Had filed to run as Green Party candidate, now cites lack of funds
Kromko
Tucson political activist John Kromko has decided he can’t win a race for mayor, so he won’t run.
Kromko, a former state representative, had filed paperwork with the city that would have allowed him to challenge two-term Republican Mayor Bob Walkup with a Green Party write-in candidacy.
He refused to discuss his possible candidacy Friday until he met further with leaders of the Green Party of Pima County.
Kromko issued a statement Monday saying a mayoral campaign was folly.
“There appears to be no way that I, or the Green Party, could raise the amount of money necessary to run a citywide campaign,” he said.
Instead, he will put his efforts into a ballot initiative to repeal the city’s $14 garbage collection fee and prevent the water bill from including fees for anything not related to water.
David Croteau, who works in building restoration, will continue his campaign for mayor as a Green Party member.
Green Party officials had wanted Kromko to run because he is known in local politics and has a record on issues the party liked, said David E. Stewart, spokesman for the county Green Party.
The party is pressing forward with Croteau.
“We got a good candidate,” Stewart said. “We got a race that should be interesting because we have two very different views of government.”
This year, the Green Party will likely be the major challenger to Walkup because no Democrat has managed to get on the ballot.
Michael Toney, a regular at City Council meetings to discuss computer chip technology, is challenging as a write-in and won’t be on the ballot unless he gets nearly 2,000 votes in the general election.
If not, it will be Croteau versus Walkup in a race that pits an established politician against an anti-establishment party.
“It’s all about money to them,” Croteau says about the Democratic and Republican parties’ preoccupation with fundraising. “It’s not about money to us. It’s about principles and ideas.”