Editor's Notes: Kolbe’s decision a wash for Bee, not a watershed

When State Sen. Tim Bee announced he was running for Congress, two power brokers were at his side as honorary campaign chairmen — car dealer Jim Click and former Congressman Jim Kolbe.

Click’s wealth, popularity, ability to raise money and standing with the national GOP made his support vital. His connections, for example, helped land a fundraiser with President Bush for Bee on Friday night in Tucson. Without Click, Bee would not have the war chest to keep up with incumbent Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. He doesn’t want to even think about life without the entrepreneur’s support.

Kolbe’s decision to endorse Bee against Giffords was more than symbolic. Kolbe refused to endorse Green Valley Republican Randy Graf in 2006, and Giffords easily won the seat Kolbe held for 22 years. But unlike Click, Bee will have to contemplate life without Kolbe, who has abandoned the campaign.

As State Senate president, Bee cast the tie-breaking vote to put a marriage amendment on the Arizona ballot in November. The proposition will ask voters to amend the state constitution to say, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”

Bee said he wanted voters to have a chance to decide in November and that his vote was not necessarily support for the measure. He said hundreds of constituents in State Senate District 30 asked him to put it on the ballot, where a similar measure failed by a 51-49 percent margin in 2006.

Kolbe was the only openly gay member of Congress when he served. Shortly after Bee’s vote to let voters decide, Kolbe sent an e-mail to Bee, saying he would no longer be involved in the Corona de Tucson resident’s campaign.

“I will not be actively campaigning for Bee,” the former Republican congressman told senior reporter Bill Hess of the Sierra Vista Herald, our sister newspaper.

Kolbe refused to specify why he was severing ties in his interview with Hess. In an interview Tuesday with Green Valley News reporters and managers, Bee said Kolbe’s decision was “personal” and would not elaborate.

Bee and Kolbe must think we’re a bunch of idiots. The decision came days after Bee’s marriage vote. There’s no way Kolbe would have severed ties days after holding a fundraiser for Bee in Washington, D.C. And there’s no chance Kolbe would have done it before Bush comes to Tucson. It had to be a rift over the marriage vote.

Politicos around the state have speculated Bee must be regretting his decision to bring the marriage amendment to the Senate floor. If it cost him Kolbe’s support, how does he benefit?

As is typical with pundits, they cannot see the big picture. They talk to one another, not real people, and most all come to the same conclusions. Their pack mentality practically coronated Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as the Democratic presidential nominee before the people spoke and picked Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. They counted out Sen. John McCain. R-Ariz., too, before he came back and overwhelmed the Republican field.

Here’s how Bee stands to benefit from his decision. He already has a reputation as a consensus builder. No one has been better at working with the other party than Bee. He’s the kind of candidate who can promise to end gridlock in Washington, then deliver.

The ability to get along with Democrats, though, hardly warms the insides of Republicans. They know about Bee’s effectiveness, but they want him to stand for conservative principles.

If Bee had voted against putting the marriage amendment on the ballot, he would have written his political obituary. In spelling out differences between himself and Giffords, Bee needs more than a pledge to make tax cuts permanent. He needs to tap into emotional issues that force voters to draw a line in the sand.

The marriage amendment is a make-or-break issue for some in Arizona, including Kolbe, apparently. If Bee had voted against putting the amendment on the ballot, it’s not likely he was going to pick up an endorsement from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance. Ninety percent of those voters will be in Giffords’ corner because she’s more liberal than Bee. So the issue’s more of a wash politically than a watershed moment.

Anyone who would cast Bee as a homophobe or a gay basher based on his vote would be wrong. In the News’ interview with Bee, we asked if he would vote for the marriage amendment in November. He would not say one way or the other. He reminded us Arizona already has a law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Life without Kolbe will make Bee’s campaign slightly more difficult. But Kolbe is the least of his problems. Bush’s low popularity, rising gas prices, home foreclosures, job losses and costly wars on two fronts are his challenges, not Kolbe.

James Bennett is editor of the Green Valley News. Contact him at jbennett@gvnews.com or 547-9770. Respond to this column with a Letter to the Editor by e-mailing letters@gvnews.com. Comment online at www.gvnews.com.