By Philip Franchine
Green Valley News and Sun
A Republican leader said last week that a strong majority of Green Valley voters support the proposed Rosemont Mine, but mine opponent and County Supervisor Ray Carroll clobbered mine backer Sean Collins in Green Valley in Tuesday’s GOP primary.
Green Valley’s nine precincts went for Carroll, 71 percent to 29 percent, and gave him 60 percent of his overall victory margin.
Carroll, a longtime opponent of the mine, said there was no doubt that his opponent’s support for Rosemont undercut potential support for Collins, saying the Air Force veteran with a master’s degree otherwise would have been attractive to voters.
“His campaign got bad advice and a big part of it he took from the Rosemont boardroom,” Carroll said.
“They took some push polls … and they told him Rosemont was the No. 1 issue, and at the expense of (his standing in) Green Valley, he pushed forward. It was the worst advice he could take,” Carroll said. “He also took the advice of Randy Graf, (former Tucson mayoral candidate) Rick Grinnell and John Munger. You can count up the number of losses between those guys.”