Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.
Today, May 16, 2023, Jamie Aldama announced his run for mayor of Glendale. He joins incumbent Mayor Jerry Weiers and another wanna-be, Paul Boyer making it a three-way contest.
I am not running again for the Yucca district council seat. More on who I will endorse later. When I complete this term in 2024, I will have served twenty-four years as a Glendale councilmember, off and on since 1992. I served from 1992-1996; then from 2000 -2012; and then again from 2016 to the present. Not running again allows me to speak my mind (more than I usually do!) about current Glendale politics and issues.
I will be blogging a lot about this upcoming election but for today, let’s review some history about Aldama’s previous runs for office. He was first elected in 2014, 9 years ago. In that election he literally squeaked by the incumbent, Councilmember Norma Alvarez. He collected 1,221 votes and Alvarez had 1202 votes. Aldama won by 19 votes.
Aldama ran for his second term in 2018, against Emmanuel Allen and garnered 1,299 votes against Allen’s 784. He increased his vote total by 78 votes in four years. His third run in 2022 was uncontested and Aldama picked up 1,788 votes. However, Bart Turner ran uncontested in the Barrell district and earned 5,152 votes and Lauren Tolmachoff ran uncontested in the Cholla district and garnered 8,380 votes.
There are about 12,000 registered voters in the Ocotillo district. Approximately 15% of the district’s registered voters voted for Aldama. Turner came in with 25% of the approximately 20,000 registered voters in his district. Lauren Tolmachoff earned 33% of the approximately 25,000 voters in the Cholla district. Aldama doesn’t seem to have an impressive track record when one is ambitious enough to run for Mayor of all of Glendale.
In the Glendale Independent newspaper, Aldama is quoted as saying, “He says he has had his sights set on running for mayor for a while. ‘The plan to run for mayor has been in place since the inception of running (for councilmember in 2014) but really took hold about three years ago,’ he said. ‘It really took hold after my 2018 election where the division among the council was at its worst.’
It’s certainly no surprise to me. I always assumed that he would run for mayor. What is surprising is that he reneged on his pledge to Mayor Weiers that he would not be running against him.
Aldama has always impressed me as being calculating because of his mayoral ambitions and it has been demonstrated time and time again in his votes and the issues for which he chooses to advocate. They seem to be calculated to curry favor.
In his Glendale Independent announcement, he also stated that he was running “on a platform of uniting a leadership team on city council he calls ‘divided.’” The characterization of this city council may be perceived as correct but he fails to acknowledge that he along with 2 other councilmembers have created that division. Four of us, Mayor Weiers, Councilmembers Hugh, Malnar and I, as a majority, have voted time and time again to create a strong, healthy and vibrant community while Aldama, Turner and Tolmachoff have shown varying degrees of support.
There will be more to share in upcoming blogs on all kinds of political doings including those I mention in this blog. So, stay tuned. More is coming…a lot more…
© Joyce Clark, 2023
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