At memorial, Az lawmaker Cunningham remembered as a budget wiz & caustic wit

Former state lawmaker George Cunningham, who served as an aide to two Democratic governors and as a vice president at the University of Arizona, was remembered as a budget whiz, a policy maven and a dedicated husband, father and grandfather at his memorial service Monday.

Cunningham died Tuesday, May 6, following a cardiac episode. He was 80.

Gov. Katie Hobbs said that Cunningham’s deep understanding of budgets served the state well when he worked for former Govs. Janet Napolitano and Rose Mofford.

“He was a great man,” Hobbs said, and his work as a public servant “will be felt for years to come. He will be missed.”

Cunningham’s memorial service brought more than 400 people to the Jewish Community Center, including U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, former members of Congress Gabby Giffords and Ron Barber, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Rex Scott, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover and state lawmakers Priya Sundareshan, Nancy Gutierrez, Chris Mathis and Kevin Volk. 

Ciscomani, a Republican in his second term representing Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 6, said Cunningham “was a loved, respected and engaged member of our community.”

“He spent decades, decades working to make our city, our state and our country better, and we saw that he personified what it means to be a public servant, working with both sides of the aisle and getting things done,” Ciscomani said.

Ciscomani, who said he would read Cunningham’s name and accomplishments into the Congressional Record this week, said his “biggest drive was his family, and his motivation to do things was the well-being of our community. It’s always about people.”

Cunningham moved with his family to Tucson when he was 11 years old, leaving behind the New England town of Nashua, N.H., where he was born in 1945.

He attended Catalina High School and then the University of Arizona, where he met his future wife Marjorie. As his son, Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham, wrote in a tribute to his father, once he met Marjorie, “he didn’t have a chance.”

Cunningham worked as a staffer at the Arizona Senate and when Democrat Rose Mofford became governor following the 1988 impeachment of Republican Evan Mecham, she named Cunningham as her chief of staff.

Cunningham won election to the Arizona House of Representatives in 1992 and advanced to the Arizona Senate in a 1996 election, serving two terms.

He returned to the governor’s office when Democrat Janet Napolitano won the office in 2002.

Cunningham’s eulogy was delivered by longtime friend and colleague David Jankofsky, who called him “a brilliant technician with great political insights.”

“He left a legacy that will stay on the test of time,” said Jankofsky, pointing to Cunningham’s work in support of the nonprofit think-tank Grand Canyon Institute, the Independent Redistricting Commission and the Arizona Legislature’s internship program.

“George was also the hardest working son of a gun I ever knew,” Jankofsky said. “He might lose a battle, he might get out maneuvered from time to time, but he would not be outworked.”

He recalled a time he was driving to Phoenix with Cunningham on a Sunday night ahead of a week of budget negotiations at the Capitol. He and Cunningham would flip a coin to decide which one would drive and which one would get a chance to work in the passenger seat. Jankofsky won the coin toss, so he was reading documents and drafting a memo.

Then Jankofsky noticed that Cunningham “pulled out a document and placed it on the steering wheel in front of him, with the intention, I suspect, of putting one eye on the road while the other eye was focused on the document. But that wasn’t good enough. George wanted to see better, so he flipped on the dome light in the car.”

Jankofsky suggested it might be illegal to have a dome light on at the same time as the headlights.

“George, ever obedient, took remedial action,” Jankofsky said. “He turned the headlights off and kept driving and reading. So needless to say, after a string of expletives from me, we pulled over and I drove the rest of the way.”

Jankofsky said the best way to honor Cunningham’s memory was “by continuing to do good things, to engage in the public debate, to fight the fights that need fighting, no matter what your age, no matter what your position.”

Cunningham’s daughter, Eve Cunningham, told the crowd that “if my dad was here today, he would begin by accusing you all of being just a bunch of reprobates and freeloaders because you’re not at work at 2 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. And then he would expect you all to laugh and keep laughing. Humor and sarcasm and wit were some of my father’s most charming characteristics, as evidenced by many of the stories that you’ve heard today.”

She said her childhood memories included traveling to Arizona National Parks and Rocky Point, working as assistant rent bill collector for the family bookkeeper and walking door-to-door for campaigns.

She said her father was fond of spending time at a property called “The Yard” near Pima Street and Columbus Boulevard.

“It was a man cave with a pool table, dart board and non-alcoholic beer surrounded by old cars he had restored with a bunch of guys that he kept gainfully employed to work on them,” Eve Cunningham said. “And my mom would say, when she would comment on the yard after his retirement, “Well, it gives him something to do, and your dad really likes bossing people around.’”

Eve Cunningham recalled that when Napolitano resigned as governor to go to work in the Obama administration in 2009, Cunningham turned down a “dream opportunity” to join her at the Department of Homeland Security.

“I asked him why,” Eve Cunningham said. “He said, ‘I’ve had a few health scares. I don’t want to miss out on the important things.’ At the time, I was pregnant with Ben, my oldest, and Paul had just had Kyle, and he wanted to be there. And for 15 years, he showed up.”

“Dad, thank you for the gifts, humor, scrappiness, grit, wisdom and love,” Eve Cunningham concluded. “You’ve left us with an incredible legacy. The wisdom you shared, sometimes directly and sometimes wrapped in humor, will continue to echo across generations, and we are so grateful, we are deeply grateful for the time we had with you and we love you very much.”