Candidate Update - Scottsdale Mayor

It looks like there are now three candidates for mayor of Scottsdale -

Incumbent Mary Manross (city bio page here, campaign website here)

Jim Lane, current member of the City Council (city bio page here, couldn't find a campaign website)

And the rumored third entrant - John Washington of the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale (COGS). This story was broken by The Scottsdale Activist; at Tuesday's meeting of the City Council, I heard that Mr. Washington had taken out papers for the race, but hadn't been able to confirm the info.

Very early, and brief analysis -

If Washington actually enters the race, it would seem to hurt Lane's candidacy more than Manross'. Previously, one of the strengths of Lane's candidacy was the "Anybody but Manross" vote. However, many of the neighborhood activists consider Lane to be 'Manross-lite*' and could very well switch their allegiances to Washington, who is a neighborhood activist himself.

Manross' core strength is the Scottsdale business community (aka - the Chamber of Commerce and developers); Washington probably won't cut into that area, though Lane could.



* - The Scottsdale Activist uses the same characterization in its story re: Washington, but I didn't plagarize it from them - I (and I expect that one of the writers at Scottsdale Activist :) ) have heard it at more than one COGS meeting.

Later!