One of the more amazing stories of the day came from a very small county in far southern Arizona.
From Daybreak Insider via the New York Times (NYT):
“As the elected treasurer in Santa Cruz County, Ariz., for more than a decade, Elizabeth Gutfahr’s job was to safeguard public funds for one of the state’s smallest counties. But while that money was meant for libraries, fire districts, schools and the like, Ms. Gutfahr siphoned off $38 million to acquire about two dozen vehicles — including Cadillacs and a Mercedes — buy real estate and renovate her family ranch, the Justice Department said this week. Ms. Gutfahr, 62, who held the post from 2013 through early 2024, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tucson to one felony count each of embezzlement by a public official, money laundering and tax evasion. She could face up to 35 years in prison when she is sentenced in February (New York Times).”
I had never heard of Santa Cruz County before reading this piece. What kind of place is Santa Cruz County? In order to learn more about this place, I did a number of Google searches.
First off, it appears to be poor.
From Wikipedia:
The median income for a household in the county was $29,710, and the median income for a family was $32,057. Males had a median income of $27,972 versus $21,107 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,278. About 21.40% of families and 24.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.% of those under age 18 and 23.2% of those age 65 or over.
Second: Owing to its border location the population of Santa Cruz County is mainly Hispanic. It is the smallest county by area in Arizona.
The third thing that I was interested in involved the political affiliation of Elizabeth Gutfahr, as the initial article from the NYT never mentioned if she was a Democrat or a Republican.
After multiple searches from different newspapers mainly in Arizona, the best I could learn was that Santa Cruz is a strongly Democratic county. In fact Santa Cruz County remains as the most Democratic-leaning county in Arizona.
Whenever I read about a possible crooked politician, to me it is usually immediately clear to which political party that politician is affiliated with … if he/she is a Republican, it is usually stated in the first sentence. Whereas, if he/she is a Democrat, that fact is usually hidden deep in the article or, as is often the case with the NYT, it is never mentioned.
Ergo, since the political party of Elizabeth Gutfahr is not mentioned and she resides in a heavily Democratic county, my suspicion is that she is … ? Hmmm!
11/27/24