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.