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Joyce Clark Unfiltered

For "the rest of the story"

The 2014 Glendale Primary Election is now history and as expected there will be runoffs in all three Council districts – Cholla, Barrel and Ocotillo. How did the candidates fare?

In Cholla District the vote totals were:

  • Lauren Tolmachoff                    1,751
  • Gary Deardorff                         1,428
  • Robert Petrone                            531
  • Van DiCarlo                                400

Congratulations to Gary Deardorff and Lauren Tolmachoff who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. I will confess to being somewhat of a numbers nerd. Let’s dig a little deeper into the Cholla District.

  • Total number of Early Votes Cast                 3,467
  • Total number of Poll Votes Cast                      643
  • Total number of Votes Cast                         4,110
  • Total number of Registered Voters              20,549

Lauren Tolmachoff garnered 8.5% of the total number of registered voters in the Cholla district. Twenty percent (20%) or 4, 110 of all the Cholla district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the candidate field took even smaller percentages of all the voters in this district.

Let’s look at the Barrel District:

  • Bart Turner                                862
  • Randy Miller                               831
  • Reginald Martinez                       660
  • Michael Patino                            439
  • John Benjamin                           263

Congratulations to Bart Turner and Randy Miller who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. Here’s how the numbers shake out for the Barrel district.

  • Total number of Early Votes Cast                2,443
  • Total number of Poll Votes Cast                     612
  • Total number of Votes Cast                        3,055
  • Total number of Registered Voters            16,457

Bart Turner captured 5% of the total number of registered voters in the Barrel district. Eighteen percent (18%) or 3,055 of all the Barrel district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the field took smaller percentages of all of the voters in this district.

Lastly, there is the Ocotillo District:

  • Norma Alvarez                        503
  • Jamie Aldama                         406
  • Bud Zomok                             225
  • Michael Hernandez                  158

Congratulations to Norma Alvarez and Jamie Aldama who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. Here are the numbers for the Ocotillo district.

  • Total number of Early Votes Cast                    1,031
  • Total number of Poll Votes Cast                         261
  • Total number of Votes Cast                            1,292
  • Total number of Registered Voters                  8,619

Norma Alvarez took 5% of the total number of registered voters in the Ocotillo district. Nine percent (9%) of all the Ocotillo district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the field took smaller percentages of all of the voters in this district.

These figures should be dismaying and disappointing. There are 45,625 registered voters in these three districts. Out of that number a total of 8,457 voted. That’s 18% of all of the registered voters in these districts. 82% of the electorate were so disengaged or didn’t care enough to vote.

There you have it. Voter choices will be among: an incumbent – Alvarez; community activists – Turner and Aldama; and 3 business people – Miller, Deardorff and Tolmachoff. Let’s hope, although do not count on it, that the voter turnout is better than during the primary. The primary vote totals are scary. It is not just your right to vote. It is your obligation. There are many people throughout the world who wish they had the very right so many callously squander. Remember, dear voter, you get what you vote (or don’t bother to vote) for.

© Joyce Clark, 2014

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I votedThis Tuesday, August 26, 2014 voters will go to the polls and vote for the candidates of their choice. If you don’t vote then you are part of the problem and have lost the right to complain about your representative. Glendale’s three district elections are quite important and could determine Glendale’s future for many years to come.

Let’s focus on the Ocotillo district for a moment. Choices are current Councilmember Norma Alvarez; a more polished and slicker version of Alvarez, Jamie Aldama; Michael Hernandez, nearly invisible; and Bud Zomok.

On August 13, 2014 I received a voice message from Councilmember Alvarez. In the space of 62 seconds she managed to call me a liar three times, reminded me I am only an ex-councilmember and then invited me to a verbal duel, of sorts. She suggested we meet and bring “seconds” as witnesses or perhaps the purpose of the “second” would be to drag one of our mangled bodies off the field of verbal combat. As I have said before, one of my favorite sayings is, I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.

Ocotillo residents need a strong, sane voice of reasonable representation. Two candidates, Alvarez and Aldama, seem to have their own agendas that are often not in sync with ALL of the residents of the Ocotillo district. For that reason and many more, I urge Ocotillo voters to select Bud Zomok.

Please note there are two picks for the Cholla district and the Sahuaro district. As stated previously, with so many candidates in each district, it is not anticipated that any candidate will capture 50% plus 1 in the Primary Election this Tuesday. This blog’s picks for the three districts are as follows:

Cholla District

  • Van DiCarlo
  • Lauren Tolmachoff

Barrel District

  • Randy Miller
  • Bart Turner

Ocotillo District

  • Bud Zomok

Good luck to all of the candidates who put themselves before the public.

© Joyce Clark, 2014

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.