3 candidates vie to become Paradise Valley mayor. What to know

Paradise Valley voters will choose a new mayor in the July 30 election who will lead the town on key policy issues from short-term rentals to water conservation over at least the next two years.

The three candidates vying for the town’s top role are all known quantities in the local political scene. They include:

• Mary Hamway, 69, who served as a Paradise Valley Town Council member and vice mayor from 2004 to 2012, and again from 2014 to 2017. She unsuccessfully ran for the District 28 Republican seat in the Arizona House of Representatives in 2014 and 2016. She also worked in the information technology field for two decades.

• Mark Stanton, 60, serves as vice mayor and is in his third term as a councilmember. Professionally, he founded his own communications firm and is the president and CEO of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce.

• Anna Thomasson, 65, is a Town Council member who has been serving in that role since 2019. She had a 35-year career in corporate finance and human resources, consulting Fortune 500 companies.

Arizona elections: Read our full coverage of the Paradise Valley mayor’s race

Regardless of who comes out on top, Paradise Valley is guaranteed to get a new mayor this cycle because Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner decided not to seek election after serving three terms in that role.

All three mayoral hopefuls laid out their agenda in response to The Arizona Republic's questionnaire.

Early voting began July 3. Voters can check on the status of their mailed-in ballot on Maricopa County’s website at https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/voter-dashboard-login. Those who choose to vote by mail are advised to mail their ballot by July 23 or drop it off at a ballot drop-off location or voting location by July 30.

What should residents expect from each Paradise Valley mayoral candidate?

Similar to Paradise Valley’s Town Council race, the mayoral candidates don’t have significant differences in their platforms or visions for the town’s future.

Every candidate said they oppose creating property taxes in the town and lists public safety as a top priority and has said the plan to continue keeping the police department fully funded.

They have all referenced maintaining the town’s “limited government” model, as well as preserving the town’s “open spaces” and opposing any development that may create excess density.

“Paradise Valley is a low-density residential community founded on limited government, offering high-quality customer service for residents, surrounded by world-class resorts and unparalleled natural beauty,” Stanton said. “I am committed to maintaining that low density, limited government model.”

All of the candidates support the town’s efforts to limit short-term rentals. Stanton and Thommasson criticized the Arizona Legislature for limiting local regulatory control of that industry, indicating they believe the town needs to push for more legislative changes.

“Being able to monitor short term rentals is a good start, but I believe communities should be able to regulate them in a way that suits their communities,” Thomasson said. “The state should not take away local authority from municipalities.”

Hamway was the only candidate to discuss changing council rules about how an item gets placed on the agenda. She wants to reduce the current threshold of needing four members to approve discussion of an item, saying a simple discussion shouldn’t need a “quorum.”

She also said increasing town staffing levels and transparency are top priorities for her.

“In the last year, our town staff has seen an unprecedented amount of turnover, and the institutional knowledge at the staff level is at an all-time low,” Hamway said.

“I am running for mayor to rebuild that loss at the staff level, to rebuild the trust between council members, and to find new ways to engage with our residents.”

Who is supporting each Paradise Valley candidate?

Thomasson is the fundraising outlier on the mayoral ticket. Her campaign has raised more than $25,000, roughly $19,000 of which came from in-state contributions. The vast majority of her donors are retirees.

Another $1,200 of Thomasson’s campaign cash came from out of state, and she loaned herself $5,000.

Thomasson website says she’s been officially backed by former Paradise Valley Mayor Ed Winkler, a handful of regular residents and two members of the town’s short-term rental citizen group — S.L. Scanlan and Tim Dickman.

Hamway also received an endorsement from a former Paradise Valley mayor — Scott LeMarr. Her campaign website lists former Graham County Supervisor Jim Palmer and a few town residents as other endorsements.

Hamway’s campaign has raised the second largest amount, at roughly $8,000. About $5,000 came from a loan she gave herself and $3,000 came from in-state donors, nearly all of whom are retirees.

Stanton has about $2,000 that he carried over from a previous campaign committee. He doesn’t list supporters on his website, but he has been endorsed by Town Councilmember Ellen Andeen and multiple town residents who have written into smaller papers like The Independent.

What happens to Thomasson’s council seat?

As far as local elections in the East Valley go, it’s rare for two sitting council members to launch a bid for mayor while still holding their lower office.

Stanton’s bid is less unusual because his council term expires this year, so he would have had to run for reelection anyways in order to retain that seat. But Thomasson’s council term doesn’t end until 2026.

Officials in her position don’t often run for mayor because Arizona law typically requires them to resign from the council before doing so.

But Paradise Valley is different because the Town Council members don’t get paid, which exempts them from the state law that mandates their resignation.

That means if Thomasson loses, she’ll just retain her role on the Town Council until her term expires, after which she can either run for re-election or launch a bid for mayor again.

If she wins, the Town Council would appoint someone to serve out the rest of Thommason’s council term, rather than holding another election.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSamor reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Paradise Valley mayoral election 2024: Meet the candidates