I have been with the City of Phoenix Office of the Mayor for almost 8 years. I started working for Mayor Phil Gordon when he started his term in January 2004. It’s been a wild journey to work for the Mayor for the past 8 years - including watching his re-election campaign in 2008. Today, August 30, 2011 is mayoral election day in the City of Phoenix. Mayor Gordon is limited to serving 2, 4-year terms, and his last day in office will be December 31, 2011.
Many journalists and political analysts believe this is the most contentious mayoral election Phoenix has seen in decades. There are six candidates running : Claude Mattox, Greg Stanton, Wes Gullett, Peggy Neely, Anna Brennan, and Jennifer Wright. Although city elections are non-partisan, this campaign has been unusual in that all of the candidates have campaigned as if it was a partisan race. Both the state republican and democratic parties have been working hard on get-out-the-vote campaigns and have sent letters and emails out supporting their candidate(s). Greg Stanton is the only democrat in the race. With so many candidates running, statistically it would be extremely unlikely that any of the candidates will receive 50.1% of the vote. Therefore, there will most likely be a run-off election in November.
Working in office we can’t really get involved with campaigns therefore it was hard to figure out who I wanted to vote for. I believe they all want the best for Phoenix. It will be exciting to watch the results come in tonight!
