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Green Mary DeCamp enters Mayor’s race as sole woman candidate

by on Jun. 02, 2011, under Life, Politics

Mary DeCamp

Mary DeCamp, who ran against Ward 3 Councilmember Karin Uhlich in 2009 has also entered the race for Mayor of Tucson. She has taken out the papers at the Tucson City Clerk’s office an has gathered 23 signatures (between 17 and 32 signatures were needed for a Green candidate) before the June 1st deadline.

Mary got 4429 votes (6.16 % of the vote) in the Ward 3 race in 2009, next to Democratic Councilmember Uhlich’s 46.98% of the votes and Republican Ben Bueller-Garcia’s 46.74% of the votes. She is a community activist and Code Pink member, received her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Sciences and Master of Arts in Communication from the U of A, and has been a college instructor. Mary is currently employed as a Connector with Pro-Neighborhoods, “organizing neighborhood communities to adopt healthier diet and exercise choices”.

Her entry into the race could lead to a Green Party primary on August 30, as fellow Green Party candidate Dave Croteau entered the race a few weeks ago. He ran for Mayor before in 2007 against Mayor Bob Walkup and got 28.08% of the vote compared to Mayor Walkup’s 71.20 %. There are 636 registered Greens in the City of Tucson. (Another Green candidate Jon McLean entered this race for a few months but withdrew in May due to problems with his voter registration, and endorsed Republican Shaun McClusky.)

Mary will be announcing her candidacy on June 7 in front of the Tucson City Hall at 1 p.m. Stay tuned for further announcements from her campaign. She can be reached at mdecamp@q.com or at 520-408-4974, and her campaign manager is Mike Cease at 520-327-4705.

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  • Donald Jorgensen

    Hello Mary,
    I & my wife are farely new to Tucson, 7 years. And I can honestly tell you, I don’t think much of Tucsons City Government. I have lived in many parts fo the USA and  this is the first city I have found a City Manager and a City Mayor. What’s the point of having two people running the show? And I realy don’t see the point of having a Mayor.
    And having someone running the City who dose “NOT” report to the voters is nothing more then a dictatorship.  How did the manager get that job and when dose the job change hands IE: like the Mayor.

    Anyway, I’ll vote for you eventho I have no clue what your going to do with no powers to do anything.

    Best of luck on the up coming election.

    Donald Jorgensen

    • http://www.DeCampForMayor.org Mary DeCamp

      Hi Donald,

      Thanks for your note & for your vote!

      Tucson is said to have a “weak mayor system” but the mayor (who is elected every 4 years)  gets to set the agenda at City Council meetings, gets to recommend people to appoint to serve on advisory boards & committees,  gets to act as Tucson’s ambassador to the rest of the world, gets to perform ceremonial duties, and gets to be the ultimate administrative boss for the city employees.  That’s some significant power, if used wisely.

      The City Manager makes recommendations for the Mayor & City Council to act upon.  I think we do it that way to diffuse accountability.  You’re right – this person is not elected and is not beholden to the citizens through the voting process.    I just found a website listing the City Manager’s annual salary at $212,000.  The mayor earns $42,000.  That doesn’t seem right, and I would like Tucson to consider adopting a MAXIMUM wage for City employees to match the MINIMUM wage laws.  Don’t pay any city employee more than $80,000 a year and favor candidates who actually live within the city limits when hiring for City positions.

      Check out my website at http://www.DeCampForMayor.org for more Shockingly Sane Solutions.  The Green Party would like to offer more attractive alternatives than the “politics as usual” that aren’t working for the 95% of us on the bottom end of the economic scale.

      Thanks!

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