Short Attention Span Musing - Primary Edition

...It's looking more and more like absolutely nothing was settled in Scottsdale on Tuesday. According to the City's results page, challenger Jim Lane leads incumbent Mayor Mary Manross by 217 votes. However, there are 849 ballots where the City races were left blank (undervotes), so it appears that he didn't receive the "50% + 1) vote total necessary to win the election outright. In addition, none of the City Council candidates reached that threshold either.

Hence, it appears that we get to do this all over again in November, with two fewer candidates for Council. Oren Davis and Joel Bramoweth, as the two candidates with the fewest votes, will be dropped off of the general election ballot. The other six candidates - Lisa Borowsky, Betty Drake, Nan Nesvig, Suzanne Klapp, Tom Giller, and Ron McCullagh - will fight it out for the three open seats.

Predictions: none for the Council race, there are too many variables, but as for the mayoral contest, Manross should win reelection. She was hurt by the large Republican turnout for the CD5 primary; in November, she will benefit from the increased Democratic turnout.

BTW - if the mayoral results stand without a run-off, Lane owes John Washington. Washington was a write-in candidate for mayor until he dropped out just before early ballots were sent out. If he had stayed in the race, he would have garnered enough votes to force the race to a run off, or even have given the race outright to Manross.

AZ Republic coverage here.

...Republican bloggers all over the state may be gleeful right now because of the large number of moderate Reps who were defeated in primary races, but that glee may be short-lived. It will be much easier for moderate Democrats like Cheryl Cage and Judah Nativio to defeat their extremist Republican opponents (Al Melvin and Russell Pearce, respectively) than the more moderate Reps who were defeated in the primaries (Pete Hershberger and Kevin Gibbons, respectively.)

No smack talk here (I'm not making any predictions. Yet), just an observation.


...Saving the worst for last, but have the Reps chosen David Duke as their national chair? I mean, whatever veneer of civility they might have had has been rubbed off during the pressure of a tough election cycle.

First, there was the abuse levelled at one of their own in LD6, Tony Bouie.

Then, there was Sarah Palin's VP-nominee acceptance speech where she denigrated community organizers in urban communities, but later praised folks in rural, and presumably paler, communities.

But the topper has to be Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-CSA), as quoted in The Hill -

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

And when asked to clarify, Westmoreland confirmed that he indeed meant to use the word 'uppity.'

Yes folks, whether it's Maricopa County Republicans (Arpaio and Thomas) campaigning against Mexicans, or national Republicans campaigning against black people, this is going to be an ugly two months.

Thanks to Tedski for the heads-up on the Westmoreland quote.

My vote in the Scottsdale election...

I wasn't going to weigh in on the races in Scottsdale, but since it seems that everyone else with an online outlet for their opinions is doing so (Scottsdale Republic endorsements here, Jim McAlister, an AZ Rep blogger, lists his votes here, and the EV Tribune has coverage of a number of different endorsements here), here's how I voted...sort of (more on that later)...

The candidates for Council basically fall into two camps (yup, I know that I'm simplifying their positions, probably far more than any candidate would ever want, but) -

- The continued unfettered growth/"whatever is good for developers is good for Scottsdale" crowd (supported by the Chamber of Commerce) - incumbents Ron McCullagh and Betty Drake, as well as candidate Suzanne Klapp. Candidates Liza Borowsky and Oren Davis seem to fall into this category (to be fair though, with Davis it's hard to tell because he's been dealing with some family medical issues and hasn't been able to focus on campaigning in an effective way. Could be an interesting candidate if he chooses to run again in two years.)

- The No Growth/"we like Scottsdale the way it is and won't let anything change no matter what" crowd - Nan Nesvig and Tom Giller.

As you might be able to tell from the way that I've simplified (perhaps oversimplified), I don't exactly subscribe to either school of thought. Mostly, I think that both schools of thought are shortsighted. The first ignores the needs and desires of most of Scottsdale's residents who just want *homes*, not a cover story in Architectural Digest. The second ignores the fact that change happens whether you want it to or not; trying to totally prevent rather than to control and guide change only leads to uncontrolled change.

Joel Bramoweth, the eighth candidate for council, doesn't really belong to either grouping. Therefore, I voted for him.

OK, not really. I *did* vote for him, but because he has nuanced, well-thought out positions and because he has worked hard for the last couple of years to learn about Scottsdale's government from the boards and commissions on up, not just at City Council meetings.

He does tend to ramble a bit when speaking in public (ok - he rambles a *lot*), but he's an educated, intelligent, and decent human being who will be an asset to the Council and to the City (even if occasionally annoying to listen to :) ).

While I'm sure that we are going to disagree on some positions and votes, I firmly believe that when we differ, his positions will be chosen because he truly believes that those particular positions are the right ones, not because he is in someone's pocket or because he wants to appease some local reactionaries.

In other words, he'll be wrong, but he'll be honest and reasoned about it (God knows when we disagree, it won't happen because *I'm* wrong, right?? LOL).

I did cast votes for Mayor and the other two seats on the Council, but those were all exercises in "trying to find the least bad candidates" rather than "voting for good candidates." I won't name who I voted for but will say that my votes for Council were split between the two camps.

Anyway, have a good week; don't expect any more posts at least until Friday from Denver.

Later!