As there haven't been any significant entries into legislative, Congressional, Maricopa County, or statewide races, this post will be limited to developments in Scottsdale and Tempe. OK, mostly in Tempe. :)
...In Scottsdale, so far only Mayor Jim Lane has formed a 2012 committee, something he did at the beginning of the year. However, that should change soon - as reported in the Arizona Republic, interested Scottsdale residents can pick up candidate packets for a run at a spot on the city council (three seats up for election) or for the mayor's job.
Details are available from the Scottsdale City Clerk's office and/or on the City's elections homepage.
...Some movement on the candidate front has taken place in Tempe.
Restaurateur Michael Monti has jumped into the race for mayor, joining City Councilman Mark Mitchell in pursuit of the job. More may yet enter, but those two are expected to be the headliners in the race.
Unless a bigger name gets into the race :) .
In city council candidate news, Dick Foreman, a lobbyist for Southwest Gas, has entered the race for a council spot.
A relatively new, but apparently well-connected, blog named Tempe Thoughts is reporting that Anglia Thornton, Steve May, Linda Spears, and AJ Lafaro have pulled candidate packets for potential runs next year. They haven't officially formed election committees yet, but the report is accurate, they've taken the first step.
A very brief run down -
I'm not familiar with all the personalities on the Tempe political scene, but "Anglia Thornton" may actually be "Angela Thornton", currently president of East Valley Women's League. If I'm wrong about that, I'll update this post.
Steve May is a former state legislator and was briefly a candidate for state rep in LD17 last year, until details of his involvement in the scheme to recruit homeless people to run as fake Green Party candidates emerged.
Linda Spears in a former member of the city council and long-time community activist in Tempe. It remains to be seen if she is looking for another term on the council or is running for mayor this time around. There is enough respect for her in Tempe that she will be a factor in whichever race she goes for.
AJ Lafaro is the current chair of the LD17 Republican Party and has been active in Tempe politics for a while. In 2001, he headed the effort to recall then-Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano (expect that name to pop up in a "committees update" post sometime this cycle), apparently mostly because Giuliano is openly gay.
As both Lafaro and May are active Republicans, they'll probably work together for a while.
As May, like Giuliano, is openly gay, I don't expect that "a while" will encompass the entire election cycle.
Note: Tempe is on a March/May* election schedule; Scottsdale is on an August/November* schedule.
* = if necessary
More updates as they become available...
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