The Arizona primary election will be held on August 30, 2016. Reproductive health care access has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive justice. To acquaint you with our endorsed candidates, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” In order to vote in the primary election, you need to have been registered to vote by August 1. Missed the deadline? You can still register online for November’s general election. Make your voice heard in 2016!
[G]inny Dickey is running as a write-in candidate for mayor of Fountain Hills, a town of about 22,000 people in Maricopa County, east of Scottsdale and bordering the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.
Ms. Dickey, one of five siblings who grew up in New York’s Hudson Valley, moved to Fountain Hills in 1983, following her parents, who relocated in the late 1970s. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Tufts University.
Ms. Dickey jumped into the race challenging Mayor Linda M. Kavanagh for several reasons, including that Mayor Kavanagh would be running unopposed for the third time.
The Fountain Hills mayoral election will be decided on August 30 — not in November.
“There was a definite discontent overall that the mayor would once again be unopposed,” Ms. Dickey told us in an email. “We opened a $500 threshold campaign committee on June 28 so we could do a poll, which came back that we could possibly be successful, so we opened up the full campaign committee on July 11,” 10 days before the write-in deadline.
“The reaction was very encouraging and positive. No matter the result, this has been such a joy and privilege to offer up a choice,” wrote Ms. Dickey.
Much of her time is spent “making sure people know I am a candidate, then on how to actually vote for me,” Ms. Dickey wrote. “The legislative mandate that cities must hold elections in the fall of even years has disenfranchised Independent voters and turned our local elections into partisan affairs.
“Forcing our high number of Independent early voters to select which ballot they want decreases turnout for them. But we are getting the word out on several fronts, and hopefully the mantra, ‘Write-in Ginny Dickey for Mayor and connect the arrow,’ is permeating our electorate.”
Whoever receives the majority of the votes on the August 30 mayoral election in Fountain Hills will be declared the winner, and will not run in November’s general election — meaning that this citywide race will be decided next week, not later this year. Continue reading