Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild's friends tease him for being a bit boring. His daughter said that's a bad rap. You just have to get to know him. Then he loosens up.

Boy does he.

Picture a conference room at a telecommunications company on Friday, preparing for a business roundtable. In the corner, an old phone booth, undoubtedly a nod to the company's roots.

Rothschild, unable to resist, goes into the phone booth and shuts the door. Then he bounds out, pretending to show an icon on his chest, à la Superman.

Faster than a speeding press release.

Stronger than a save-the-elephants lobby.

Able to leap thorny issues in a single bound.

It's a bird.

It's a plane.

Nope. It's Jonathan. Getting loose.

Candidate positioning

Former Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, who represented Northern Arizona until the Great Republican Bounce of 2010, is looking for her old job back - only this time around, her district is likely to include Marana and Oro Valley.

The Democrat and former prosecutor spent the day in the Tucson area Thursday, speaking at the UA law school, her alma mater, and making the rounds to talk about jobs and education.

She lost last time because voters were angry, she said. This time around, they're ready for solutions, she said. And she talked about two of her bills, which were passed into law with the assistance of the state's Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl.

Bipartisanship, of course, is a nice goal when you're not in an election.

Now that she's pitted against Sen. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican who announced this week, her campaign team is trotting out the old "Payday Paton" tag from his last campaign, a reference to a ballot argument he wrote to reform the industry rather than force it out of business. And they're throwing "carpetbagger" in for good measure, since it's not a district he currently lives in.

"I'm a leader. He's a lobbyist," Kirkpatrick said in an interview. "I have a vision for this district, founded over a lifetime, and he's just looking for a district he can run in."

Paton couldn't be reached for comment. But surely we'll be hearing one on a TV commercial soon.

Republican family feud

A beach house is supposed to be a place of sighs, surf and sand, but in the case of state Republican Rep. Vic Williams, it's making waves in his effort to replace retiring county Supervisor Ann Day.

Back story: Williams has a three-bedroom beach house in Newport Beach, Calif. He rents it out for income, but he also allows charities to auction off a week-stay there for their fundraisers. He might be out some cleaning fees, but charities can sometimes make more than $1,000 a pop, and it's a way for him to be involved in local causes, he said.

Williams all but broke out in a heat rash earlier this month, however, after learning of a comment on a local radio show, when the hosts said they'd been told Williams wouldn't donate to charities without a "quid pro quo."

Former mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky confirmed he was at a local eatery with several other Republicans when Independent Redistricting Commission member Rick Stertz told them in no uncertain terms he had asked Williams for help for a police fundraiser, but Williams wouldn't help without a guarantee of support in his county race.

Williams said that isn't how the discussion went down.

Williams said he talked to Stertz at least twice last year, looking for an endorsement. Then, as he remembers it, Stertz called him around the Christmas holidays, asking about using the beach house for a charity event. Williams said he was surprised, since it struck him as "out of the blue," and he usually lends the house to charities he has a relationship with. He recalls saying he'd like to talk more about it after the beginning of the year. He did ask if Stertz would support him, and acknowledges it didn't sound promising, but said the two elements weren't linked.

Next thing he knows, he's being publicly accused of shaking down charities, which he characterizes as a "fabrication and a smear."

Stertz said in an interview that Williams has since sponsored a table for the fundraiser, which pays for equipment purchases, such as bulletproof vests and new holsters.

Asked to respond to Williams' side of the exchange, Stertz declined further comment. "It would not be appropriate, since Vic stepped up and bought a sponsorship."

Williams is a public figure, so there's not much in the way of recourse when it comes to a whisper campaign, even when it becomes public. The only shore thing is to make sure your side gets out.

But in this case, the old adage holds true: Politics is a beach.

Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at rbodfield@azstarnet.com or 573-4243.