Email from former Mayoral candidate Mary DeCamp addressed to Kent Solberg’s invitation to a Precinct Committee Meeting of the Green Party of Pima County:

Hello,

Please remove me from all Green Party mailing lists.

I am no longer affiliated with the Green Party because I do not believe that the “elected leaders” at the Pima County and Arizona State levels are upholding the 10 Key Values they pledged to promote. My experience over the past 4+ years has convinced me that this political party is just as corrupt at the top as the other recognized parties and that 1% of our “leaders” are doing severe injustice to the 99% of the general membership they are supposed to be serving.

I join the long list of competent and caring individuals who have tried to serve the Green Party only to be ignored, abused, ridiculed, stonewalled, and undercut by those few deeply entrenched “leaders” who seem to be interested only in self-aggrandizement and clutching jealously to whatever small rewards their positions offer.

Thank you,
Mary DeCamp

Decamp is camping out at Occupy Tucson (downtown at Veinte de Agosto Park since 10/15/11 and her mid-town home was foreclosed on 11/10/11). Her email is mdecamp@q.com.

She got 4.94% (4198 votes) in the recent Mayoral General Election, and 6.16 % (4429 votes) in the Ward 3 Council seat in 2009. She defeated Green activist Dave Croteau in the Green Party primary on August 30, 2011. Croteau was the sole challenger to Republican Mayor Bob Walkup in 2007.

Info on the Green Party of Pima County: www.pimagreen.org.

Press release from Jon McLane, Green Party candidate for Mayor:

I joined Tucson’s mayoral race to ensure the strategies and plans were in place to recover our economy, improve our educational system and protect our natural resources. As Mayor, I thought I could deliver a concerted focus on sustainability that would allow our city government and residents to minimize or even eliminate the need to outsource dollars that should be staying in Tucson—money for energy, fuel and water that could be better spent here at home.
I am a proud member and elected officer of the Green Party of Pima County. Yet since the inception of the Green party of Pima County more than twenty years ago, our registered voter count is a humble eight hundred and fifty seven in the City of Tucson.
This humble number of registered Greens has to be accounted for. Not only for the sake of the members who have put their faith in our leadership, but for the two hundred thousand registered voters in the city of Tucson who do not believe in the Green party or our ability to create a sustainable city. This is an issue that the Green Party of Pima County, including myself is accountable for.
While the Green party of Pima County is an amazing organization, and I wish Dave Croteau the best in his recently announced campaign, I have decided to withdraw from the Tucson mayoral race. The Green Party of Pima County is an amazing organization, and I will continue to serve as At-Large Representative with the Green Party – the path that I believe will provide the most direct impact for creating a sustainable Tucson.
While I will not be running for Mayor myself, I have decided to join the campaign committee and act as chair of the Sustainability Committee for Shaun McClusky, Republican Mayoral candidate. After meeting Shaun I was impressed not only by his knowledge on local issues, but his precise plans and strategies for rebuilding Tucson.
Subsequent conversations with Shaun, including one about practical ideas to solve our water shortage issues, showed me that Shaun McClusky has ideas, openness and courage to be a good leader for a more sustainable Tucson. He doesn’t make decisions by what the status quo demands.
Thank you, to Ron Asta, Marshall Home, Dave Croteau, and Jonathan Rothschild for the invitations to join your campaign committees. I have become close with all of the mayoral candidates, but Shaun McClusky is the most inspiring candidate in this race, and I am confident that he will have the ability to rebuild Tucson in a vibrant, sustainable, economical way. With my help and the help of other local resource professionals he will be able to model Tucson as the first sustainable city in the United States of America.
Thank you, to all of my supporters who share the same vision for Tucson that I do. With your support I will continue to dedicate myself in service to you, to the Green Party of Pima County, to the City of Tucson, and to the State of Arizona.

Yesterday I reported that Green Party activist & former Mayoral candidate Dave Croteau has entered the race for Mayor (click here).

McLane did not endorse Croteau, although they both belong to the Green Party of Pima County, choosing to support Republican Shaun McClusky for Mayor. (McClusky also recently got the endorsement of former LD 30 State Senator & Rep. Jonathan Paton, who ran for CD 8 last year & lost to political newcomer Jesse Kelly).

Stay tuned as the deadline for filing of nomination petitions for Mayor (and Council wards 1, 2, and 4) is June 1st.

From Pima County Recorder’s Office: http://www.recorder.pima.gov/public/voterttlsdist.aspx

Registered voters in City of Tucson (as of April, 2011)

Democrats 99,877

Republicans 56,232

Independents/others 69,735

Libertarians 2135

Greens 857

Total registered voters right now in City of Tucson are 228,836 (all six wards)
which gives the Democrats almost a 2:1 edge over the Republicans, but there are almost 70,000 Independent voters who could vote either way in the primary.

But according to Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez and UA Asst. Prof. of Communications Kate Kenski, Independents have a low voter turnout, probably because they don’t choose to vote at all or belong to an organized party.

Back in the last City of Tucson election of 2009, with Wards 3, 5 and 6 up for election, 33.5% of the total registered voters (221,316) voted. So 74,168 votes were cast city wide.

Karin Uhlilch (D) received 33,782 votes, Richard Fimbres (D) 37,749 votes and Steve Kozachik (R) 36,451 votes to prevail over their opponents. Uhlich won by only 175 votes over Republican Ben Bueller-Garcia, although the Green Party candidate Mary DeCamp received 4429 votes, which may have taken votes from the Democrat. In 2005 Uhlich had defeated Republican one term Ward 3 incumbent Kathleen Dunbar, in an upset.

Fimbres won by 4573 votes over Shaun McClusky (now running for Mayor) and Kozachik won in an upset by 1756 votes (defeating one term Democratic incumbent Nina Trasoff). Trasoff herself had upset 2 term Ward 6 incumbent Republican Fred Ronstadt in 2005.

How did Steve Kozachik, a Republican win in a predominantly Democratic city?

And with the Democratic voter edge in this city, how did Republican Robert Walkup win 3 terms? He defeated 1) two term Councilwoman Democrat Molly McKasson, then 2) former Democratic Mayor/Councilman Tom Volgy, and lastly 3) Green Party candidate Dave Croteau (no Democrat even ran for Mayor in 2007). See my previous blog “Will Mayor Walkup run again? (click here).

The Mayor’s seat is up for election this year, with Republican Bob Walkup not running for his 4th term. 6 men are currently seeking that position (3 Democrats, 2 Republicans, 1 Green), with nomination petitions/signatures due on June 1st. None of the candidates have served on the City Council, the usual testing ground for qualification to be a Mayor.

Council Wards 1, 2 and 4 are also up for election this year.

Ward 1 Councilwoman Regina Romero (D) has a Democratic opponent (Joe Flores), and almost had a Republican challenger (political newcomer Janet Gallup who filed last week but told me via email that she is withdrawing this week “for several personal reasons that were unforeseen”).
Regina has served for one term and is the incumbent. (In 2007 she defeated Democrat Ken Green in the Primary, then Green Party candidate Beryl Baker in the General.)

Appointed (May, 2010) Ward 2 Councilman Paul Cunningham (D) has a Republican opponent (political newcomer Jennifer Rawson). 4 term Ward 4 Councilwoman Shirley Scott (D) is being challenged by political newcomer Republican Tyler Vogt. Can either Rawson or Vogt upset the incumbent Councilmembers– like Kozachik did in 2009?

It seems that both Republicans and Democrats have served in Wards 3 and 6, with predominantly only Democratic Councilmembers in Ward 1, 2, 4, and 5 (except for one Democrat who turned into an Independent in Ward 2). And Tucson has had long term serving Republican Mayors (Lew Murphy and Bob Walkup).

So maybe it’s personality over partisan party affiliation that determines the winners in the City elections. What do you readers think?

The AZ Court of Appeals ruled recently for the City of Tucson in a challenge to a recent state law that would have mandated Ward only, nonpartisan elections instead of the current partisan, city-wide elections (though the Councilmembers have to live in the Ward they run from). This decision may be appealed to the AZ Supreme Court.

5/13/11 UPDATE: 6 men still running for Mayor (2 Democrats, as 1 dropped out last week, 2 Republicans, 1 Green (one dropped out, replaced by another Green), and an Independent).
Here’s the current list: Jonathan Rothschild (D), Marshall Home (D), Shaun McClusky (R), Ron Asta (R), Dave Croteau (G), Pat Darcy (I). But the list keeps changing…