READERS' PICK: For the first time in a dozen years, the Democrats lost the
mayoral race to smooth-talking Republican Bob Walkup. The neighborhood forces thought they'd found their ultimate champion in former Councilwoman Molly McKasson, but an ill-conceived water proposition and a nasty negative attack from an independent campaign committee combined to destroy the candidate after she managed to win the primary. Now Walkup is mayor, a mammoth Home Depot is under construction at El Con, and CAP water will soon be flowing through our taps. Ah, Progress!
READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: CAP Water, see Best Community Battle Runner-up, page 42.
LOOSE CHANGE: Vigilante Ranchers. If you kept an eye open for news this year, you most likely remember the dramatic scenes of ranch owners south of Tucson holding newly arrived Mexicans at gunpoint for trespassing. This caused some Tucsonans to put down their remote controls and pick up their felt-tip pens and construction paper and hit the streets. Definitely a hot-button issue, one that will not be going away any time soon.
