Arizona Republic Endorses Dave Richins and Alex Finter

The Republic has started to dole out their recommendations. The first two up were District 1 and 2.

In the District 1 Race, Dave Richins gets the endorsement. In one of the strongest endorsements I have seen in a long time. They talk about everything that Richins has done for the district. They also take a pretty good shot at Dave's opponent saying "Matt Tolman has not done much of anything to bring residents together or work toward positive change." POW! Thats a pretty good one.

In the District 2 Race, Alex Finter gets the endorsement. In this one, they give kudos both to Finter and his opponent Manny Cortez for their commitment to the city. They endorse Finter despite his questions about the bond, which by the way, I think are legitimate questions. After seeing Finters commitment to the Financing the Future report, I tried to look it up online at the City of Mesa site, and alas its nowhere to be found. So, gee, I am sure a lot of people are working towards that vision right now.

Predictions:

If I were to bet on the outcome of the District 3 and District 5 endorsements, I would predict that the Republic Endorses Dennis Kavanaugh in District 3 - touting his experience as vice mayor and commitment to the arts and Phil Austin in District 5 - touting his experience and desire to work with people.

As for Mayor, its sort of hard to tell. If you go with the fact that I am predicting that the Republic will select pretty much the same candidates who were endorsed by the Fire Fighters, then it would be Scott Smith. If you go with their constant theme of experience, then maybe they go with either Rex Griswold or Claudia Walters. I would almost bet in the experience department they would lean towards Walters because she seems to know her stuff the best. And she defends the city tooth and nail.

Its tough to tell I think that the Mayor's seat is the wild card right now.