Lane with narrow lead in Scottsdale mayor race

The Scottsdale mayor’s race is headed toward another nail-biting finish, with Scottsdale Councilman Jim Lane clinging to a narrow lead over Mayor Mary Manross, according to unofficial results.

As was the case two months ago between the two rivals, Manross is trailing Wednesday but has no plans to concede with the race so tight.

Lane has led since the first early ballot totals were released Tuesday night and led by 592 votes with 96 percent of the precincts reporting. Results from three precincts had not yet been released.

Lane said the results show a division in the city, with some wanting to continue with Manross but a larger number believing in his approach to governing the city.

“This has been said many times, but there’s a dissatisfaction with some core elements of how the city operates and that helped me get where I’m at right now,” Lane said.

Lane led in early voting totals. But as the precinct numbers filtered in, Manross sliced away at the lead.

An unknown number of early and provisional ballots have not been counted. Final results may not be known until later this week or next week.

“We’ll have to wait and see for a couple more days,” Manross said. “I’m going to go back to work tomorrow.”

In September, Lane finished with 365 more votes than Manross in the first match-up between the two, but did not receive a majority of ballots cast to clinch the seat.

The hard-fought council race  featured an incumbent mayor in Manross, a former volunteer marriage preparation counselor, who has spent the past eight years as mayor and a total of 16 years on the City Council.

Lane, an accountant, is a first-term councilman who announced in January he would be challenging Manross rather than running for a second council term.

The campaign themes were developed early on and stayed true to form through the Sept. 2 election, with some changes in the last two months leading up to Tuesday’s election.

Manross ran on the platform that Scottsdale was doing well. There was a downtown boom over the past few years, crime rates and property tax rates had declined, and SkySong, strongly backed by the mayor, was poised to bring thousands of high-tech jobs to south Scottsdale and revitalize the area.

Manross had the endorsements of prominent individuals and organizations, from the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce and Coalition of Pinnacle Peak, to Republican State Sen. Carolyn Allen, Art DeCabooter, past president of Scottsdale Community College, and former county supervisor and city councilman Jim Bruner. That support became a major part of her ad campaign.

Lane, meanwhile, countered by attacking the mayor on a number of fronts, pointing to a closed city government, exposing lawsuits the city had lost, and calling for greater fiscal responsibility. His endorsement list was far shorter. And while he spent more money than Manross, he had to loan himself $32,000 to keep pace with the incumbent.

But after the Sept. 2 result, the councilman decided to run a campaign highlighting what he would do, rather than just highlighting his perceived flaws of the mayor. As Scottsdale announced it faced up to a $35 million shortfall, Lane hoped to capitalize by reminding voters of his business experience and his vote against the 2007-08 budget that included up to 11 percent raises for city employees. Lane also picked up the endorsements of Republican Congressmen John Shadegg and Jeff Flake.

Manross, meanwhile, sent out ads attacking Lane’s votes rather than just relying on endorsements and positive images of Scottsdale after chalking up her loss in September to partisan politics.

Throughout the campaign, there was the underlying reality that the change in election dates from March and May to September and November would bring partisan politics into the non-partisan race. Manross is a Democrat and Lane is a Republican in a city with roughly a 2-to-1 registration advantage for the Republicans, although their party affiliations did not appear on the ballot. Neither candidate would use party politics in public appearances or press releases, but there were subtle messages.

Manross made special note of Sen. Allen’s endorsement. While she never said Allen was a Republican, it was meant to show that a popular Republican incumbent from Scottsdale supported her. Lane, meanwhile, didn’t mention that Shadegg and Flake were Republicans in his press release, but it was obvious his intent was to appeal to the conservative electorate in Scottsdale.