Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Monday, January 29th, 2007...8:34 pm

Idle and Possibly Irresponsible Speculation

Steve Leal has been coy about his plans in the upcoming mayor’s race. As infuriating as this can be for Democratic activists who want to have a candidate as soon as possible, our resign to run law doesn’t allow much public discussion on his part.

Speculation has turned to who would replace Leal if he resigned to run for mayor. First, you need a couple of notes on how this process actually works. The remaining council members sans Leal (who would be off the council) would be voting for the new member.

Note there that I said “council.” Under our weaker-than-weak mayor system, Mayor Bob Walkup has no vote (Tucson’s charter calls for the mayor to sing castrato). This means that Leal’s replacement would just need three votes out of five.

Readers of the Skinny know that two of the names that are floating as replacements are Eva Carrillo-Dong and Anabelle Nuñez. Carrillo-Dong is a well respected member of the Sunnyside School Board and Nuñez has connections to the local arts community as well as experience as a neighborhood activist. Both are close to Leal.

Some other names have emerged. Environmental activist Daniel Patterson has let it be known that he would like to be considered too. Patterson is president of the Santa Rita Park Neighborhood association. Patterson also put his name forward to replace Supervisor Dan Eckstrom when he resigned in 2003. He made a run against Sen. Elaine Richardson as a Green Party candidate back in 2000. He’s also got a blog.

Another name out there Jesse Lugo. Lugo made a run against Leal in 2001 and was defeated handily in the Democratic primary. After that race, Lugo said he was uninterested in further tries at public office. I’m not sure if he is being talked about or is actually interested, or for that matter, where he gets his votes from. Lugo is close to councilmember Shirley Scott and could possibly get a vote from Carol West, but as far as that third vote, I don’t know. One person speculated with me that José Ibarra would be a third vote just to cause trouble, but I have my doubts considering that the two of them once had a fist fight.

Long term, it may not matter who gets appointed. Two appointees from the recent past, Michael Crawford and Sharon Hekman, were unable to even win their first primaries. Michael Haggerty chose not to run at all.

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