10 running for San Luis council
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Ten candidates, including two former mayors of San Luis and two ex-city councilmen, are among 10 candidates for council seats in the city's primary election.
Jose Suarez and Gloria Torres, whose council terms expire in 2012, are seeking re-election.
Among those who filed nominating petitions as candidates by this week's deadline were former mayors Nieves Riedel and Joe Harper and ex-councilmen Archibaldo Gurrola and Marco Antonio Reyes Jr.
Also filing is Alejandrina Cabrera, who launched two unsuccessful campaigns to recall San Luis Mayor Juan Carlos Escamilla this year.
Others who filed to run in the March primary are Ricardo Salazar, Matias Rosales and Maria Ramos.
Incumbent councilmen not seeking re-election are Mario Buchanan Jr. and Geraldo Sanchez.
Voters will choose three of the candidates to fill four-year council terms, plus one to finish the remaining two years on the term of Rafael Torres, who was forced by state law to step down last summer after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing government operations.
Gloria Torres, Torres' mother, was named by the council to fill her son's term until the 2012 election. But rather than seeking to finish the remain two years of the term, she plans to seek one of three four-year terms.
Running to finish the two-year term are Harper, Riedel and Reyes.
Harper had served seven years as San Luis mayor before being unseated in a recall election in 2003.
Riedel lost her mayoral seat to Escamilla in 2006, then lost against him in her bid to reclaim it in 2010. Harper worked for Escamilla's re-election campaign in 2010.
Reyes and Gurrola, both elected to the council in 2006, lost their seats in 2010.
Gurrola and Torres are running against Salazar, Cabrera, Rosales and Ramos for the four-year terms.
Seventeen candidates originally took out nominating petitions to run for the council, 10 of which returned them to the city clerk's office with signatures by Wednesday's deadline.
While time has run out for would-be candidates who want to appear on the ballot, they can still file to run as write-in candidates, City Clerk Sonia Cuello said.
Any candidate in the March primary who captures more than half the vote cast in a race will automatically win a seat. Remaining candidates will compete for the other seats in a runoff in the general election in May.
