A few hours ago, I got an email from Ed Montini, a political writer for the Arizona Republic, a regional newspaper based in Phoenix.
It comes as no surprise that a city of 1.5 million, better than 75 percent of whom are white, can sustain some form of a Republican Party.
Date: Tue 12 Jun 17:02:51 EDT 2007
Mr. Wink,Unlike the rest of the state, Phoenix elections are held on a “nonpartisan” basis, though everyone knows the party affiliations of everyone else. Kind of a don’t ask, don’t tell election.
Anyway, the last mayor who was Republican was Skip Rimsza, who served from ’94 until ’03, as I remember. The Republican mayor before that would have been Margaret Hance.
I’d guess you could Google Rimsza and get what you needed.
Best,
Ed Montini
It seems likely that the demographics of Philadelphia, 1.5 million and nearly 45 percent black, play into the struggles of the city’s Republican Party. For my paper, I will have to find academic evidence for it, but, of all racial or ethnic groups, it seems blacks are least likely to sway to the GOP, perhaps based on their long ancestral battle for political rights and finding it, most recently, with the Democrats.