Friday, August 3rd, 2007...11:36 am
Kromko for Mayor?
Yesterday, former State Representative John Kromko filed to run as a write-in candidate for the Green Party’s nomination for Mayor. Apparently, presumptive Green nominee Dave Croteau is planning on dropping out.
The Greens fall under the city’s “new party” rules (they didn’t run any candidates in the last city election), which means that if Kromko manages to snag a minimum number of votes in the Green Party’s primary, he would appear on the November ballot as the Green party nominee. That minimum number would be the same as the number of signatures required to become a candidate through the petition process, 1/10 of 1% of the votes cast for the winning candidate for governor by Tucson residents. I couldn’t find how many votes Janet Napolitano got just within the city (she got 195,305 county wide), and Croteau turned in 311 signatures when he filed his paperwork to run.
There are a couple of questions about whether this actually works. Early balloting starts next week, so Croteau’s name may still appear not withstanding his withdrawl. If this is the case, what happens if Kromko’s write-in total doesn’t beat Croteau? I’ll have the crack R-Cubed research staff check this one. (See UPDATE below)
Kromko is likely doing this in an attempt to boost his omnibus anti-everything initiative. But, his presence in the race certainly makes what looked to be a dull city election a heck of a lot more interesting.
UPDATE: The R-Cubed Crack Research Team went into action mere moments after the post went up on the intertron.
According to the City Clerk’s office, 111 signatures would be necessary to file as a “new party” candidate for mayor. This also would be the number of write-in votes necessary for someone to get the nomination. There are 995 registered members of the Green Party in Pima County. They, along with people registered in no recognized party, would be eligible to vote in the Green Party primary. Kromko could even get Democratic, Republican or Libertarian supporters to re-register over the next couple of weeks, and they would be eligible to vote for him so long as they do so by 30 days before the primary date. These folks would miss out on the thrilling Glassman-Reuss primary battle, however.
CORRECTION: The post originally showed a much lower total for Napolitano than she recieved. It was based only on votes she recieved at the polls, which under reported her total by over 100,000. This has been fixed. As usual, R Cubed regrets the error.
5 Comments
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Top 7 reasons for Kromko to run for Mayor:
1) R3 is right agin’, it’s all about pushing the Greens under the omnibus. Painting Kromko’s latest rant Green maybe makes it more palatable, less like raw spinach.
3) K is out of publicity $$ and desperate for more free press coverage.
4) K has too much $$ and needs some way to launder it. (a wig? psychotherapy?)
4) Dems think K’s the strategic key to preserving their 2008 chances — no way he wins and no way Greens come back anytime soon, therefore the Dem party base is safe. K gets a county desk, salary, car & health benefits. No need for a desk chair.
5) Republicans realize 2 years of K wielding the M&C gavel & agenda will create an entirely dysfunctional City Council to run against in 2008 — and easy pickings citywide. If they’re really, really smart Walkup will drop out too.
6) The Star needs local color (someone, anyone) to write about until UA basketball season starts.
7) All of the above
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
All of the above.
Hell, no real democrat is running for el major, John may as well liven things up. The debates could be some of the most colorful in a while….
August 4th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
seriously? think the guy could get a better picture. I mean who would vote for such a guy?
August 7th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Have a look at http://goldwaterstate.blogspot.com/2007/08/kromkos-lost-his-moxie.html for the full backstory.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Has anyone noticed that Jeff Latas had to remove his name from the list of endorsements for Dave Croteau and the Green Party? Do you all know why? Fear, I say. So the Democratic Party, in its wisdom, has decided to impose political martial law upon the conscience of its own adherents- even when it has absolutely no bearing upon their future. They elected to not run a candidate for the Mayorial Race, which would logically free its members to discern for themselves who they would support. Hopefully not the Republican candidate. But no, out of some insane paranoia, they have elected to sanction and or ban their own party people for publicly supporting a Green Candidate. That is sick to the bone, and will warranty further erosion of the party, sending yet another few thousand to the Independent ranks. I do believe they have created some pretty crummy karma for themselves. Controlling personal decisions, that do not reflect upon the image of the party, is not in the purview of party politics. I see a huge useless battle a brewin’. Ain’t America great? Mike Brewer/ A Marine Gone Green
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