Scottsdale mayor’s race heads to Nov. 4 runoff

Scottsdale mayoral candidate Jim Lane said Monday he will not file legal action to claim he won the majority of votes in last week's election and will proceed to a runoff with Mayor Mary Manross.

Partisan vote seen for Lane's lead for mayor

Lane's lead grows, but short of majority

Lane extends lead in Scottsdale mayors race

Lane pursues action to avoid runoff with Manross

Scottsdale mayoral race very tight

Lane, who has maintained a small lead since election night, announced the day after the Sept. 2 election that he would challenge the "undervotes," or the ballots that did not cast a vote for mayor, with hope of clinching the seat outright.

The final unofficial results released over the weekend shows Lane, a city councilman, finished with 367 more votes than Manross.

When counting only those who voted for Lane, Manross or a write-in candidate, Lane received the majority needed to clinch a seat outright. But factoring in the 1,014 ballots with no vote for mayor - which the city charter says should be included - Lane drops below the needed 50 percent.

Lane finished with 17,463 votes, while Manross had 17,096 votes.

Lane decided over the weekend not to pursue legal action, which would have proceeded concurrently with the runoff. Early voting begins in less than a month.

"It would be a distraction all the way around - time, effort and money," Lane said. "I need to get on with the election and look to be 're-elected.' "

Lane, the challenger, used the term "re-elected" a few times during an interview with the Tribune, alluding to the fact that he finished with more votes in what was essentially a head-to-head runoff. The only difference in November will be the lack of write-in candidate Bill Crawford. Write-ins, presumably Crawford, received 178 votes.

Manross fired back at Lane for using the term "re-elected."

"That's pretty funny. I think he's delusional," Manross said. "He hasn't been elected to anything."

Manross criticized Lane last week for considering legal action, saying he should not try to change the rules in the middle of the election.

Scottsdale political consultant Jason Rose, who did not work on either campaign, said Manross now has the advantage because the Nov. 4 election will be a larger and more moderate electorate, less dominated by Republicans and "anti-City Hall" voters.

"It will be triple what the votes were on Sept. 2 and that will favor the incumbent because neither one has much money to communicate with that many voters," Rose said.

According to the latest campaign finance filings, Manross had $10,535 in cash as of Aug. 13, but she did run a number of newspaper ads in the days leading up to the election. The same report showed Lane had $3,288 cash on hand, however, Lane made a filing Aug. 23 saying he had loaned himself a total of $32,250 for the campaign.

On the City Council side, the order of finishers remained unchanged from election night.

The unofficial final results show the incumbents, Councilman Ron McCullagh and Councilwoman Betty Drake, finished first and second, respectively. They were followed by Suzanne Klapp, Lisa Borowsky, Nan Nesvig, Tom Giller, Joel Bramoweth and Oren Davis.

It's unlikely any of the council candidates have enough votes to clinch a seat outright - final ballot tallies are to be released Thursday - so the top six finishers appear headed to the Nov. 4 runoff to compete for three seats.

Bramoweth and Davis do not advance.

To avoid a runoff, a candidate needed more than 50 percent of the ballots cast.