Here’s information for those of you undecided about the upcoming City of Tucson Mayoral election since vote-by-mail ballots were mailed yesterday on October 19– listen to the Buckmaster Show on KVOI AM 1030 radio tomorrow, at high noon to hear all 3 Mayoral candidates debate. I am sure that host Bill Buckmaster will ask them several tough questions about the City of Tucson’s financial & management woes, for this hour long special show.

Who’s running for Mayor (no incumbent):
Mary DeCamp (G)
Rick Grinnell (R)
Jonathan Rothschild (D)

And if you miss it live, log onto www.buckmastershow.com later in the afternoon to hear the Standard Podcast recording. I often do that whenever I’ve been busy at lunchtime.

Read my previous blog about campaign websites of these candidates, plus those running for City Council Wards 1, 2 and 4 (click here).

Vote wisely on/before the General Election on November 8. For information on where to vote in person, here’s the City of Tucson website with 7 voting locations (click here).

UPDATE: Here’s the link for the 10/21/11 show, http://www.buckmastershow.com/2011/10/21/buckmaster-show-10212011-tucson-radios-only-mayoral-debate/

This week the daily newspaper the Arizona Daily Star endorsed 3 Democrats and 1 Republican for the upcoming Mayoral & Council seats:

For Mayor– “Leadership”, Jonathan Rothschild (D):

http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_79d20be9-a4d0-5c51-b80b-27faad1d3b71.html

for Ward 2 Council — “Let Cunningham keep his Ward 2 Seat”, incumbent Paul Cunningham (D):

http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_11553c9c-378e-5e74-ac5d-5ebc9aa9f93a.html

for Ward 1 Council — “Dem Romero is best candidate for Ward 1 seat”, incumbent Regina Romero (D):

http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/article_70d08f75-1021-51c3-94df-e6f8efbb5f09.html. (Green candidate Beryl Baker declined to be interviewed by the Star editorial board as they wanted to interview her and Romero separately, unlike the candidates in the Ward 2 or 4 races.)

for Ward 4 Council — “Tyler Vogt’s cooperative approach needed” – Tyler Vogt (R)

http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_661f44d0-2f0b-5b17-9d17-65065e8ae80a.html (Republican candidate Tyler Vogt declined to be interviewed by the Star editorial board stating “I have very little confidence that our meeting will result in an unbiased presentation of my platform, qualifications and opinions.”)

Vote-by-mail starts this week, with ballots being mailed out on October 19 (today). Vote wisely on/before the General Election on November 8.

And stay tuned for endorsements from the Thursday alternative newspaper, the Tucson Weekly.
Update 11/3/11: No endorsements have come out from the Weekly this election cycle.

Arizona Public Media KUAT Channel 6 reporters Christopher Conover and Andrea Kelly have interviewed all 3 candidates running for Mayor of Tucson (separately, but they will be interviewing all 3 together next week). Tonight they sat down with Green Party candidate Mary DeCamp to discuss her candidacy (click here).

Info about Mary from my previous blog (click here).

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”.

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 also defeated fellow Green candidate Dave Croteau in the recent August 30 Green Party primary for Mayor (369 to 127 votes). (Croteau was the sole challenger before in 2007 against current Republican Mayor Bob Walkup, who is stepping down after 3 terms).

DeCamp is facing off with Democrat Jonathan Rothschild (political newcomer) and Republican Rick Grinnell (ran twice before unsuccessfully for the Ward 2 Council seat) in the November General election.

On Tuesday October 4 DeCamp announced at a press conference at City Hall that her 2 bedroom/1 bath home in Tucson is being foreclosed, & she faces eviction on November 10, 2 days after the General Election. Her home has been sold by the bank in a foreclosure sale to a foreign company. Apparently Mary purchased the home in 2007 but experienced a costly bicycling accident in 2009, and then her employment at the U of A was scaled back due to the economy, causing her to miss mortgage payments.

She will continue her campaign despite this setback, and will be sign waving usually every Friday at 4 p.m. at the NW corner of Granada & Broadway, downtown. (Sign waving is wildly popular & expected in State of Hawaii campaigns, but not as popular or utilized here. In Hawaii the candidates stand out there in the streets daily, often wearing fresh lei around their neck to distinguish themselves from their campaign supporters.) Mary usually wears a Green Party (green colored) t-shirt, and this week she & her supporters will be at 4th Avenue and Broadway instead.

Campaign website: www.DecampforMayor.org.