Mesa Candiate Breakdown

Mesa campaign season revs up

Gary Nelson does a good job breaking down the races across the city:

"Things are quiet so far in the city council races, with only one announced candidate in each district:

• In District 1, veteran community organizer Dave Richins seeks to replace Walters.

• In District 2 (central Mesa), Alex Finter resigned from the planning and zoning board to seek the seat held by the term-limited Mike Whalen.

• In District 3 (southwest Mesa), former Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh aims to replace Tom Rawles, who has said he will not seek re-election.

Dec. 12 is the deadline for candidates to file; Jan. 31 is the cutoff date for write-in candidates.Mesa's primary election will be March 11 and a runoff, if needed, will be May 20. It's possible the only holdover council members as of June 2008 will be Kyle Jones from District 4 and Scott Somers from District 6. "

It looks like we could have a pretty good smattering of new folks on the council - with Kavanaugh returning to District 3. I have heard some rumors of some different folks thinking about running up in District 1 in Mesa, which I think could be pretty silly because isn't Richins the de facto Councilmember from up there as it is?

Really?

I nearly spit into my Capn Crunch this morning when I read some of the list of people signed up in support of Waveyard:

United Mesa Firefighters
Mesa Chamber of Commerce
Mesa Police Association
Fraternal Order of Police
Sen. Chuck Gray, R-Mesa
Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa
Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa
Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa
Rep. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa
Rep. Kirk Adams, R-Mesa.
City Councilman Mike Whalen
Mayor Keno Hawker

And wait for it... wait for it...

Valley Business Owners (and Concerned Citizens) Inc.

Really! I am downright shocked by the weird combination of the people who have signed up, but I am also pretty impressed. You can read it for yourself: Waveyard gets wide support in filings

"A virtual who's who of Mesa politics and business has gone to bat for Waveyard, a massive water-themed resort complex whose fate will be decided in a Nov. 6 election.

Support for Waveyard was unanimous among the 23 arguments submitted to the city clerk's office before Wednesday's deadline. Even some of City Hall's fiercest critics weighed in with favorable comments."