Gilbert Beat

Gilbert Town Councilman Don Skousen said Wednesday he has turned nominating petitions with 466 signatures in to the Town Clerk’s office to lock in his run for mayor, setting the stage for a much-anticipated three-way race between sitting or former council members in the March primary.

Mayor Steve Berman and former Councilman Dave Petersen turned in around 600 signatures each last week in order to get onto the ballot. It takes 240 valid signatures to qualify.

Both Skousen and Berman are finishing up their second terms in their current offices, with Skousen deciding this summer to challenge Berman for the job after previously saying he would retire from politics.  Petersen served one term on the council, before he was defeated by Councilwoman Joan Krueger in 2005.

At least three more men have formed political committees to support a mayoral candidacy and could make the ballot if they turn enough signatures in by the Dec. 10 deadline: Eric Hurley, a GoDaddy service representative and college student; Adam Turner, senior manager of business development with the Arizona Cardinals; and recent entrant John Lewis, director of information technology for the Apollo Group.

No potential candidates for the two available Town Council seats had turned signatures in as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman and former Councilman Dave Petersen filed nominating petitions with the Town Clerk’s office Monday to run for mayor in next spring’s town elections. Candidates wanting to run for mayor or the two open council seats have a one-month window, which began Monday, to turn in at least 240 valid signatures to qualify them for the ballot.

Town Clerk Cathy Templeton said both men turned in more than the minimum number of required signatures, but did not know their exact totals. At least 13 Gilbert residents have formed political committees backing a run for mayor or Town Council, but Templeton said we shouldn’t expect additional candidates to come flooding in just yet: “Most of them will come in the last week.”

Petersen, who served one term on the council before being defeated by Councilwoman Joan Krueger four years ago, said he turned in more than 600 signatures, collected by about 15 volunteer circulators. “People were lining up to sign them,” he said.

A fiscal conservative and member of the John Birch Society, Petersen said he thinks he’s gotten support from a fairly broad cross-section of petition signers. “I’d say about half the people I talked know me and are familiar with what I’m about, and 40 percent want Berman out and 10 percent were oblivious to what’s going on in town,” he said.

Berman could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Mayoral and council races which are not decided by a majority of the vote in the March 10 primary will go on to the May 19 general election for a runoff. According to a town report, Gilbert now has 96,629 registered voters, including 15,000 who have signed up since November 2007 and 30,000 who are on the permanent early voting list. These factors are expected to boost the cost of the election beyond the $240,000 that has been budgeted, the report said.