Jim Click, HSL Properties, and Arizona Cardinals Owner Bought Juan Ciscomani

While four fearless people go on trial for a nonviolent protest, Ciscomani, the coward, hides from his constituents and the press. And boy, even his handshake is weak.

The defendants and their supporters hold the protest banner at the front of the Tucson City Courthouse on April 29, 2026. Photo by the author.

On the 27th of August 2025, protesters from the Good Trouble Action Group gathered outside of the Jim Click Kia dealership to nonviolently protest Click’s financial support for Representative Juan Ciscomani. Eight people were arrested for blocking the driveway. Four of those courageous citizens chose a court trial, which took place on April 29. Cara Bissell, James Driscoll, Hunter Smith, and Patrick Diehl were charged with criminal trespassing that could result in six months in the county jail.

One may ask why people are willing to get arrested and possibly go to prison to protest a local legend who donates to so many organizations. The answer lies in the rapidly deteriorating state of democracy and economy in our country due to the actions by the Trump administration, the total support Juan Ciscomani gives to the administration through his votes, and the large amount of money donated by Jim Click and other wealthy Arizonans to Ciscomani’s campaign. That looks like buying a politician.

In a recent post, we analyzed direct donations to Ciscomani’s campaign as well as donations to the Ciscomani Victory Fund PAC, where seven individual donors gave $175,000 in this 2025-2026 election cycle. Digging deeper, we analyzed another PAC – Emmer Majority Builders – and we discovered additional donations from the group of wealthy Tucsonans: $150,000 earmarked for the Ciscomani campaign.

The combined pool of donors to both PACs constitutes eight individuals, including Jim Click, Humberto Lopez of HSL Properties, and Michael Bidwill, the owner of the Arizona Cardinals. In other words, eight people gave Juan Ciscomani more money than the 328 smallest Arizona-based donors to his campaign. Or 579 of the smallest Arizona-based donors to the campaign of his opponent, JoAnna Mendoza.

This kind of donation buys facetime and influence. It lets our congressman ignore the needs of the 328 donors and many others who didn’t contribute to his campaign. Jim Click donates to many local causes and gets a lot of love from the community. But backing Ciscomani also means that there is always a need for such community support. Would Jim Click and other donors back policies that would mean those with many assets pay taxes commensurate with their wealth to support an economic system where public schools have enough resources and food banks are not needed because nobody is starving?

The wealth and position also allow for the swift legal treatment of impediments. Eight people were arrested for blocking the driveway of Jim Click’s business. Would a local bookstore get the same police service if its front door was blocked? A local restaurant? An apartment where a poor family lives?

Financial strength, however, does not always translate into real voting power. Those 579 smallest donors to the Mendoza campaign mean more votes than the eight people who donated to Ciscomani. The opposition to Ciscomani and the policies he supports is growing. A recently published poll gave JoAnna Mendoza a three percent lead over Juan Ciscomani.

An hour before the trial, 75 supporters of the four defendants arrived at the entrance to the Tucson City Courthouse. Thirty-six people packed the public gallery of Courtroom 11. The prosecutors asked for one year of unsupervised probation. The Jim Click lawyer demanded a lifetime ban on access to any Jim Click properties. Three defendants delivered passionate sentencing statements, describing their actions as acts of civil disobedience rather than property crimes. The judge sentenced them to six months of unsupervised probation and no fines, and rejected any property access bans demanded by the Jim Click representative. The defendants walked out of the courtroom triumphant, unburdened by the light sentence. Witnessing their courage was inspiring.

In contrast, Representative Ciscomani continues to avoid his constituents. He appears only in controlled-access meetings where he will not encounter anyone who might have uncomfortable questions. He avoids the press, as Mort Rosenblum from the Arizona Daily Star found out. Similarly, he has not responded to the recent inquiries from Arizona Family media in a curious case of financial support from lawmakers with questionable morals. A member of our team met Ciscomani at a business breakfast recently and described his handshake as “limp and clammy”.

Juan Ciscomani had a chance to stand with his constituents who were begging him not to vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill. Instead, he repeated the mantra of “waste, fraud, and abuse” as a pretext to let us lose health insurance and food stamps. He kept quiet when masked ICE agents started kidnapping anybody who might look like an immigrant. He did not protest the funding used to build concentration camps on our soil. He supported the unpredictable tariffs, international aggression, and the inane, illegal, and immoral Iran War. We must hold him accountable in November and vote for JoAnna Mendoza, an Arizona native, a veteran, a mother, and a person with a stronger handshake than our incumbent.