District 5 down to 4

Here are the 4 finalists for the City of Mesa District 5 Seat. Phil Austin almost didn't make the cut. Interesting... You would think that the Mayor might have passed his list around before making it public so he could avoid problems like this. But that is Mesa for you, I guess. Here are the finalists:

Phil Austin
Occupation: Lawyer
Years in district: 4
Considering running for a permanent seat? Yes

Terry Benelli
Occupation: Executive director, Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation
Years in district: 21
Considering running for a permanent seat? Yes

John Perkinson
Occupation: Real estate development, investment
Years in district: 21
Considering running for a permanent seat? No

Darrell Truitt
Occupation: President of Engineers, Planners and Surveyors Group
Years in district: 21
Considering running for a permanent seat? Not probable

I would bet that Benelli and Austin are going to run for this seat, no matter what. So, that should be an interesting race by itself. It would be a shame if the council were to pick one of them, because it would clearly give them an advantage. So, if the council wanted to avoid that, it would come down to John Perkinson and Darrell Truitt. What they don't mention is that Perkinson is on Scott Smith's campaign... I found that out after a bit of snooping (well, its actually quite blatant on Smith's site). And Truitt looks to be a transit guy - I wonder how that will go with the conservatives.

I would have put the money on Austin at the start, but that was before the council had a hard enough time getting him on the consideration list. Now it has gotten a lot more interesting.