Anti-Kerry ad

pulls campaign

into the gutter

The presidential campaign has stumbled into the gutter with a new television ad accusing Sen. John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record.

Sen. John McCain, a fellow Vietnam veteran, has quite properly denounced the ad although he and Kerry are from opposite political parties. Ironically, the independent ad was funded and broadcast by a group exploiting a loophole in a campaign finance reform bill co-authored by McCain.

While serving in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy, Kerry earned a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts as a swift boat commander.

But the 200-member Swift Boat Veterans for Truth questions Kerry’s record. In the ad, one veteran said “John Kerry is no war hero” and another said, “John Kerry cannot be trusted.”

McCain quickly condemned the ad, saying, “I deplore this kind of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals (in the ad) served on the boat (Kerry) commanded.”

McCain is absolutely right. We left Vietnam 30 years ago. The nation’s focus – and the focus of this election – must be on what is happening today and what Kerry and President Bush foresee.

Attack ads against either candidate have no place in this campaign – especially not attack ads about something that happened three decades ago.

The group airing the ad is taking advantage of a loophole in campaign reform legislation signed into law by Bush in 2002.

The law, written by McCain and Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., prohibited candidates and political parties from accepting soft money – the large, unlimited contributions made by unions, corporations and very wealthy individuals.

But federal law still allows private committees to raise unlimited donations and run advertisements if they do not expressly call for the election or defeat of a specific candidate. The Swift Boat Veterans’ ad skirts that requirement by trashing Kerry, but not urging a vote against him or for Bush.

McCain told The Associated Press that the Bush campaign should “specifically condemn the ad.” But Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush’s campaign stopped short of that, saying, “The Bush-Cheney campaign has never and will never question John Kerry’s service during Vietnam. The election will not be about the past, it will be about the future.”

That’s not good enough. Bush should call on the veterans group to stop running the ad.

The Vietnam War is over. Stop the petty political bickering and nitpicking and talk about the future of this country. That’s what the voters of America care about and that’s what we want to hear discussed.

Finally gone

It took far too long, but thankfully two Catholic priests have finally been removed from their clerical positions by the Diocese of Tucson.

Monsignor Robert Trupia and the Rev. Michael Teta were suspended in the early 1990s after what church officials said were credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving children.

They were not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.

But the two stayed on the diocese payroll until last week as they fought laicization – the process of removing them from the priesthood.

That process finally has ended. It is unfortunate it took all this time.

Citizen Staff

Tucson companies that sell ad space or create ads would be charged.

By OSCAR ABEYTA

oabeyta@tucsoncitizen.com

Pat Connors spends about $10,000 a month advertising his restaurant, Pastiche, and a proposal to revive a city advertising tax would hurt him in competition against national chains, he told City Council members yesterday.

“I know it’s going to be passed on by the (advertising) agency to me, which affects my budget,” he said.

Three council members heard more such complaints yesterday at a gathering of the Tucson Advertising Federation.

Councilwoman Kathleen Dunbar told the group she would not support the tax, which City Manager James Keene estimates would bring in $3.6 million annually.

The 2 percent tax would be charged to Tucson companies that sell advertising space or create advertisements.

“I am confident that we have four votes, that this will not pass,” Dunbar said.

Councilmen José Ibarra and Steve Leal voiced opposition as well.

Ibarra was not as confident as Dunbar that the proposal will be easily voted down.

He said the scheduled June 7 vote on a controversial garbage fee proposal would be a barometer for the fate of the advertising tax. The ad tax also goes to a vote June 7.

Leal said the ad tax was eliminated in the mid-1980s because local businesses were paying a tax national businesses didn’t have to pay.

“I voted to do away with the advertising tax because I thought it created an unfair playing field,” Leal said. “I think that when government tries to solve its problems, it should not saddle others with problems.”

Ed Ackerley, account executive at Ackerley Advertising, said the tax would hurt economic development.

“If you tax the thing that generates sales, sales will go down and so will sales-tax revenue,” he said.

Though his television station would not be affected because its headquarters is in Marana, Jim Arnold, general manager of KOLD-TV Channel 13, questioned the need for tax increases.

“When does it come to the point that you’re going to have to hurt some feelings and make the cuts that are necessary?” he asked the council.

Dunbar responded that political divisions on the council make it difficult to cut programs.

“When we try to make the tough cuts, we can’t get the four votes,” she said.

Citizen Staff

By GARRY DUFFY

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com

The battle to win hearts, minds – and votes – in Pima County’s $732 million bond election Tuesday has been low key but is revving up in the days before voters go to the polls.

Critics of the $173.4 million bond package for acquisition of open-space lands and to buffer Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from development have launched a billboard campaign, mostly in urban areas distant from most of the lands targeted in the bond package.

The location of the 20 billboards, most in the city’s core, wasn’t by design and wasn’t intended to target a particular audience, critics of the bond question say.

“We were not able to get primary locations for most of the signs,” Glynn Burkhardt, a member of the Supervisors’ Accountability Committee, a private group that will pay for two weeks’ worth of billboard use, said yesterday.

The company is charging regular rates for the billboards, which vary by location and size, said Dave Sitton, Clear Channel’s Tucson general manager.

Burkhardt, who received $500 from the committee for consultant work, said the total payment to Clear Channel would be in the $5,500-to-$6,000 range.

Four committees are backing the bonds.

Friends of the Sonoran Desert spent about $130,000, mostly on polling, consultants and mass mailings, the group reported in its pre-election campaign contribution disclosure.

The group also has a radio spot featuring U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., a former county supervisor and supporter of open-land preservation, that is being played on Spanish-language stations.

Another pro-bond group that has spent heavily is Six Bonds for All of Us.

“We’ve tried to focus on the voters who are most likely to vote,” said Larry Hecker, chairman of the organization supporting both the county’s five general obligation bonds for $582 million, and $150 million in sewer revenue bonds.

Most of the group’s money has gone into mailing about 100,000 ads, said Peter Zimmerman of Tucson-based Zimmerman and Associates.

Most of the group’s expenditures listed by the April 28 deadline for pre-election campaign finance reports, about $56,000, went to the Zimmerman company.

Zimmerman expects the group campaign expenditures to be about $110,000.

The group has a radio spot featuring University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson speaking in favor of all six bond proposals.

Another pro-bond group, the Land Conservation Committee, reported spending $2,700 for brochures and ads in the Northwest Side’s Northwest Explorer newspaper.

Defenders of Wildlife reported about $2,500 in expenditures for printing, mailing materials and postage to support the open-space proposal.

PHOTO CAPTION: GARY GAYNOR/Tucson Citizen

This billboard against the bond proposal for buying open-space lands is in the 1500 block of North Stone Avenue.

USA TODAY

Many of the companies are becoming behemoths with growing purchasing plans.

By JIM HOPKINS

USA TODAY

Greg Cortez, founder of a San Antonio tech consulting company, is in a business spending mood.

Cortez, 37, who started AMGtech about four years ago, recently bought six desktop computers for $10,000.

He expects to rack up another $10,000 in business spending on his Bank of America credit card over the next 12 months.

For years, marketers have drooled over the Hispanic consumer market as it soared with population growth.

Now marketers are focusing as well on the more narrow slice of Hispanic-owned companies, including AMGtech, and the companies’ growing appetite for computers, cars and other business gear.

Yesterday, eBay announced the debut of the Entrepreneur’s Center, a Web site partly in Spanish to help aspiring small-business owners.

Ford Motor Co. unveiled a similar site last week.

There are 1.2 million Hispanic-owned firms in the United States, about one of every 16 companies.

Ford says there could be 2 million by 2007.

What’s more, many Hispanic companies are becoming behemoths with growing spending plans.

Annual revenue at each of the top 10 exceeds $400 million, says Hispanic Business magazine’s most recent list of the United States’ 500 biggest.

Many, such as Goya Foods in Secaucus, N.J., still cater to the traditional sweet spot plumbed by Hispanic firms: other Hispanics.

Goya, whose rice and snacks are staples in many Hispanic homes, ranks No. 4 on the magazine’s list, with $735 million in revenue.

Still, more Hispanic companies like AMGtech are aiming for hot sectors like tech consulting services far from the Hispanic community.

That boosts revenue and spending muscle, drawing more attention from marketers such as eBay and Ford.

“Hispanic businesses are outgrowing that stereotype of the small mom and pop,” says Joel Russell, senior editor at Hispanic Business.

EBay has a growing base of small-business customers, so it could benefit from emerging niches such as Hispanic entrepreneurs.

EBay gave $175,000 through its charitable foundation to a nonprofit group that created the Entrepreneur’s Center at www.thebeehive.org.

The site, also in English, targets low-income people.

EBay has about 430,000 customers who are at least part-time small-business owners. The customers spent $2 billion on the site last year, twice the amount in 2002.

Vehicles, technology, more

As more Hispanic businesses prosper, they spur interest from marketers peddling:

• Vehicles. Ford’s new Web site is a joint venture with Time Warner’s America Online. The site features Spanish versions of articles from Time Warner publications. Also included: marketing tips and chat sessions with entrepreneurs and other experts.

Ford hopes the site will make the automaker “top of mind” when Hispanic entrepreneurs shop for cars, says Nick Scheele, president of Ford Motor.

• Technology. Hewlett-Packard is another aspiring player in the Hispanic business market. In a pilot project last year, it showed company products on a local Hispanic business TV show in Houston.

The firm is eyeing similar shows in other cities, says Denise Marcilio, its head of Hispanic business marketing in the United States.

IBM, too, is cozying up to people like Jorge Quintero, owner of QCM Technologies, a growing tech consulting firm with 22 workers in Scottsdale.

QCM had about $15 million in revenue last year. This year’s revenue is on track to hit $18 million.

Quintero, 44, mostly sells IBM software and hardware to companies and government agencies in Arizona and elsewhere.

• Bank services. Wells Fargo Bank in January began a Web site with advice in Spanish on writing a business plan, hiring employees and getting a loan.

MAP: A booming niche

Hispanic-owned businesses are growing fast – spurring marketers to focus more efforts on selling to them. Many of the nation’s 1.2 million Hispanic firms are in California and nine other states, making them easier to target.

Top 10 states for Hispanic firms

California 336,405

Texas 240,396

Florida 193,902

New York 104,189

New Jersey 36,116

Illinois 31,010

Arizona 28,894

New Mexico 28,285

Colorado 20,859

Virginia 13,703

They are growing faster than the U.S. average 1)

Number of businesses Annual revenue

Hispanic firms Up 30% Hispanic firms Up 49%

All firms Up 6.8% All firms Up 40%

1) from 1992-97, latest date available

Source: Census Bureau/Bob Laird, USA TODAY

Citizen Staff

By DAVID L. TEIBEL

dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com

Tanée Natividad was caught in the crossfire in November 2001, killed in a confusing round of gunplay among rival gang members in a crowded parking lot.

One man was wounded and another was killed in the melee, said Detective Sgt. Mark Nisbet, head of the Tucson police gang detail.

An arrest warrant was issued within weeks for Max Montijo-LaMadrid, but he is believed to have been hiding in Mexico since a stray bullet took the life of Natividad, a 16-year-old Pueblo High School student, Nisbet said.

Authorities yesterday unveiled a billboard with Montijo-LaMadrid’s picture announcing a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to his capture.

The reward is for information called in through 88-CRIME, the Pima County Attorney’s Office’s anonymous tip program.

The billboard, donated by Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. to highlight an unsolved case of 88-CRIME’s choosing, is on East Valencia Road at South Randall Boulevard.

Natividad’s mother, Barbara Nuñez, tearfully pleaded yesterday for someone to call authorities if Montijo-LaMadrid is in southern Arizona or should come here.

“He’ll do it again,” Nuñez said. “He’s got no remorse. He can do it to your child, too.”

Gary Dhaemers, executive director of 88-CRIME, said Montijo-LaMadrid has ties to Tucson.

“We know he has frequented areas in Tucson. We know there is someone who knows when he is up in the Tucson area,” he said.

Montijo-LaMadrid’s image was captured last year on a Nogales, Ariz., barroom security camera, Dhaemers said.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is working to get help from Mexican authorities to find Montijo-LaMadrid and extradite him to the United States for trial, said Assistant Attorney General Paul Eckerstrom.

But law officers in Mexico have been unable to develop leads on Montijo-LaMadrid’s whereabouts, Eckerstrom said.

Natividad was not in a gang, Nisbet said.

“She had the misfortune of being in a car with Terrance (Gooden),” a suspected street gangster, he said.

On Nov. 16, 2001, Tanée and her friend, Gooden, then 18, went to a Jack-in-the-Box at 4610 E. Speedway Blvd., at about 2:30 a.m., Nisbet said.

While the couple was sitting in the drive-through lane, an argument broke out among several young women. Their male friends, gangsters from opposing gangs, jumped into the fray and a shooting broke out, Nisbet said. Police said more than 25 people gathered.

Alfredo Gonzalez, a friend of Montijo-LaMadrid, was killed in the restaurant parking lot, police said.

Montijo-LaMadrid thought the man who killed his friend got into Gooden’s car – he had not – and Montijo-LaMadrid opened fire on the car, killing Natividad, Nisbet said.

Nisbet said a teenage boy killed Gonzalez. The County Attorney’s Office, however, did not seek charges against the boy because it believed the killing was in self-defense. The boy was arrested for aggravated assault for shooting and wounding another man during the gunfight, Nisbet said.

He pleaded guilty, was put on probation, ran away and is being sought as a fugitive probation violator, Nisbet said.

After the shooting, Gooden drove around the block, ditched a gun he had, then drove Natividad to a nearby convenience market. Someone called 911 and when rescue personnel arrived she was dead, police said.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: VAL CAÑEZ/Tucson Citizen

Billboard on East Valencia Road at South Randall Boulevard

Barbara Nuñez (right) talks about the murder of her daughter, Tanée Natividad. At left is Tanée’s grandmother, Sylvia Natividad.

Citizen Staff

By OSCAR ABEYTA

oabeyta@tucsoncitizen.com

The company that owns two billboards along Interstate 19 would be willing to move them to make room for a cultural park if it can reach an agreement with the city, an official said.

The City Council on Monday agreed to accept from the state 7.2 acres along Julian Wash, which is the site of a prehistoric Hohokam village discovered during construction of the I-19/I-10 interchange.

The state also has offered the city $1 million to buy 3.8 acres that contain the rest of the village and to develop the park.

The land is the site of two billboards owned by Clear Channel Outdoors, which holds a lease that is set to expire in 2011. However, the lease would give Clear Channel an automatic 30-year extension if a government body, such as the city, acquired the land.

If the city were to try to buy out Clear Channel’s lease, it would likely have to pay more than $300,000.

Dave Sitton, southern Arizona vice president of Clear Channel, said the city has not yet contacted him about the billboards.

“We are very interested in working with the city of Tucson on finding an accommodation for all parties’ best interests,” Sitton said. “In most American cities and throughout the world in similar instances, Clear Channel meets with the local governments, and they find ways to resolve matters like this.”

Sitton said a possible solution would be to work with the city to relocate the billboards to a comparable location along the freeway.

City Manager James Keene said the city won’t take immediate action on the idea.

“I think we want to take our time on this, just to make sure the best solution for the community is struck,” he said.

The city still needs to apply for the state money and buy the remaining land before the billboards have to be dealt with.

“Maybe by then Clear Channel will have offered to take down the billboards on their own,” he said.

Monday’s City Council resolution directs staff members to explore means of getting the billboards off the site on or before the 2011 lease expiration, and possibly to explore a legal challenge to the automatic extension.

“The ultimate goal is to get both billboards removed from the site,” Councilman José Ibarra said at the meeting.

City staff had proposed leaving the billboards and using the revenue to maintain the park. Council members rejected the suggestion, noting residents had voted by a 2-to-1 margin in 1985 to remove billboards where it was possible. The ordinance also bans new billboards in the city except along the freeway.

Ibarra said the offer from the state is hard to turn down, even with the billboards on the site.

“It’s something we would never be able to do on our own,” Ibarra said. “We would be acquiring a significant piece of archaeological property that needs to be preserved.”

Councilman Fred Ronstadt said the city should make an effort to resolve the issue sooner rather than later.

“Otherwise, we’re going to be engaged in a long process that’s going to cost us more money at the end of the day,” he said.

Citizen Staff and Wire Reports

For the alcohol industry, the NCAA Tournament means a chance to spend millions advertising to a national TV audience. While opponents aim to severe those ties, UA hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon.

Staff and Wire Report

WASHINGTON – For millions of sports fans, “March Madness,” means the long-awaited start of the NCAA basketball tournament, particularly in Tucson where the University of Arizona Wildcats is the city’s top sports attraction.

For the alcohol industry, the games mean a chance to spend millions advertising to a national television audience. That marketing strategy uses the nation’s top collegiate athletes to sell beer, even though many of those athletes are underage and it’s illegal for them to drink it.

Beer advertisements on college sports broadcasts are nothing new. But new questions are being raised about the willingness of schools to accept millions from the industry amid mounting evidence that beer and college students are a dangerous mix.

Alcohol-fueled incidents are the leading cause of campus crime and health problems, and they sometimes result in death.

“We don’t see how colleges teaming with beer advertisers is in the best interests of students,” said George Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The center is asking 1,200 colleges and universities to sign what it calls The College Commitment, a pledge to eliminate alcohol-related television ads during sports events. The pledge applies to all levels of college sports, from local games to championship contests such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament and national football bowls.

As of March 9, the group’s Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports television had signed up 105 schools, including three in the Big 10 Conference – Ohio State University, Northwestern University and the University of Minnesota.

But not UA.

UA President Peter Likins says he can’t, even though there is a rule that prohibits alcoholic beverages on the campus, because of ties with the Pacific-10 Conference.

“I cannot, as president of the University of Arizona, commit unilaterally to the imposition of advertising controls on televised games in which this university participates. Unless some mechanism for simultaneous and collective action can be devised, I must stand aside,” Likins said in a written statement.

However, Likins adds “personally I’d be please to support stronger controls by the NCAA on alcoholic beverage advertising during the NCAA Basketball Championships.”

Beer industry officials deny their advertising targets underage drinkers and say there’s no evidence that advertising encourages drinking among college students. They note that 87 percent of people who watch college basketball are 21 or older and that 57 percent of undergraduates are at least 21.

“I think it’s ethical and good business, we want to be where our customers are,” said John Kaestner, vice president of consumer affairs for Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.

The industry spent about $58 million in 2002 on commercials televised during college sports programs, according to The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University in Washington. That equaled about 10 percent of the industry’s total television sports spending that year.

NCAA leads the way

NCAA Tournament games led all other sports events in alcohol-related advertising on television in 2002, with 939 ads costing $28 million. That compares with a combined 925 ads aired during the Super Bowl, World Series, college bowl games and the NFL’s Monday Night Football.

The $33 million that the industry spent on television ads at NCAA games and football bowl games in 2002 accounted for more than 57 percent of the money the industry spent on television ads at all college sports events that year.

Jeff Howard, a spokesman for the NCAA, denied that letting beer companies advertise during games sends a mixed message.

“We don’t feel it’s inconsistent with our mission,” he said.

Many schools are so strapped for cash that they welcome the beer industry’s money.

“Anheuser-Busch is our No. 1 corporate client when it comes to cash,” said Mario Moccia, associate athletic director at the University of Missouri. “We are proud of our affiliation. We have to deal with real-world revenue issues.”

Schools that have signed on to the no-beer-ads campaign take a different view.

“That’s just not the image I want to convey,” Rob Fournier, athletic director at Wayne State University in Detroit, said of the ads. “For years, I have brought in people to talk to my athletes about alcohol abuse. It just seems contradictory to me to take money from the beer industry.”

Two sports legends – retired Hall of Fame college basketball coach Dean Smith and GOP Rep. Tom Osborne, formerly the head football coach at the University of Nebraska – are putting their celebrity status to work for the campaign by making speeches urging schools to join.

Limits vary

College and university policies on alcohol advertising vary. The NCAA restricts beer and wine ads to 14 percent of total advertising content or 60 seconds per hour of television time. The organization does not allow ads for hard liquor.

There are no specific restrictions on alcohol ads during the annual college football bowl games, said Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, who coordinates the bowl series.

At the local level, schools set their own policies on alcohol advertising. But a school that declines to accept beer advertising money during locally broadcast games often finds it doesn’t have that option when it plays in a conference or tournament that allows the ads.

Some schools face special problems in trying to reduce students’ exposure to alcohol. The University of Miami Hurricanes, for example, play in a city-owned stadium that allows beer sales.

Catherine Bath, program director for Security on Campus Inc. in King of Prussia, Pa., said schools can no longer afford to take money from beer producers. Her group is dedicated to making colleges safer.

Bath’s 20-year-old son, Raheem Bath, died five years ago as a result of binge drinking while a junior at Duke University.

Nationally, about 1,400 college and university students die and about 500,000 are injured each year from alcohol-related causes, according to studies. Another 600,000 students each year are assaulted by classmates who have been drinking. No numbers from UA were available.

The number of beer ads aired during college sports games bucks the trend in alcohol ads displayed on campuses.

Although most colleges and universities still allow beer ads during college sports broadcasts, 72 percent bar alcohol advertising on their campuses, according to a September report on underage drinking by the National Academy of Sciences.

Reactions vary at UA.

“I think the ads definitely do influence students to drink,” said senior Higashi Kato.

Others disagreed.

“No, I don’t think ads influence students to drink. Students are going to drink whether there are ads or not,” said Anita Coronado, a senior Spanish major. “Students are more influenced by peer pressure than TV ads.”

“Students are not particularly influenced by alcohol ads. I doubt they have any influence,” said Nicola Stuttard, a senior.

UA football player Danny Baugher, also doesn’t believe the ads encourage students to drink.

About banning alcohol ads from televised college sporting events, the students were split.

“I see their point,” Coronado said, “but I don’t think it would make any difference.”

“It’s not a good idea. The ads bring in money,” Stuttard said.

Kato and Baugher disagree.

“I think it is a very good idea to ban alcohol ads from college sports on TV,” Kato said.

“It would be a good idea,” Baugher said. “It would make sense to ban the ads since most students are under the legal drinking age.”

Staff writer TJ Buck contributed to this article.

REASONS TO FROTH OVER STUDENT DRINKING

WASHINGTON – Excessive drinking on college and university campuses has serious consequences for nondrinkers as well, according to numerous studies. No numbers from the University of Arizona are available.

The studies show that:

• 1,400 college students die every year in alcohol-related incidents.

• More than 600,000 college students are assaulted each year by other students who have been drinking.

• More than 500,000 college students are injured each year in alcohol-related accidents.

• There were 30,517 campus arrests for liquor law violations in 2002.

• About 5 percent of college students are involved with the police or campus security as a result of drinking.

• More than 70,000 students annually are victims of date rape or sexual assault in incidents where alcohol is a factor.

• 2 of 5 college students are binge drinkers.

• About 2.1 million students between 18 and 24 drive while intoxicated.

• More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem each year.

• Underage drinking costs the country $53 billion annually.

Sources: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV, Security on Campus Inc.

PHOTO CREDIT: Citizen file photo

(man, in shadow, drinking)

MUGS: XAVIER GALLEGOS/Tucson Citizen

Higashi Kato

Anita Coronado

Danny Baugher

Citizen Staff

By OSCAR ABEYTA

oabeyta@tucsoncitizen.com

People have a hard time finding Marilee Krasny’s sharpening service at 5932 E. 22nd St.

Tucked into a nondescript shopping center, the modest yellow sign above the front door at Chuck’s Sharpening fades into the blur of signs along the strip.

“Even though we’ve been in business for 25 years, they can’t spot us,” Krasny said of her customers.

So, like many Tucson business owners, Krasny took her advertising to the street. Last month, she put up an A-frame sign at the curb. One side advertises her shop, and the other touts a new tanning salon next door.

Though Krasny’s sign and many others around town may not be legal, the city doesn’t have the manpower to go after the potential view blockers.

The sign code gives the city the power to seize the signs and charge business owners for the trouble, but, according to city officials, those impoundment fees are not collected.

Debbie Capple, inspection supervisor for the city’s Development Services Department, said even if Krasny had applied for a permit, the city doesn’t allow A-frames at curbsides.

“We would never allow a sign to be placed in the right of way,” Capple said.

The rights of way include medians, sidewalks and areas between sidewalks and curbs.

Capple said signs on rights of way are dangerous because they can block drivers’ view of traffic.

When it comes to illegally placing signs, real estate agents are by far the most consistent offenders, she said.

Gary Doran, chief executive officer of the Tucson Association of Realtors, said the association regularly cautions members not to put signs in rights of way, but he acknowledged it remains a persistent problem.

“Trying to monitor 4,600 agents is difficult,” Doran said. “There’s really no way I can fine them for it. I have no method of doing it.”

When the city confiscates an illegal sign, it charges the owner $12.50 plus 60 cents per day storage for signs under 10 square feet or $1.25 per day for larger signs, Capple said. The fees are paid only if owners pick up the signs.

“Very few of them are picked up,” she said.

After 30 days, unclaimed signs are sent to the landfill.

She said the city doesn’t try to collect confiscation and storage fees that would cost more than the fines would generate. But Capple is surprised that owners don’t claim their signs.

“If I were to lose a $250 sign, I would certainly pick it up and pay the fine,” she said.

Capple couldn’t estimate how many confiscated signs the city is holding.

“We have a yard full of them,” she said.

Sign code enforcement kicks into high gear around elections, said Jessie Sanders, deputy director of Development Services.

Employees from the water, Sanitation, Neighborhood Resources, Transportation and Parks departments pitch in to clean up signs during citywide sweeps.

The last sweep, in May, netted more than 4,000 illegal signs, including political signs left over from November’s election, Capple said.

Capple estimated her department confiscates 10 to 15 signs per month. She said the city is planning another sign sweep later this year.

The department has just one person dedicated full time to sign code enforcement, which includes making inspections, investigating permit applications, checking on complaints and confiscating signs, Capple said.

Business owners may buy an A-frame sign permit for $62.50 per year.

Businesses are not allowed A-frame signs if they have free-standing signs or are on tenant directories.

A-frame signs are allowed in most business districts but must pass a review if they are in a historic district.

Owners may have A-frames without permits if there is a construction project in front. All signs must meet city size requirements.

Krasny didn’t get a permit for her sign, but she noted that many businesses in the area also put signs at the curb. She said if the city decides to enforce the code, she’d comply.

“I’d gladly take it down if they asked me to,” Krasny said.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: GARY GAYNOR/Tucson Citizen

Julie Ybarra looks over hundreds of signs after they were confiscated by the city. A landfill is the last stop for most.

NORMA JEAN GARGASZ/Tucson Citizen

A driver tries to pull into traffic from behind a row of signs at South Sixth Avenue and East 29th Street.

Citizen Staff

By GARRY DUFFY

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com

Pima County has decided not to settle immediately a long-standing fight over billboards.

The Board of Supervisors will take 60 days to study a deal with billboard giant Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. that would eliminate 38 of 80 billboards the county says are illegal.

Thirteen other billboards would be made smaller and moved.

Despite recommendations from County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry and county attorneys to accept the deal, board members yesterday said they were in no hurry.

The proposal would end more than two years of legal battling that sprang from county allegations that five billboards Clear Channel owns off Interstate 10 north of the city violate county sign codes.

The number of signs deemed illegal by the county has since grown. The county spent about $250,000 on the fight, but recently lost its suit in Pima County Superior Court, Huckelberry told supervisors.

Continuing the suit on appeal could cost another $1 million, Huckelberry estimated.

The deal would not have passed yesterday.

“It was going down,” Supervisor Richard Elías said. “I was ready to vote against it.”

So were Ramón Valadez, Ray Carroll and Chairwoman Sharon Bronson.

Critics of the billboard industry, along with astronomers concerned about changes in lighting standards that could come from the proposal, should be included in settlement talks, Carroll said.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Tune in to Univision or Telemundo next week, and you’ll see a political ad praising President Bush.

Same for the Fox network’s NASCAR coverage, the Golf Channel and ESPN.

The first advertising of Bush’s re-election campaign begins Thursday, and the $4.5 million buy provides a window on one aspect of his spring strategy: appeal to Hispanics, the nation’s fastest-growing minority group.

Bush’s TV ad blitz also will try to energize his base of conservative support and will feature commercials on the Fox Sports Net, mostly during NASCAR programs, and on ESPN and the Golf Channel. On those channels Bush’s campaign can hit younger white males and more affluent, older white males.

The ads on the Spanish-language cable networks will appear in New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, Bush’s campaign advisers say.

“President Bush feels that it’s very important to reach out to citizens throughout this country who may not have English as their native tongue,” said Scott Stanzel, a campaign spokesman.

Hispanics traditionally favor the Democratic Party in presidential elections, but support has dropped in recent years. In 1996, 72 percent of Hispanics voted to re-elect President Clinton, versus just 21 percent for Republican Bob Dole. Four years later, Democrat Al Gore won 62 percent of the Hispanic vote compared to 35 percent for Bush.

States with large Hispanic populations, such as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida, were competitive in 2000. Bush beat Gore in Arizona by about 6.5 points in 2000.

“If the Republicans take 5 to 10 percent of the Hispanic vote, they’re going to kill the Democrats in those key states,” said Joe Velasquez, a Democratic consultant.

Citizen Staff

County administrator recommends Board of Supervisors OK a proposed agreement in two-year legal dispute involving 80 signs.

By GARRY DUFFY

gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com

A long-running Pima County battle over billboards may be coming to an end.

Tomorrow, the Board of Supervisors is to hear a settlement proposal from Clear Channel Communications in a two-year-plus legal battle with the company involving 80 signs the county contends violate zoning laws.

County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry recommends supervisors approve the settlement, which calls for removing 38 billboards and moving, changing lighting and reducing the size of 13 others, all in unincorporated areas of the county.

Supervisor Richard Elías said Friday he had not studied the settlement but worries that the county might be giving more than it would get.

“It doesn’t seem like the county is getting a lot out of this,” Elías said, “except that it takes a big problem away from our legal department.”

The proposal came after court-ordered negotiations, said Dave Sitton, Clear Channel’s Tucson general manager.

The company can live with the proposal, Sitton said.

Critics of the industry say the settlement seems to favor the company.

“This is not much more than a closet-cleaning exercise,” said Mark Mayer, a community activist who has worked to reduce the light overload in Arizona’s night sky. “Only the billboards that are of lesser value to Clear Channel will be gotten rid of.”

Pima County last year lost a lawsuit involving five Clear Channel billboards near Interstate 10 and the Rillito.

Even if the county were to win appeals, the Legislature might step in and restrict how local governments can regulate the industry, Huckelberry said.

“Historically, when the Legislature has intervened, it has done so on behalf of the billboard industry to relax regulations and to impede local enforcement,” Huckelberry wrote in a memo to supervisors for tomorrow’s meeting.

The potential settlement includes:

• Elimination of 38 billboards.

• Making 13 signs smaller and moving them out of rights of way.

• Installing lights that point down and starting an 11 p.m.-to-6 a.m. ban on lighting to help preserve the area’s dark skies for astronomical research.

The supervisors’ meeting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. in the Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress St.

Citizen Staff

A Budweiser commercial featuring a wannabe Clydesdale gets the highest marks from a local ad firm.

By DAVID PITTMAN

dpittman@tucsoncitizen.com

This year’s Super Bowl commercials featured lots of animals, celebrity pitchmen, the portrayal of a young Jimi Hendrix and several cheap gags about male anatomy.

“My reaction to the commercials was it was good football,” said Jeff Nordensson, president of The Nordensson Group, one of Tucson’s leading advertising and public relations agencies.

“Usually the commercials are a Super Bowl highlight,” he continued, “but not this year.”

For the ninth consecutive year, The Nordensson Group gathered in its offices yesterday to serve up breakfast and review the other Super Bowl competition: the one between the marketers of beer, drugs, soft drinks, cars and computers who paid $2.3 million for 30-second spots during Sunday’s game.

Waffle Bowl IX is what the ad agency dubbed its event, where it bestowed the “Golden Waffle” and “Burnt Waffle” awards to the best and worst of the Super Bowl TV commercials.

In a new twist, University of Arizona students, all members of the Advertising Federation, joined the staff of the Nordensson Group in rating Super Bowl ads.

The Golden Waffle was given to “Donkey Dale,” a Budweiser ad in which a small donkey convinces the Budweiser Clydesdales that he has what it takes to join their team.

The Burnt Waffle went to Levitra, a new anti-impotence drug, which ran an ad featuring Mike Ditka.

The former Chicago Bears coach touted football over baseball, which he suggested could use, dare we say, the pick-me-up provided by Levitra.

The best ads, according to the staff of the advertising agency, were amusing spots from Bud Light.

One Bud Light commercial portrayed two guys at a hunting camp comparing their canines’ talents.

One has a dog that fetches a Bud Light from a cooler. “What can your dog do? asks the pleased owner. “Bud Light,” commands the man wanting a beer, prompting his scroungy pooch to lunge for the pants of the other guy, who squeals and flings his bottle.

Other Bud Light spots featured a monkey on a couch propositioning a woman and Cedric the Entertainer, who, distracted by a refrigerator filled with Bud Light, wanders into the wrong room at a spa and receives a bikini wax instead of a massage.

UA students judged one Budweiser spot among the worst of the Super Bowl show. In that one a football coach screams at a catatonic referee on the sideline. Announcers wonder what kind of training the ref has gone through to endure such abuse.

Then we cut to his wife screaming at him at home as he stares ahead with the same detached look.

Lindsey Randall, one of the UA students at Waffle Bowl IX, called the Bud commercial “very degrading.”

The students rated a couple of Pepsi ads highly, including one featuring an 11-year-old Jimi Hendrix, who chooses a guitar and Pepsi over an accordion and Coke.

Another Pepsi commercial tweaked the recording industry’s legal assault against those who download music on the Internet.

Michell Liszewski said the ad “gives Pepsi a young, rebel image.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Photos from Gannett News Service

CUTLINE: The Nordensson Group, an advertising and public relations company in Tucson, awarded its “Golden Waffle” to this Budweiser ad in which a donkey interviews for a job as a famed Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale.

CUTLINE: In this ad for Pepsi, a bear uses a hunter’s identification to buy some soda.

Citizen Staff

IN PROFILE: Rodeo marketer loves the SPORT

Joan Liess always loved the horses. As a little girl in St. Louis, she’d take her piggy bank to the Illinois racetracks across the Mississippi River.

But until she was forced to become indoctrinated in the sport of rodeo, she knew nothing of its mystique.

“I had no clue,” said Liess, who has been the marketing director for La Fiesta de los Vaqueros since 1989. “But my first impression was that this was unbelievably exciting, and I learned it really captured the Western lifestyle. Since then I’ve watched rodeo grow. Television has helped a lot.”

The Tucson rodeo is one of pro rodeo’s top events and a welcome winter sunshine break for the Cowboys. Identity has been a problem for the sport. In her job, Liess has had to dispel the notion it isn’t a sport.

“It was thought of as an exhibition,” she said. “Now it’s recognized as a true sport.”

Liess’ father used to be an usher at St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. She sat in the press box during two 1960s World Series at Busch Stadium and hung out with football Cardinals such as Dan Dierdorf and John David Crow. She knows what demands athletic ability, endurance and toughness. “Rodeo athletes are equally good.”

Liess wanted to be a journalist – “very tough to break into that field in the 1970s unless you were Miss America” – so she got into advertising and marketing, as a copy editor then as a manager.

She formed two marketing companies, took a year’s sabbatical to live on a Wyoming ranch, to kayak and tour Europe. Then in 1995 she came back to Tucson to create Joan Liess Marketing Services.

Her clients besides the Tucson Rodeo are the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Tucson Conquistadores and Old Tucson Studios, where she was introduced to rodeo.

She will work the PGA Chrysler Classic of Tucson and the Tucson rodeo the same week this year, as well as the LPGA’s Welch’s/Fry’s Championship in Tucson. She has a good handle on being two places at once.

You know she’s around when you see her dog, Tiger, an Australian shepherd and Queensland heeler mix, guarding the media trailer. It’s Tiger’s fourth La Fiesta and he’s as much as part of the festivities as the horses.

- Bryan Lee

PHOTO CREDIT: NORMA JEAN GARGASZ/Tucson Citizen

CUTLINE: Joan Leiss and her dog Tiger

Citizen Staff

By TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

A partnership of all southeastern Arizona tourism agencies has been awarded $250,000 from the Arizona Office of Tourism for the third year in a row to continue advertising campaigns in national magazines.

In the past two years, the advertisements have triggered more than 27,000 requests for travel information for the region stretching from Tucson through Cochise and Graham counties to the New Mexico state line.

This year’s campaign will add 300,000-circulation Texas Monthly, increase advertising in Sunset magazine, and continue full-page ads in America West, Audubon, Budget Travel, Westways, Phoenix and Arizona Highroads magazines.

Advertising for the region will also become much stronger on the Internet at the concierge.com and southwest.com Web sites, said Rick Vaughan, vice president of sales and marketing for the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau.

He said roughly 45 percent to 50 percent of people who ask for information eventually come here. Vaughan estimates the campaign has generated $10 million to $12 million in visitor spending in southeastern Arizona the past two years.

Gov. Janet Napolitano yesterday formally presented the check at the MTCVB office to the Southern Arizona Partnership. The regional collaboration includes MTCVB, the City of Bisbee, the Cochise County Tourism Council, the Sierra Vista Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Southeastern Arizona Governments Organization and the Graham County Chamber of Commerce.

“I am very pleased with the work of the partnership,” Napolitano said. “What the partnership has done is what we should be doing in a whole lot of areas – regional cooperation.”

The Regional Cooperative Advertising Program is competitive among Arizona’s seven tourism regions, but southeastern Arizona has won the money each of the last three years. Bringing about a dozen entities together presents challenges, Vaughan acknowledged, but the region realizes that the rural communities could never get the same exposure alone.

“Everybody believes it takes a collective effort to create a powerful marketing program,” Vaughan said.

Three of the five advertising campaigns feature horses and three ads have saguaro cactuses. The ads highlight golfing, birding, dude ranches and other outdoor activities – all touting that the “Wild West is an authentic experience that lives today.”

“My budget was cut (last year),” said Kay Daggett, executive director of the Sierra Vista visitors bureau. “When we started looking at marketing strategies we wanted to do, we really truly couldn’t do anything in the national markets … Partnerships will allow us to survive.”

The partnership thought up this year’s advertising campaign and the Arizona Office of Tourism produced the advertisements. Part of the funds will produce the updated version of the Southern Arizona Visitors Guide.

“One of the things we believe in at AOT is regional marketing to better leverage dollars efficiently,” said Kate Scates, deputy director of the Arizona Office of Tourism.

PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE

The Southern Arizona Partnership’s tourism advertising plan for 2004 includes the following publications:

• America West in-flight magazine (January)

• Audubon (January, February, March)

• Budget Travel (February, March, April)

• Sunset (January, February, March, June, August)

• Westways (March, April)

• Phoenix (May)

• Arizona Highroads (May, June)

• Texas Monthly (April)

Online publications

• concierge.com (January)

• southwest.com (March, April the region will be the featured destination)

Direct mail

• To 30,000 homes in March, April, May

PHOTO CAPTION: Promotional photo submitted

Magazine ads such as this are part of the Southern Arizona Partnerships’ national campaign to draw tourists to southeastern Arizona.

To market better, draw picture of your customer

Q Marketing and advertising keep getting more and more expensive … I just can’t afford to reach everyone I want to!

A. But can you afford to reach those you need to? There may be a difference.

There is definitely a difference when you’ve thought carefully about who makes up your market. When it comes to sales growth, it’s awfully expensive to try to reach every possible buyer.

It can be a lot more efficient to reach only the most likely buyers. Understanding who they are and how to reach them is the key to cost-effective marketing.

How does one do so? The key is to capture data and use them creatively. Start with the customers you already own.

Who are they? How old are they? What gender? What is their occupation? What is their approximate income? Where do they live? What else do they buy? Where else do they shop? When do they buy? How do they buy? How did they find you in the first place? Do they have a family? How old are their children? What are their outside interests?

Buyers don’t always fall into demographic clusters. The data we’ve discussed above may be a start, but may not be enough.

Understanding the benefits customers perceive from using your products or services will also enhance your marketing strategies.

Is it your quality? Is it your low price? Is it the convenience of your product or service, or even your location?

Do you offer something new that draws buyers who want to be “first on the block”? Are you offering technology to those who want the latest and greatest high tech?

Draw a picture of your existing customers, and you will be able to draw a similar picture of your prospective ones.

Think about your business and decide what questions you would like answered in order to divide your market into understandable, and approachable, market segments.

How will you use the information you collect? What will it tell you about existing and potential customers? What else would be helpful? A mailing list of people who bought similar products elsewhere?

Would it be more helpful if the mailing list was for complimentary products (if you sell boats, would you want a list of customers for fishing tackle?)? Is lifestyle a factor in who buys what you sell? If possible, watch customers shopping in environments similar to yours. What do they do? What questions do they ask? What do they buy?

Look for similarities among your best buyers and differences between them and those who buy less. Develop a profile of potential customers, then determine how best to reach these target customers.

Divide the market and efficiently conquer it!

Steve Laden is a marketing and customer management consultant who lives in Tucson and volunteers as a SCORE counselor. He has served as a vice president of Northeast Utilities, Yankee Energy and Southern Union Co., and as a director and manager of other companies, having responsibility for marketing, sales, customer management, advertising, public relations, and external affairs. He has a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas.