Corporation commission candidate visits Yuma
Glassman stresses ties to water, agriculture, military
Rodney Glassman, Republican candidate for one of two open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, believes he was the top vote-getter in the Yuma County primary because of his connections to agriculture, military and water.
The 40-year-old married father of two girls visited Yuma on Tuesday to meet with members of the business community, as well as to address the Yuma Rotary Club as guest speaker on the topic of literacy.
Although he lives in Phoenix, Glassman points to his background in farming, water and natural resource management. He grew up on his family’s farm in Fresno, Calif., and moved to Arizona to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson. He earned a doctorate in arid land resource sciences and an environmental law degree with emphasis on environmental and water law.
While serving on the Tucson City Council, he helped write and pass the first policies in the country requiring rainwater harvesting on all new commercial development and gray-water plumbing in all new homes.
As the only veteran among the candidates, Glassman highlights Yuma’s strong relationship with the military. He serves as a major in the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps Reserve and has been appointed as volunteer judge advocate to the Arizona Department of American Legion.
“All these different ingredients” make him the best candidate for Yuma, he said. “I think Yuma would like a statewide elected official with true connections to their community and the most important issues: ag, military and water.”
He also works as an attorney in the private sector, for a law firm in Phoenix.
After pointing out his ties to Yuma and rural Arizona, Glassman says the most important issue is to bring integrity back to the commission. After years of being mired in controversy, he believes the commission should adopt the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct. He noted that the commissioners are basically judges, hearing and deciding over utility cases, and should therefore follow the same code of ethics as every judge in Arizona.
The commission should not be setting mandates and “telling people how to live,” he said. “The corporation commission is a regulating body established by the Arizona Constitution to protect Arizona families and ensure affordable and reliable energy and water.”
He is opposed to the Clean Energy Initiative, Proposition 127, a ballot measure that would amend the Arizona Constitution to say that private utility companies must produce at least 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Currently, the commission has a mandate of 12 percent by 2020 and 15 percent by 2025.
He says the bill was written by a California billionaire with no research and would double or triple rates and shut down the Palo Verde Generating Station nuclear plant.
The former Democrat and one-time legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva says he switched parties when he realized his conservative values are more in line with the Republican Party.
Glassman and wife Sasha have also co-authored the “Jeremy Jackrabbit” book series and, through donations raised through the community, have given away more than 250,000 of the children’s books to kindergartners across Arizona. The books include “Jeremy Jackrabbit Harvests the Rain” and “Jeremy Jackrabbit Recycles the Can.” They have now written the sixth book in the series, all revolving around the use of natural resources.
The project fits his wife’s interest in literacy and his own family’s tradition of “giving back,” he said. He also volunteers with the Grand Canyon Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Arizona Farm Bureau and Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education.