Skousen to join race for Gilbert mayor

Two-term Gilbert Town Councilman Don Skousen said Friday he is running for mayor. “I just decided that the people need to have a choice in who they’re going to pick for mayor, and it looks like they’re going to,” he said.

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Skousen said he would officially announce his challenge of incumbent Mayor Steve Berman on Monday.

The two-term councilman has been facing pressure to run against Berman in the March primary ever since he announced he wouldn’t run for re-election to the council.

Vice Mayor Joan Krueger said she was among those who asked Skousen to run for mayor.

“We were more or less convinced that this was something he should give a lot of consideration, and we didn’t relent,” she said.

Skousen, 73, said he understands that some people might question his decision to run after insisting a few months ago he was ready to retire, ride his motorcycles and spend more time with family.

“That was my point of view until a little over a week ago, but then a few people on the council and a few other people came to me and said, 'You need to run,’” he said.

“They just convinced me that someone needs to run, somebody who has some kind of knowledge about what’s going on here versus somebody who as far as we know may never have been to a council meeting.”

One of three others who have formed mayoral campaign committees has obviously been to a council meeting, former councilman David Petersen.

The other two forming committees are Cable Shopping Network manager Kevin Adams and GoDaddy customer service representative Eric Hurley.

Petersen served one term on the council before being defeated by Krueger in 2005, and said he’s never seen this many people run for mayor before.

“One of the big things that all these people running for mayor shows us is the great dissatisfaction with our current mayor,” Petersen said.

Berman is finishing up his second elected term as mayor. He pulled papers to run for a third term next spring as soon the day the Town Clerk’s Office made them available in September.

A string of controversies surrounding his personal and public lives has left him with few political allies.

Berman, 61, said Friday he’s confident he can run on a record of growth in population, jobs and retail choices in town over the last eight years.

“None of the bad publicity I’ve had has had anything to do with what I’ve done in office, and people will say, 'What about Big League Dreams?’” he said. “But guess what? Big League Dreams was the whole council.”

In front of a TV crew at the park’s opening last January, Berman became notoriously defensive about the costs of building the Big League Dreams ballpark.

His wife has accused him of abusive behavior and filed an order of protection against him in July.

In August, he came under fire for submitting a letter asking for leniency in the sentencing of a man convicted of killing a Tempe teenager while driving drunk, something he now calls “a colossal mistake” and for which he has issued an apology.

“I’ve had a lot of bad publicity, and a lot of people think I’m going to be a soft target. But I’m not going to be a soft target,” Berman said.

Krueger said Berman also has a lot of institutional knowledge from his years spent on the council, but cited Skousen’s varied background.

Starting in 1957, Skousen taught political science and justice studies at Mesa Community College and has been a town judge, justice of the peace, assistant and interim city manager, police officer and school board member, among other posts.

“He has the statesmanship, and the resume and the knowledge and leadership to guide us through what I think will be some difficult times ahead, for all municipalities,” Krueger said.

Skousen said he probably won’t start campaigning until the end of this year or the beginning of next, and didn’t want to outline a detailed platform before then.

One topic he’s been vocal about in recent council meetings is housing density as more small-lot, town home and apartment projects come before the council for approval.

“I don’t think I would emphasize that, but I am concerned about too much density and overcrowding,” he said. “I think the mayor has pretty much the same thinking as I do on that.”

Skousen’s extensive record will certainly be a target for opponents running on a platform of changing the direction of the town.

Adams, 50, with whom Skousen plans to meet on Monday, said, “You’ve got to look at it in the sense that Don Skousen has been kind of with everything that has been happening here, and does the town want a change candidate or does the town want someone in office who has been part of everything.”

He added, “Out of the whole slate running, I think Don is a really good guy and if I had to support somebody it would probably be Don.”

Hurley said Skousen’s entry into the race won’t affect his approach very much.

“It really doesn’t make a difference because he’s part of the problem we have in Gilbert, the disconnect from all of our representation,” Hurley said.

The 21-year-old said he would simply continue to spread his message that Gilbert needs leadership more responsive to their needs.

“I’m younger than these other guys, so I’m just going to out-campaign them,” he said.

Berman said he will be collecting his own signatures this weekend at the Southeast Regional Library, and “you’ll be surprised by who’s there helping me.”

Petersen, who characterized himself as favoring lower taxes and less government than Skousen during their years on the council, said, “We’re going to keep this going for a while. This is going to be going on until March, and probably into June.”