John McLean speaking to volunteers for his 2024 Arizona Senate campaign. Photo by Jim Nintzel | TucsonSentinel.com
John McLean, a Democratic candidate for the state Senate who lost last week’s election, was killed in a traffic collision near Broadway and Houghton Road on Friday morning, police said.
McLean, 68, was driving east on Broadway when a northbound vehicle ran a stop sign and hit the politician’s car, a Tucson Police Department spokesman said.
McLean, an executive for a defense contractor before his run for office, was declared dead at the scene.
The other driver, who was not seriously injured, was determined to be impaired and faces charges of manslaughter and aggravated DUI, police said.
McLean is the 82nd person to die on Tucson’s streets so far this year. The toll includes 27 people in vehicles, 29 pedestrians, 7 bicyclists and 19 riding motorcycles. By this point in 2023, 89 people had died in roadway incidents in the city.
According to TPD, police believe McLean was driving 2019 Toyota Rav4 eastbound on Broadway. Michael Martin Creel, 27, was at the wheel of a 2018 Ford Explorer, heading north on Ridgeside Drive, east of Houghton Road, and failed to stop at the intersection.
Ridgeside’s roadway before the intersection is straight, with a “stop ahead” sign placed well before Ridgeside meets Broadway.
The Explorer hit the Rav4 on the passenger side, “according to interviews and roadway evidence collected at the scene” by detectives, police said.
An officer with the Impaired Driver Enforcement Unit assessed Creel for impairment, TPD said. “It was determined that Mr. Creel was impaired at the time of the collision and was subsequently placed under arrest,” police said.
Creel was booked into the Pima County Jail, and faces criminal charges.
Under state law, manslaughter is a class 2 felony, with a potential sentence of 7-21 years in prison for a first offense.
Aggravated DUI is a class 6 felony in Arizona, with charges elevated due to repeat offenses or driving impaired with a suspended license. Sentences include a mandatory minimum of four months in prison and 10 years of probation, with potential prison time up to 3.75 years, and steep fines.
Creel has a previous DUI conviction, from April 2022. He also faced a DUI charge that August, but it was dismissed. He was convicted of disorderly conduct and underage drinking in 2015, and assault that year, and has faced numerous other charges that have been dismissed in Tucson City Court.
“The investigation remains ongoing, and detectives have currently listed speed and impairment as the known contributing factors of the crash,” TPD said.
McLean narrowly trailed in the heavily Republican 17th Legislative District, as former state Sen. Vince Leach — who was ousted in the 2022 primary by Sen. Justine Wadsack, only to come back and beat her in this year’s primary — won with a 2% margin.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the McLean family for their tragic loss today,” Leach said Friday. “My deepest condolences go out to John’s family and friends in this most difficult time. As a third-generation Arizonan, the lives John touched during his life are incalculable, and we should all be so fortunate to do the same.”
Born in Phoenix, McLean graduated from the University of Arizona in 1975 and then received a Ph.D. from the University of California. A decade later, he returned to Tucson.
He was CEO of Areté Associates, a Defense Department contractor that bills itself as providing “leading-edge science and engineering protecting the nation and world from seafloor to space,” and previously worked for TRW Space and Defense Group. He was active in the dog rescue community.
State Sen. Priya Sundareshan, a Democrat who met McLean when he decided to run for the Legislature, said she was “devastated by the news.”
“I’m grieving the fact that we’ve lost a wonderful candidate and wonderful man, someone who was so cheerful in putting in the hard work to run a very significant campaign,” Sundareshan said. “He retired and he remained engaged in the community with all those organizations, supporting animals, and then wanted to make that bigger difference.”
The Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee released a statement regarding McLean’s death.
“Thoughout his campaign, John exemplified all the qualities of a great leader. He focused on listening and learning, with his kindness and generosity always shining through. Running for public office was just the most recent way John McLean stepped up for his community. Whether as a business leader, volunteer or humanitarian for the causes he was passionate about, John always did the hard work of bringing people together to serve the common good,” the political group said.
McLean told the Sentinel this summer that when he was working as a CEO, he traveled too much to have a dog.
“So, literally the day after I retired, we came home with a 10-week-old chocolate lab puppy,” McLean said. “A few months after we got this beautiful young dog, I started volunteering down at the Humane Society and working with the dogs down there.”