My family’s Arizona heritage goes back to the 1800s, in fact you can read about it in historian Meredith Haley Whieley’s book “Miracle on the Salt River ”.  And my paternal great grandparents arrived in Arizona/Nevada in 1920 to take part in the geologic surveys for the Boulder Dam project, better known today as the Hoover Dam. I’ve always maintained that my love of engineering was inherited from my great grandfather Charles H. Tournquist, whose name is enshrined on the plaque of engineers in the middle of Hoover Dam.

I was raised in the quad city area in Clark County, Nevada, which is the area around Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and North Las Vegas.  My personal love for Yavapai County started in the 1970’s when I would get to spend summers with grandparents in Prescott enjoying softball ball games downtown then going across the street to Baskin Robbins for mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I first moved to Arizona about a decade ago with my son, Victor, because I wanted to escape what had happened to Nevada and I wanted to get back to the quality of life I grew up with.  You see, as a boy there were only a bit over 200,000 people in all of Clark County, and I watched that number explode to over 2.3 million people.  I think that is why I’m so passionate about protecting Yavapai County from the damage that can be done by unplanned and unbridled growth, overuse of water resources, and unchecked developers and their politician puppets.

I’ve also been repeatedly involved in fighting corruption in government. Going back to my time in Nevada I turned over evidence of corruption to the FBI and help testify against a corrupt Constable, and I took on a County Commissioner who tried to avoid litigation by using taxpayer money to give someone a phony job.  Doing what was right wasn’t easy, and it has made me some powerful enemies who tried to destroy me in return, but the cause is always worth the price you pay.

I’m still an engineer by trade — with several automotive engineering patents – and I’m pretty well known in the aftermarket automotive field (I’ve been building and racing cars and motorcycles since the age of 15!).

I’m running for office so that I can combine my rational approach to problems, my business experience, and my life experience when it comes to growing a community the right way, and serve the people of my home – Yavapai County.