neither like Tom nor dislike Tom. I am a constituent of Mr. Crosby, who is the current supervisor of District 1 in Cochise County, which includes Sierra Vista and surrounding areas. There seem to be many who are unaware of Mr. Crosby but please read on.

Recently I have been called upon to engage in a signature gathering effort to recall Mr. Crosby along with many other alarmed District 1 constituents. The reason we are feeling a need to act and recall Mr. Crosby is because he, along with Supervisor Peggy Judd and County Recorder David Stevens, were engaged in an effort to deny the results and thereby the votes of 48,000 Arizona voters. They defied a court order, ignored the advice of legal council and the demands of Arizona election officials to certify the 2022 election results.

Mr. Crosby and Ms. Judd, as a result of their continued obstructive behavior, have incurred more than $100,000 in legal fees which will be courtesy of our tax dollars. So I do not like nor dislike Mr. Crosby but it seems he did not like the results of our votes and chose instead to spread misinformation about those results, and cause people to mistrust a proven system. Mr. Crosby acted illegally and unfaithfully, he cannot be trusted and needs to be recalled from office.

Please sign the recall petition.

Ronnie Maestas-Condos

Bisbee
To the editor:

Last week, David Stevens used his official capacity to accost people circulating the nonpartisan Recall Tom Crosby petition. They were on the public easement and/or private property next to the Hereford post office. Stevens claimed they were on “federal land” and ordered them to leave. As recorder, though, he should have known better; he has no bigger responsibility than to oversee county real estate records. These records were at his fingertips. Moreover, he had reportedly complained to the USPS about the same people on the same lot a full 10 days earlier, so he had plenty of time to figure out he was wrong and stand down.

Did he, though? Not hardly. He continued exceeding his lawful authority by again injecting himself as only authoritarian despots do. He contacted the private property owner in Vermont to agitate him to manufacture a new complaint against the couple, and the same owner suggested to us later that Stevens had misrepresented the situation.

For example, he had not shared that that the recall effort is nonpartisan, or that the empty dirt lot at issue has a long history of use by politicians and their signage — including by Stevens and Crosby, themselves. He had not shared that the adjacent land occupant (i.e., a post office representative) had directed the couple to use this area. Nor did he share that the couple was largely on the public easement, anyway, and had every right to circulate their petition there, as well!

Additionally, he did not share — or even seem to understand himself — that when there's an empty lot, although its absentee owner in another state can certainly hire someone privately to care for or police it, private security is not David Stevens' job — nor should it be. It is not something else that county taxpayers here should have to pay for.

So why was Stevens in his official capacity ultimately meddling in this private property matter and vowing to call the sheriff if he sees the couple return? Why was he impermissibly abusing his power, unfairly misleading a distant and absent private property owner? Why was he also "gifting" public resources in violation of the AZ Constitution's Gift Clause?

It's easy. David Stevens' sole focus is to abuse his position to render aid to his friend and co-defendant Tom Crosby. Although he once said that he could be non-partisan if given election department reins: What a laugh!

And what will County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd do next to enable Recorder David Stevens to accost elderly citizens who legally circulate nonpartisan petitions on an empty dirt lot?

Will they give him his own squad car with a siren and red lights on top? If so, everyone including Girl Scouts, who plan to sell cookies in the same dirt lot by the Post Office: be afraid! Stevens may next target you, especially if Crosby doesn’t like Thin Mints.

Anne and Al Anderson