Mary Manross is an American politician who served as the 10th Mayor of Scottsdale, Arizona. First elected in June 2000 until September of 2009, she served two terms and lost her campaign for a third term as mayor in the November 2008 runoff mayoral election to her opponent, former

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

and businessman and former

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

man Jim Lane.

Education

Manross earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

and a teaching credential from

Minot State University Minot State University (MSU or MiSU) is a public university in Minot, North Dakota, United States. Founded in 1913 as a normal school, MSU evolved into a university in 1987 and is currently the state's third-largest, offering undergraduate and ...

Career

Before her election as councilwoman, Manross served on several city government commissions and in leadership positions for local charitable organizations, as well as being

campaign manager A campaign manager, campaign chairperson, or campaign director is an individual whose role is to coordinate a political campaign's spending, broad tactics, and hiring. They lead operations such as Campaign finance, fundraising, advertising, Opi ...

for Mayor Herb Drinkwater's 1984 and 1988 mayoral campaigns. Manross served four terms on the Scottsdale city council from 1992 to 2000. Although the election and office of the mayor of Scottsdale is

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

, Manross is a registered Democrat. Manross was endorsed by both the Democratic

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic administrator. She served as president of the University of California from 2013 to 2020, on the faculty at the Goldman School of Public Policy at t ...

and the Republican

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

, and the Scottsdale Area

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

as well as the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

. Prior to the challenge from Jim Lane, her party affiliation was not an impediment in the conservative, largely Republican city of Scottsdale. As mayor, Manross was instrumental in leading the city council to approve workplace protections for

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

employees. State-mandated changes in the election calendar which moved the traditional spring city election to align with fall federal and state elections brought more partisan voters into play in the 2008 election. Manross lost to Republican Jim Lane by less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the vote.

Election history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manross, Mary Living people Mayors of places in Arizona Politicians from Scottsdale, Arizona University of California, Los Angeles alumni Minot State University alumni Women city councillors in Arizona Arizona Democrats Arizona city council members Women mayors of places in Arizona Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century mayors of places in Arizona 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century mayors of places in Arizona