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The Phoenix mayor and four City Council seats are up for grabs in November.

Mayor Kate Gallego faces two challengers on the ballot, Merissa Hamilton and Tim Seay. Both say they are running for office in Phoenix for the first time because the city needs better leadership, but are going up against a recently elected incumbent who has raised more than $1 million.

The mayoral and council election is officially nonpartisan, but Gallego and Seay are Democrats and Hamilton is Republican. 

Of the four open council seats, two incumbents — Council members Debra Stark in District 3 and Betty Guardado in District 5 — are running for reelection, while the other two — Thelda Williams in District 1 and Michael Nowakowski in District 7 — are unable to run again because of term limits.

That guarantees at least two new faces on the council.

Each race is contested, but the most competitive race is for Nowakowski’s seat, which has five candidates on the ballot with different ideas for how to move the diverse district forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests that began sweeping the city and nation this spring have given candidates plenty to talk about as they try to sway voters with what they see as the right approach.

Gallego says the city responded quickly to protect public health during the pandemic, and the council is in the process of shaping a new civilian oversight board to provide more accountability to the city’s police department.

Some challengers, though, disagree with the city’s approach — for example, Hamilton says the city should have done more to protect small businesses and says the new oversight board is politicized.

Candidates must get the majority of votes in their race to win the seat in November, otherwise, it goes to a March runoff.

Write-in candidates have until 5 p.m. Thursday to file paperwork.

The current council terms end and new terms begin on April 19, 2021.

Maricopa County will begin mailing out early mail-in ballots on Oct. 7. In-person voting will be available from Oct. 7 to election day on Nov. 3.

Of the districts on the ballot: District 1 represents northwest Phoenix; District 3 includes portions of north and north-central Phoenix; District 5 represents west Phoenix, including Maryvale; And District 7 represents parts of south Phoenix, downtown Phoenix and Laveen.

To check what district you are in, visit this searchable map.

Read more about each race below.

3 on the ballot for Phoenix mayor

Gallego took her seat in March 2019 after voters elected her to fill the vacancy created when former mayor and current U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton resigned to run for Congress.

Two elements of this campaign cycle have made it more difficult for challengers in the mayor’s race.

For one, the shortened term gave candidates less time to organize and raise funds to help get the word out about their campaign and platform.

While Gallego spent more than $3 million in her election bid against former Council member Daniel Valenzuela, this cycle she has raised about $1.16 million through June 30, according to the latest campaign finance report.

Hamilton raised $3,981 as of June 30 and Seay raised $191,950 as of March 31. Seay’s second quarter report was not available.

Second, the coronavirus pandemic has made it especially difficult for candidates to spread their message through door-knocking and public events. That might give incumbents in all local races, including Gallego, a leg up.

Write-in candidates include Joshua “Crisco Kidd” Carmona, radio personality of 98.3 FM, who recently announced he is stepping down to run for mayor, and Juan Schoville.

Kate Gallego

Gallego, 38, says the city needs an experienced leader during these important times.

“We need experienced leadership to continue the progress we have made and the momentum we will need to get out of the economic downturn,” she said.

Gallego has lived in Phoenix for 16 years. She served on the City Council from 2014 to 2018, when she resigned to run for mayor.

Gallego has made a name for herself nationally as an outspoken voice criticizing Gov. Doug Ducey’s response to the pandemic. Locally, though, she has faced difficulties advancing her platform because of already strained relationships with some council members.

Gallego says she has made significant progress on her priorities as mayor, which included “building a safe community with good infrastructure and jobs of the future,” even as the city dealt with COVID-19.

Gallego said the city navigated the pandemic well by addressing the needs for rent and mortgage assistance, small business support, safety and testing while protecting city jobs and the local economy.

She pointed out how Construction Dive recently reported that Phoenix was the only major market to not see a hit to its construction market from COVID-19.

She noted how the city accelerated the deployment of police-worn body cameras while continuing to hire police and firefighters, addressed water infrastructure needs, and moved forward on light rail projects.

Merissa Hamilton

Hamilton, 38, said she doesn’t agree with Gallego’s approach to addressing COVID-19. She said she is running because the city’s decisions have hurt the community, with many losing their jobs and businesses.

Hamilton has lived in Phoenix since 2001. She is chairperson of an Arizona legislative subcommittee on policing. She said that for the last decade, she has worked on community projects and policies in the areas of domestic violence, child welfare reform, homelessness, criminal justice reform and voter integrity.

She served as director of constituent services for Council member Sal DiCiccio from August 2018 to June 2019.

Hamilton said herprofessional experience working with data for the food safety industry will help her solve the city’s challenges. 

She said Gallego and the council should have consulted more people before making decisions on how to address the pandemic.

The state, county and city’s “isolation policies,” such as shutting down businesses and parks, have been disastrous, she said, causing not just job loss but also an increase in violent crime such as homicide and assaults, and domestic violence.

She said the city is implementing policies for police accountability that have failed to reduce police misconduct elsewhere. She wants the city to consider implementing a police deflection program that helps connect people accused of victimless crimes with services.

“As mayor, my focus will be on bringing smarter solutions for all to make Phoenix safe, fight city corruption, and protect our small businesses setting the foundation for innovation and growth,” she said. 

Tim Seay

Seay, 55, said he decided to run for mayor because he is a community leader and was asked by many to run. He is a Freemason, currently serving as honorable grand master for Arizona’s Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.

Seay has lived in Phoenix for 20 years.

He said he teaches nonprofit business classes at the Grand Lodge and runs a nonprofit called Square-N-Compass that uses social events to raise funds for community service projects.

His experience as a small business owner, he said, will allow him to solve the community’s problems. He said his priorities as mayor would be addressing public safety concerns by building the relationship between the police and the community, bringing better jobs to Phoenix, and improving council relationships.

“I believe we need leadership to have the council be all on the same page,” he said.

Seay calls himself a humanitarian, not a politician, and says he has more leadership skills than his competitors.

District 1 – Northwest Phoenix

Northwest Phoenix will elect a new council member as Williams is finishing up on the council after serving three consecutive terms — the most allowed under Phoenix’s term limits.

Before Williams took office, her district was served by former Councilman Dave Siebert, who also served three consecutive terms, from 1996 to 2007.

Now, Siebert is running to represent the district again.

He and Ann O’Brien, a school board member in the Deer Valley Unified School District, will face off for the open seat.

Both Siebert and O’Brien are Republicans with a long history of serving their districts. Both tout their ability to get stuff done for their neighbors.

Write-in candidate Christopher Pistoia is also running for the seat.

Dave Siebert

Siebert, 60, said he is ready to serve to try to make a difference in the city after spending the last several years focusing on raising his son, who is now 17, with his wife.

Siebert has lived in the same home since 1984 before his area was annexed into the city.

While on council, Siebert said he helped bring insurance giant USAA to his district, helped protect the Deer Valley Airport from encroachment, helped acquire the Paseo Highlands Park land for free, and helped bring a community center and library to the district.

Siebert emphasized his ability to work with fellow council members to get consensus to move important projects forward.

“If you just sit down and talk on things, you can build consensus, and then what you are talking about doesn’t seem so insurmountable,” he said.

Both candidates said public safety is a top priority for them.

Siebert graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in criminal justice. He said he wants to see community-based policing and block watch initiatives expanded.

Ann O’Brien

O’Brien, 51, has lived in Phoenix her entire life, other than a couple of years spent attending Northern Arizona University.

She has lived in the district since 2004 and has served on the school board since 2015. She and her husband have two children. Much of her immediate family lives in her neighborhood.

She said she is running because she believes it is time for a new voice on the council who brings people together to solve problems and support public safety.

Along with her work on the school board, she said she has been active in helping solve problems for her neighborhood.

She helped lead her neighborhood’s opposition to an Arizona Department of Corrections reentry center because the state relocated felons, including sex offenders, to the facility without notifying the community. She advocated for changes to the traffic light at Happy Valley and 39th Avenues and advocated for a new fire station to serve the district.

“I like to fight for people,” she said. “What I bring to the table is a proven record of bringing people together and solving problems for the last decade.”

O’Brien said, with public safety a top priority, she will fight to see that police and firefighters have the resources they need to keep the community safe.

District 3 – North Central Phoenix

Stark is finishing up her first full term on the council serving the central portion of north Phoenix.

She faces one challenger on the ballot, Nicole Garcia.

Write-in candidate Mark Bozek also is running for the seat.

Debra Stark

Stark, 65, was first appointed to the seat in 2016 after then-councilman and now County Supervisor Bill Gates resigned to run for the county office. In the March 2017 election, voters chose to keep Stark in the seat.

She has lived in Phoenix for 42 years – 32 of those in the district.

Stark, a Democrat, said she is running again because, for her, “it’s about public service.”

“That has been my entire career,” she said. “I feel like I can do a lot for the city.”

Prior to being elected, Stark worked as a planning official in Maricopa County, Peoria and Phoenix. She was Phoenix’s planning and development director and the county’s planning director.

She lists numerous accomplishments for her district since taking office, such as finding a way to help keep Pointe Tapatio and Moon Valley golf courses viable by switching their water supply to raw water instead of drinking water, helping create the gated alleyway program in her district that is now being spread across the city, helping form more block watch groups and advocating for faster road paving in the district.

A few of her priorities if reelected will be economic development, such as the redevelopment of Paradise Valley mall and continuing to fix the city’s roads and water pipes.

Nicole Garcia

Garcia declined to provide biographical information to The Republic.

Her website and campaign Facebook page do not provide information about how long she has lived in Phoenix, her political affiliation or her past political or community involvement.

“The fact that you mention my political experience and care so much about my birthdate tells me that you are trying to highlight my opponents experience,” she wrote in an email to The Republic, in response to biographical questions sent to all candidates for Phoenix elected offices. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Her campaign website says that she has a “background in administration with large and small companies across several industries.”

She declined to talk to The Republic about her priorities if elected. Instead, she emailed a screenshot of a social media post in which she shared that she has heard from hundreds of people in the district “upset with the path our city has taken.”

“They feel unheard and are ready for a representative who will speak for them and not their political insider friends,” Garcia wrote.

The post nods to some of her platform: “You should feel safe in your community, your money should be spent ethically, you should be considered essential, and your personal, God-given liberties should never be trampled on.”

On her website, she said she wants to see fiscal accountability, she supports the Phoenix Police Department, and she believes the city should be doing everything it can to support small businesses.

On social media, she expresses her opposition to the city’s pandemic response and to the county’s mask mandate.

“The scientific data proving masks stop the spread is not there,” she said in a Sept. 12 Facebook post.

District 5 – West Phoenix

Councilwoman Betty Guardado has been representing District 5, which includes west Phoenix around the Glendale border, since May 2019.

She has two challengers: Andre Williams and Nathan Schick.

Betty Guardado

Guardado, 43, moved to Arizona from Los Angeles in 2007. She has lived in Maryvale for 12 years. Before serving on the council, she was an organizing director for Unite Here, a local hospitality union.

Guardado, a Democrat, said she originally ran for council to “get back to basics” — to ensure that residents had access to basic needs, better roads, clean alleys and more businesses.

Some of her accomplishments, she said, include, helping the city secure an innovative, yet-to-be-announced education-based tenant for the old Kmart at Interstate 17 and Northern Avenue, advocating for residents who live near Villa de Paz Golf Course, and accelerating the repaving of city roads in her district.

Another focus of Guardado’s on the council has been fighting for the hospitality workers she used to represent for Unite Here.

She said if reelected she would continue to advocate for the dead west Phoenix light rail line, bring more affordable housing to the district, and help build a healthier community by advocating for more grocery stores and healthy food options.

Nathan Schick

Schick, 40, has lived in Phoenix since 2003. He declined to share his political affiliation, pointing out that council races are nonpartisan. He said he is a first-time candidate for city office.

Schick teaches religious studies at Arizona State University and Glendale Community College.

He has been a board member of the North Glen Square Neighborhood Association since 2015 and said he is running because his neighborhood has faced many issues, including nearby zoning changes, and Guardado has not represented them well

Many people in his neighborhood have been concerned about rezoning issues, including traffic dangers, but feel they haven’t been heard, he said.

Schick said he believes he is a good bridge between the younger generation in the district that is looking for affordable housing and jobs, and the older generation.

He said one of his priorities is addressing public safety, but he isn’t just talking about crime. He said that includes making dangerous intersections safer and protecting the city from ransomware attacks from foreign countries.

He wants to revive the west Camelback light rail line and says Guardado is too focused on repaving roads when the answer is public transportation.

Andre Williams

Williams, 42, has lived in Phoenix since 2006 and in District 5 since 2015.

After working as an engineer for years, he is currently studying mathematics at ASU to advance his career or potentially pursue teaching.

He is a registered Independent and said he believes that political affiliations only divide the council before real conversations begin.

Williams said he is running in part because he is frustrated by the political process in Phoenix. He said that he would take a systematic approach to solve the city’s problems, first by getting all of the proper people and interests involved in conversations.

He said he wants to help reduce crime and homelessness in his neighborhoods by reviewing data and having discussions to solve problems.

He said that he does not support the defund the police movement, and he believes one way to reduce police misconduct is to change the culture of the department.

“The City Council needs to make sure we care not just about the officers’ safety, but every citizens’ safety, even though they may not be doing something that is law-abiding,” Williams said.

District 7 – South Phoenix

District 7, which covers parts of south Phoenix, downtown Phoenix and Laveen, will elect a new council member this election cycle.

Council member Michael Nowakowski faces term limits as he finishes his third council term.

Of the five candidates on the ballot, many say they want to bring a strong voice to the council, but they all have different ideas for what issues to focus on — whether it’s making neighborhoods safer, adding jobs and fresh food to certain neighborhoods, or spurring development along the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, renamed in 2019 as the Congressman Ed Pastor Freeway.

Some have political experience, while others are just getting involved. On either end, the candidates say this makes them attractive to voters.

Write-in candidate Mike Bishop is also running for the seat.

Yassamin Ansari

Ansari, 28, grew up in Maricopa County and moved back to Phoenix two years ago after attending Stanford University and graduate school at the University of Cambridge and spending several years working for the United Nations.

A Democrat, Ansari interned for Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and, most recently volunteered for Gallego’s campaign.

Ansari said she moved back to Phoenix in part to find a way to make a difference in her hometown, realizing that “the actual change happens at the local level.”

Her priorities include: addressing public safety issues by helping rebuild trust between law enforcement and the community and providing proper resources to neighborhoods historically left behind; addressing air pollution with solutions such as seeing that all buildings are built to certain sustainability standards; helping small businesses survive COVID-19 and building jobs throughout the city; and finding innovative solutions to the city’s affordable housing crisis.

“I’m perfectly suited to take this on, given the extensive policy experience I’ve had at the national and international level,” she said.

Cinthia Estela

Estela, 34, has lived in Phoenix for 17 years and currently lives in Laveen.

A Democrat, she said she is running so her community can have a champion who ensures that her neighbors have the support they need to succeed.

She said she has participated in many local campaigns and has been helping her community for years, whether organizing community events, serving on the village’s planning committee, or organizing neighborhood cleanups.

“Though this process, I’ve learned how to lead, inspire, govern, communicate and campaign for candidates and causes that are important to our district and our city,” she said.

Estela said every area in the district has such different issues, from Laveen looking for more restaurants and high-tech jobs to south Phoenix’s light rail construction, and she wants to lead her community through all of it.

“I’ve been their champion for many years already,” she said. “It’s love and devotion for your people.”

G. Grayson Flunoy

Flunoy has lived in Phoenix for 35 years and has been working as a public transportation advocate in the city for almost as long.

He declined to provide his age to the Republic.

He said while he has not previously held an elected position, he has been actively engaged in politics as he fought in support for the light rail for the last 20 years as an employee at Valley Metro.

He’s also on the Laveen Village Planning Committee, a member of the African American Advisory Council for Gallego’s office, and vice president of his homeowner’s association, among other community roles.

Flunoy said he wanted to get involved to be part of the solution. His top priority is addressing public safety issues and helping find a way for the community to work with police and with one another to make their neighborhoods safer. 

“It can’t be us vs. them,” he said. “We need to have more respect and trust for one another.”

He said he stands out from other candidates because he has worked with every part of his district as a transportation official, and knows their different needs and how to represent them.

Susan Mercado-Gudino

Mercado-Gudino, 43, has lived in Phoenix and her district for more than 40 years.

She says she is a lifelong Democrat that votes not based on political affiliation but based on who someone is and “how much I agree with what they stand for.”

Mercado-Gudino said she is running to be a stronger voice for her community. She said she didn’t even know she had a council member until the plans for the South Central Light Rail expansion came around.

She wanted to stop the expansion and said that Nowakowski didn’t listen to the community’s concerns.

“Living here in the district, no one has ever fought for us,” she said.

The light rail is why she got involved, she said, but she cares about many other issues including public safety, such as making city streets safer.

She said she stands out from her competitors because she is able to work well with all different personalities and she isn’t there to climb the political ladder.

Francisca Montoya

Montoya, 62, has lived in Phoenix since she was five years old.

She has served on the Fowler Elementary School Governing Board for the past 10 years and is currently president. She also serves on the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission. Previously, she was chief of staff in District 7.

She is the director of strategic community initiatives for the Raza Development Fund.

Montoya said she wants to increase affordable housing in the district, bring high-wage jobs and development near the new freeway, help small businesses navigate the pandemic and ensure that city streets are safe.

She also wants to see more police accountability, saying the city needs to demilitarize its police and do more community policing.

“Something is wrong when people want to exercise their First Amendment rights and they are confronted with a police force that looks like they are going to war,” she said.

Montoya says she is a proven leader in her district and wants to give residents a voice.

“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves,” she said.

Reporters Jessica Boehm and Megan Taros contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 602-444-8763. Follow her on Twitter @JenAFifield

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