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.

Tonight KUAT Channel 6 political reporters Christopher Conover and Andrea Kelly interviewed all 3 candidates running for Mayor of the City of Tucson: Green Mary DeCamp, Republican Rick Grinnell, Democrat Jonathan Rothschild.

DeCamp defeated fellow activist Dave Croteau in the Green Party primary on August 30, 2011 and also ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 3 Council seat in 2009. Grinnell ran for the Ward 2 Council seat unsuccessfully in 1995 and 1999, and was a write-in candidate in the recent Republican primary. And Rothschild has never run before for any political office and faced no opposition in the August Democratic primary.

“An encore radio broadcast of this special forum will air on NPR-FM89.1/1550AM on Friday night, October 14th at 6:30 p.m. Marketplace normally scheduled at this time will be pre-empted.”

Click here for the “debate” between these 3 candidates.

Prior KUAT Interviews (separately) of each Mayoral candidate:

–DeCamp on October 6 (click here).
–Grinnell on September 9 (clck here).
–Rothschild on September 22 (click here).

If you want to meet these candidates in person (as well as all others running for Council seats in Wards 1, 2, and 4), plan on attending the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson forum on October 17 at Temple Emanu-El (225 N. Country Club), 6 p.m. The forum is co-sponsored by the Pima County Tucson Women’s Commission.

Vote-by-mail ballots will be mailed out by City of Tucson Elections next week on October 19. Vote wisely.

City of Tucson Elections has posted the latest election returns from today’s Primary for Mayor of Tucson and City Council Wards 1, 2 and 4.

MAYOR OF TUCSON:
Democrat: Jonathan Rothschild 24,134
Democrat write-in: David Karr 24
Democrat write-in: Joseph Maher Jr. 45
Green: Dave Croteau 109
Green: Mary DeCamp 312
Republican write-in: Rick Grinnell 5773
Republican write-in: Daryl Peterson 48

Looks like Rothschild (D), DeCamp(G), and Grinnell (R) will advance to the General Election. Grinnell only needed 1060 votes as a write-in to qualify for the General.

Mary DeCamp (G)

Rick Grinnell (R)

Jonathan Rothschild (D)

WARD 1:
Democrat Joe Flores 1234
Democrat Regina Romero (incumbent) 3990
Green write-in Beryl Baker 10 (she only needs 3 to advance to the General)

Looks like Romero (D) and Baker (G) will face off again in the General (they did so in 2007 in the same ward). Romero then got 72.86% (42,556 votes) to Baker’s 26.62% (15,551 votes).

WARD 2:
Democrat Paul Cunningham (incumbent) 5079
Republican Jennifer Rawson 4403

Both will advance to the General.

WARD 4:
Democrat Shirley Scott (incumbent) 3751
Republican Tyler Vogt 3392

Both will advance to the General.

This was the City of Tucson’s first time vote-by-mail election and 14.66% of the registered voters cast ballots. The Arizona Daily Star reports that there may be still 4700 ballots to be counted, so stay tuned for any updates.

Final tally as of 9/2/11: click here for updated blog.