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Landmark day • Tuesday, November 4, 2008

November 4, 2008: The 590-Vote Mayor

A state law moves the city's election onto the presidential ballot, turnout quadruples, and the mayor loses by 590 votes.

Illustrated plaque for November 4, 2008 in Scottsdale history NOVEMBER 4 2008 THE RESORT METROPOLIS

What happened

On November 4, 2008, Scottsdale held its first city election in the fall, required by a 2006 state law for cities of 175,000 or more. In the mayor's race, a runoff after a September election in which neither candidate won a majority of ballots cast, Councilman Jim Lane defeated Mayor Mary Manross, 51,848 to 51,258. Ron McCullagh, Lisa Borowsky and Suzanne Klapp won the three council seats; Councilwoman Betty Drake lost hers. Turnout was 85.49 percent of registered voters.

Why it matters

The new calendar changed who voted. City elections that had drawn 14 to 31 percent of voters in March and May now drew 85 percent on a presidential ballot. Lane, who had campaigned against 'a culture of secrecy' at City Hall, served twelve years as mayor.

A new calendar

Through 2006 Scottsdale chose its mayor and council in March, with runoffs in May, and few voters came. Turnout was 13.93 percent in March 2006. That year the Legislature required cities of 175,000 or more to hold candidate elections on the state’s September primary and November general dates, “for the purposes of increasing voter participation and for decreasing the costs to the taxpayers,” with new terms beginning in January. Scottsdale’s charter already tied city elections to the state’s dates, so 2008 brought the city’s first fall election, and Mayor Mary Manross’s second term ran about seven months long.

Two rounds

On September 2, Councilman Jim Lane led Manross 17,463 to 17,098. That was 50.27 percent of the votes cast for mayor but only 48.83 percent of the ballots, and the charter then measured a majority by ballots, so the two met again in November.

Their statements in the city’s pamphlet framed the choice. Lane asked: “Why’s there such a culture of secrecy and so many secret Executive Sessions? … Why aren’t the citizens listened to and respected?” He promised “a more fiscally responsible business-like approach to governing, with more citizen participation and openness.” Mary Manross, mayor since 2000, pointed to “an all-time record $3.3 billion dollars of new investment in downtown and Southern Scottsdale,” a AAA bond rating “reaffirmed in spite of a national recession,” and the freeway cameras: “The 101 is also safer due to the leadership we demonstrated by implementing photo enforcement on the freeway.”

590 votes

On November 4, 2008, with the presidential race on the same ballot and 85.49 percent turnout, Lane won 51,848 to 51,258. Ron McCullagh, Lisa Borowsky and Suzanne Klapp won the council seats; Councilwoman Betty Drake finished fourth, 1,092 votes behind Klapp. The new council took office on January 13, 2009. Lane served as mayor until 2021. In 2010 voters amended the charter to measure a majority by the votes cast in each race, not by ballots. The 2000s politics chapter tells how the decade’s arguments led here.