Today’s General Election results are just in, and here’s who is leading in the Mayoral and three City Council seats up for election:

Mayor:
Mary DeCamp (G) 3,617 (4.77%)
Rick Grinnell (R) 30,435 (40.13%)
Jonathan Rothschild (D) 41,638 (54.9%)

Council ward 1:
Beryl Baker (G) 22,301 (34.04%)
Regina Romero (D, incumbent) 42,411 (64.74%)

Council ward 2:
Paul Cunningham (D, incumbent) 42,406 (54.80%)
Jennifer Rawson (R) 31,951 (43.00%)

Councl ward 4:
Shirley Scott (D, incumbent) 37,572 (51.06%)
Tyler Vogt (R) 35,818 (48.68%)

Stay tuned for the final ballot tally after countng of the provisional ballots cast today at the 7 poll locations. This was the City’s first vote-by-mail general electon and 27.71 % of the registered voters cast ballots (as of today’s tally). 211,265 total ballots were mailed out on/about October 19, out of a total of 274,706 registered voters.

But meanwhile, congratulatons to all the winners, Mayor-elect Rothschild, Councilmembers Romero and Cunningham. Councilmember Scott’s race (1754 vote difference) may be too close to call with 7,500 ballots still to be counted.

11/9/11 update: Star reporting that 8,400 ballots left to be counted, hopefully by tomorrow afternoon: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/scott-narrowly-leads-vogt-final-result-expected-thurs/article_66ce6ed7-028a-5870-8416-d7bc2a67917b.html

11/10/11 Update: Councilmember Scott wins by 1862 votes (click here).

The City of Tucson’s General Election for a new Mayor and three City Councilmembers is taking place right now, with the City’s first vote-by-mail general election. Wards 1, 2 and 4 are up for election, and the Mayor’s race has no incumbent running, with Republican Mayoral Bob Walkup stepping down after 3 terms (12 years) in office.

For those of you still trying to decide whom to vote for Mayor, you can view these online debates:

KUAT Channel 6 of all three Mayoral candidates on October 13 (click here).

KVOI 1030 AM Buckmaster radio Show of all three Mayoral candidates on October 21 (click here).

Brief synopsis of who’s running for Mayor:

–Mary Decamp (Green), community activist, Connector for PRO Neighborhoods, former college instructor, currently camping out at Occupy Tucson at Armory Park downtown. She ran for the Ward 3 Council seat unsuccessfully in 2009, defeated fellow activist/former 2007 Mayoral candidate Dave Croteau in their Green Party Primary in August, 2011.

–Rick Grinnell (Republican), lobbyist (one client of his company Strategic United Business Strategies is Rosemont Copper), Board Member on new reconstituted Rio Nuevo Multi Purpose Facilities District, received 7,770 write-in votes in the August Republican primary, ran twice before unsuccessfully for Ward 2 Council seat (1995 and 1999).

–Jonathan Rothschild (Democrat), attorney/former managing partner of his law firm of Mesch, Clark & Rothschld originally founded by his father Lowell, former Treasurer of Pima County Democratic Party, political newcomer, faced no opposition in the August Democratic primary. Rothschild was endorsed by the Arizona Daily Star on October 16.

Campaign websites below (or click here for previous blog for all Mayoral/Council candidates websites).

Mary DeCamp (G), www.decampformayor.org
Rick Grinnell (R), www.grinnell4mayor.com
Jonathan Rothschild (D), www.jonathanformayor.com

Ballots were mailed out on October 19. Your vote-by-mail ballot must be received by City Elections by 7 p.m. on Tuesday November 8. Mail early.

Mary DeCamp, Green candidate

Rick Grinnell, Republican

Jonathan Rothschild, Democrat

“In 1999 voters approved the creation of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District (District). The District is both a municipal stadium district and a special taxing district. The voters authorized the District to receive an incremental portion of State-shared funds derived from transaction privilege taxes (i.e. sales tax called TIF Funds) collected from within the District boundaries within the City of Tucson city limits. The District is a State municipal district with the powers, privileges and immunities granted to governmental, municipal corporations for District purposes: a planned multi-faceted development project, including cultural and recreational amenities and improvements, unique historic re-creations, mixed-use developments, etc. The District was reorganized by the Arizona State Legislature in the fall of 2009 and the board re-appointed in March 2010. Expenditure of the TIF Funds collected is now disbursed and managed by the reconstituted Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board of Directors who as of 2010 are appointed by the State’s Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.”

From: http://rionuevo-tucson.org/

For more info on Rio Nuevo also see this City of Tucson webpage, with financial reports: http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/rionuevo

This 10 year (1999 to 2009) project has received a lot of attention recently due to conflicts between the City of Tucson Council and the new Rio Nuevo board, re-constituted by the State Legislature in March, 2010. Citizens have been asking about who were the Councilmembers (Democrats, Republicans, one Independent) during these 10 years, and beyond. Here’s the list of who was serving (as far as I remember):

Mayor: Robert Walkup (R), 1999 to present (not running for re-election 2011)
Ward 1: Jose Ibarra (D), 1999 to 2007; Regina Romero (D), 2007 to present (up for re-election 2011)
Ward 2: Carol West (D, I), 1999 to 2007; Rodney Glassman (D), 2007 to 2010; Paul Cunningham (D), appointed 2010 to present (up for election 2011)
Ward 3: Jerry Anderson (D), 1999 to 2001; Kathleen Dunbar (R), 2001 to 2005; Karin Uhlich (D), 2005 to present
Ward 4: Shirley Scott (D), 1999 to present (up for re-election 2011)
Ward 5: Steve Leal (D), 1999 to 2009; Richard Fimbres (D), 2009 to present
Ward 6: Fred Ronstadt (R), 1999 to 2005; Nina Trasoff (D), 2005 to 2009; Steve Kozachik (R), 2009 to present

(Some of these Councilmembers were serving before Rio Nuevo began, but I only list the starting point as 1999 when Rio Nuevo was created).

Those who were serving as elected officials during entire Rio Nuevo project: Mayor Bob Walkup, Councilmembers Steve Leal and Shirley Scott.

Those who came on the Council after late 2009: Councilmembers Richard Fimbres, Steve Kozachik, and Paul Cunningham.

And who were the Tucson City Managers during this time: Luis Gutierrez (1999), James Keene (2000 to 2005), and Mike Hein (2005 to 2009). Gutierrez is retired, Keene is now City Manager of Palo Alto, California, and Hein is Director of Pima County Emergency Management & Homeland Security.

Last November, 2010 I reported on the citizen outrage after an audit on Rio Nuevo was released about $230 million allegedly mismanaged:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/community/2010/11/29/citizens-express-outrage-over-rio-nuevo-mismanagement/

Stay tuned as the City Council and the new Rio Nuevo board have recently agreed to mediate their differences.