Guest Hosts - Dave and Betsy Smith Guests - Eileen Wilson, Steve Selvy
California Cheated, Iran Shot Down an Apache, and Someone Wants to Turn Marana Into Tucson
Tuesday on Winn Tucson found the hosts in unfamiliar chairs — Dave and Betsy Brantner Smith filling in while Kathleen Winn attended the Presidential 1776 Award finals at the White House in Washington, D.C. The morning covered California's impossible election math, a Sparkle for Freedom Gala update, a Carmelo Anthony trial preloading a summer of riots, and the most personal fight either Smith could name: the attempt by three far-left outsiders to take over the town of Marana. Kathleen called in from the Hotel Washington to break news of an Apache helicopter being shot down in Iran — and to confirm the pilots survived.
Dave and Betsy Smith: California's Election Math, Thune's Treason, and Pima County's Only Adult
The show opened on a California result that Dave described as making something very clear: when you make cheating legal, it's not cheating anymore.
The LA Mayoral Race: What Happened to Spencer Pratt's Votes
Betsy walked through the statistical impossibility. On election night, Spencer Pratt had a solid second-place lead. Then, as tens of thousands of late-counted ballots came in, he received — by her count — not a single vote across multiple batches of 10,000, 24,000, and 30,000.
"It's statistically impossible that one of the top three candidates wouldn't have a single vote for him as 10,000 votes, 24,000 votes, 30,000 votes came in."
The winner in apparent ascendancy: Nithya Raman, who Dave noted had not even won her own district but was "smoking everybody" in the ballot count. The companion ballot measure that passed — the one LA voters didn't fully understand they were approving — turned out to include a significant tax increase. Voters who checked yes on a proposition that seemed unrelated to taxes had given themselves a bill.
"You get the sense or feeling that everybody there's waiting to do the rioting for fun and profit."
The lesson Dave drew was not about California specifically. It was about the local media that enables the same thing in Tucson.
"The average Tucson citizen, if all they do is listen to local media, read the local papers, has no idea what reality is. They are living in spin land."
Propaganda by omission — simply not reporting what is happening — is as effective as propaganda by fabrication. Tucson's local media practices both. The fraud that should be a daily scandal in the press becomes background noise that nobody notices because nobody is told it exists.
John Thune: Republican Treason
Dave turned his analysis from California to the Senate majority leader he holds responsible for squandering what voters gave Republicans in 2024.
"All the blame really lies on right now in my book is a guy named Thune. He will not let Trump do recess appointments. Right there, that is Republican treason — not governmental treason, it's treason to our party and our positions and your vote."
His parallel to the first Trump term: Mitch McConnell's obstruction is being replicated and amplified under Thune. The SAVE Act is blocked. Recess appointments are denied. Every institutional mechanism that would allow Trump to deliver on what he was elected to do is being strangled in the Senate by a man from a party that claims to support him.
"We gave the Republicans power. We the people gave them the House, the Senate, the presidency, and he is squandering it."
The Carmelo Anthony Trial: A Summer of Love Preloaded
In the middle segment before Steve Selvy joined, Dave and Betsy spent time on the Carmelo Anthony murder trial in Texas. A young man named Carmelo Anthony, on school suspension for bringing a weapon to campus, attended a track meet where he was not enrolled, sat in another school's tent, was repeatedly asked to leave, and when another student finally physically touched him to move him, stabbed that student in the heart and killed him. He claimed self-defense. The judge has now given the jury the option of a manslaughter conviction as well.
What's gathered outside the courthouse: protesters. Or, in Dave's framing, rioters in waiting.
"They're cocked and locked and ready to pull the trigger and we'll see."
The activists outside have made the case a racial issue — Carmelo Anthony is Black, his victim Austin Metcalf was white — despite no racial language or exchange occurring during the incident. Among the most vocal figures outside the courthouse: the father of Jacob Blake, who became a focal point of the 2020 Summer of Love riots in Wisconsin.
Beth Borazan — Steve Christie's executive director — sent a message during the show: "Summer of Love 2."
The Board of Supervisors: A Castro-Style Event
On Pima County's Board of Supervisors, which moved its meetings to evenings:
"It has now become a Castro-style event with lectures from Jen Allen on her little Soviet anti-white, anti-American skeet."
Dave's inventory of the board's composition: educators and activists who have never run a business, capped by Andres Cano, who was appointed to his seat and whose entire professional background consists of running an LGBTQ-plus advocacy organization. Rex Scott in Oro Valley, described as "fake moderate" who "votes far left." Steve Christie and Matt Hines — a salesman and a physician-turned-business-owner — as the only two members who understand what a private-sector economy looks like.
"If you've never been to a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting, you can go for free. You get to watch your tax dollars being wasted."
Primary Mechanics
Before Eileen Wilson joined, Dave delivered a critical logistical note: the last day for an independent or PND voter to request a Republican primary ballot is July 10th. That request can be submitted through the recorder's website, by calling the recorder, through the voter dashboard, or by calling the Pima County Republican Party.
Eileen Wilson: The Sparkle for Freedom Gala, the Gun Raffle, Door Knocking, and Why Cheryl Caswell Raised Triplets
Eileen Wilson — second vice chair of the Pima County Republican Party and president of the United Republicans for Arizona in Green Valley — joined by phone to talk about what she called the most spectacular event the Pima County Republican Party has ever put together, and to make the broader case for why getting off the couch matters more this year than any year anyone in the studio can remember.
The Sparkle for Freedom Gala: July 4th at the JW Marriott Starpass
Wilson described the gala with the kind of enthusiasm that makes the event sound like what it is: a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, designed by people who believe the occasion deserves better than a backyard barbecue.
The venue: the JW Marriott Starpass. The fireworks: visible from a veranda that holds 200 people, looking down from the mountain over the entire Tucson valley. The food: not a stuffy sit-down dinner, but food stations, market salad displays, and a make-your-own dessert bar. The games: pin the tail on your least favorite Democrat. The music: a DJ. The keynote: Charles Heller, KVOI's own Declaration of Independence reader, who will bring 26 randomly selected audience members to the stage to read different sections of the founding document alongside him.
"If you don't cry, you're not an American, I swear," Betsy said.
Wilson's description of the commemorative gift every attendee receives: a memento of the 250th anniversary, something to take home as a reminder of where the evening spent.
For candidates and vendors: tables are available with space to display your candidacy or products, plus one meal included. For individuals: $150 per ticket. For groups: tables of 10 available.
Tickets: pimagop.org — scroll down to the Sparkle for Freedom Gala. The real Pima GOP Facebook page, X account, and Instagram also have direct ticket links.
Wilson also reminded listeners to scroll a little further on the same website to find the gun raffle — a Staccato CS 2011 9mm pistol, worth close to $3,000, with raffle tickets at $20 each or 6 for $100. Drawing at the gala.
The Fundraiser for Cheryl Caswell
Both Dave, Betsy, and Wilson had been the night before at Argentino's Italian restaurant in Vail for a fundraiser for Cheryl Caswell, the LD-19 House candidate. Dave and Betsy did not need to be sold on Caswell. They've known her. She is, in Wilson's formulation, a 4-H mom who raised triplets and decided she had enough experience managing chaos to try the Arizona legislature.
"She's not a lifelong politician. She's more like a 4-H mom that wants to get involved. She's worked in sales. She's done a lot of community service. She raised triplets. And that was the qualifier right there."
The connection Wilson and the Smiths drew between Caswell's candidacy and the national frustration with career politicians was explicit: the problem with Thune, they argued, is not his party. It is that he has been in office most of his adult life and has come to serve his own institutional interests rather than the people who sent him there. Caswell represents the opposing model — someone who lived a real life, saw what wasn't working, and decided to do something about it.
The Case for Precinct Committeemen
Wilson made the most direct argument of the segment for why anyone who is frustrated with politics needs to stop watching and start doing.
"As a precinct committeeman, you basically have the most important job in our government because we are the grassroots that speak with our voters. We are the ones that get them motivated. We are the ones that get them out of their house. We are the ones that get them to vote. We are the ones that educate them."
She described a phone call during a ballot-chase effort where a lonely elderly man at the other end of the line told her no one had called him in three weeks. By the end of the conversation, he promised to walk out the door and mail his ballot the moment he hung up.
"Those are some of the wonderful things that we do."
If you want to become a precinct committeeman, if you don't know what precinct you're in, if you don't know how to get started — call the Pima County Republican Party, call the United Republicans at their storefront between the CVS and the Safeway in Green Valley, or reach Eileen Wilson directly. They will train you, connect you with your legislative district chair, and get you appointed.
Door knocking, Wilson said, is better than calling — and she said this as someone who has been choked, hugged, kissed, and kicked in the course of doing it. Meeting real people who are interested in politics but don't know where to find community is the most human and most effective thing a volunteer can do in an election year.
Kathleen Winn Calls In: An Apache Is Down, the Pilots Are Alive
In the middle of the Marana segment, a call came in from the Hotel Washington lobby in Washington, D.C.
Kathleen Winn had walked in from the White House events and been told that an Apache helicopter had been shot down.
She had called her sources. The pilots were alive and expected to recover fully.
"This is a line in the sand, and I think President Trump's already said it. They've crossed over it, and we have to end this with them."
The news was brief, specific, and unambiguous in its implication: Iran had crossed the line. The Apache's survivability as a platform — a design feature, not an accident — had kept two pilots alive who might otherwise have become casualties of a moment that now demands a response.
Winn was back on a plane the following morning. China Watch Wednesday was already on the agenda. Dave would be at the studio.
Steve Selvy: Marana Is the Model — and Three Outsiders Are Trying to Destroy It
Steve Selvy is a fellow Marana resident, a member of the Arizona Patriot Super PAC, and a man who moved to Arizona from California eight years ago specifically to escape what California had become. He joined Dave and Betsy to explain what is at stake in the Marana town election — races that most residents don't track because they are nonpartisan, off-cycle, and easily confused with the larger primary ballot that arrives at the same time.
Why Marana Works
Selvy's framing of Marana was grounded and direct: it is a community that has been well-managed, that has grown responsibly, that has outstanding law enforcement, good schools, and a quality of life that US News & World Report ranked fourth in the state for 2026-27. It has done this under a town council and mayor who understand that their job is to serve residents, not to signal ideological alignment.
"I've talked to people that have lived their entire life in this area and they all tell me how sad it is to see the decline that's taking place in Tucson. I got involved because I don't want to see the same thing happen to Marana."
The council and mayor currently in place — Mayor John Post, a longtime Marana farmer; Council Members Herb Kai and Terry Murphy — are running for re-election. A write-in candidate, Jackie Craig, joined the slate when she saw the opposition forming and concluded they were too far left even by her own Democratic registration.
"Two of the current group are registered Democrats, yet I would label them as moderate Democrats. Their fellow Republicans on the board feel that they're very good to work with. And the Democrats running with John Post have told me that this other group is just way too far left for them."
This is a nonpartisan election. Ballots will not say Republican or Democrat. Marana voters will need to know names before they vote.
Who Is Coming for Marana
The four candidates aligned with the outside left are: Greg Johnson (running for mayor), Jackie McGuire, Sue Ritz, and Julie Prince (running for town council). All four have been photographed with Jen Allen and Adelita Grijalva. All four participated in anti-ICE protests. Two — McGuire and Ritz specifically — have been photographed at those protests.
"They have really done nothing except obstruct, protest, and block. We don't really hear much as far as a vision or platform on what they'd like to accomplish."
Jen Allen, the Pima County supervisor who covers the Marana area, has publicly stated she wants people in place in Marana who will work with her. Selvy's translation: people who will bring the Pima County model — anti-ICE posturing, taxpayer-funded social programs, resistance to private economic development — to a community that has explicitly rejected it.
The Downtown Project That Was Sabotaged
The most concrete damage already done: the Marana downtown development project, modeled on the Fort Worth stockyards, was planned to bring restaurants, breweries, a coffee shop, a day spa, a rodeo arena, a dance bar, and an events grove to a community that has no downtown area. Groundbreaking was scheduled for this year.
McGuire, Ritz, and Prince — joined by a California labor union PAC — sued the town of Marana to stop it.
"The suspicion is that they want to halt it until Marana would agree to use only union labor."
The court ruled in favor of the town. The group appealed. It is now in the court of appeals. If they appeal again, the developer may simply walk away.
"It's cost the taxpayers of Marana in excess of $80,000 just to fight this in court."
The ICE Facility Fight
The old private corrections facility in rural Marana — sitting empty after the state stopped using it — was purchased by a private company that is contracting with the Department of Justice to make it a temporary ICE holding facility.
The city council has no authority over the transaction. It is a private company's deal with the federal government. The Marana Town Council cannot stop it, and legally speaking, has no basis to try.
But McGuire, Ritz, and Prince have made it their cause. They have shown up at town council meetings with protesters. They had to be asked to leave by the chief of police. One candidate herself was removed from a town council meeting for being disruptive.
The progressive framing — that this facility will bring suffering to the community — ignores the documented facts: Katie Hobbs, the Democratic governor who they support, was the person who sold the facility to the private company in the first place. The facility was purchased from the state of Arizona under her watch.
"If you're going to use logic against them, you're in trouble."
Jen Allen's Stated Goal
Selvy identified the Soros strategy that Dave had described — taking over local bureaucracies through nonpartisan races that generate low voter turnout and attention — and connected it directly to what Allen has said publicly.
"Jen Allen has publicly commented that she wants people in place in Marana that will work with her."
Two-thirds of Marana residents, according to a survey completed at the end of May, say they like the direction the town is currently headed. The people running against that direction are not Marana residents making a community argument. They are ideological outsiders implementing an import strategy.
"The left is kind of like a cancer. It wants to spread, and it's not content to stay where it's at."
What Marana Voters Need to Do
The town election runs on the same ballot as the July 21st primary. It is nonpartisan. Names matter.
The candidates to support:
Mayor: John Post
Town Council: Herb Kai, Terry Murphy
Write-in: Jackie Craig
The candidates to oppose:
Mayor: Greg Johnson
Town Council: Jackie McGuire, Sue Ritz, Julie Prince
Arizona Patriot Super PAC — the group Selvy is involved with that is informing and mobilizing Marana voters — maintains a Facebook page and a website at azpatriotsuperpac.com, where information is updated regularly. TikTok presence is also in development.
"Marana was ranked the fourth best community in Arizona in which to live for 2026-27 by US News & World Report. Why would you want to mess with that?"
Winn Tucson returns Wednesday, June 11th, with Kathleen Winn. China Watch Wednesday with Ava Chen. The Secretary of State debate airs Wednesday at 6 p.m. on KVOI 1030 The Voice.
Sparkle for Freedom Gala — July 4th, 7–10 p.m., JW Marriott Starpass: pimagop.org. Staccato pistol raffle: pimagop.org.
Arizona Patriot Super PAC: azpatriotsuperpac.com
Marana town election — same ballot as July 21st primary. It is nonpartisan. Know the names.
Last day to request a Republican primary ballot as a PND/independent voter: July 10th.