Runners up:
2. Kathleen Dunbar3. Raul Grijalva
Best Public Servant
Bob Walkup
Readers Pick
Bob Walkup
Bob Walkup
Personable and optimistic, Mayor Robert E. Walkup's ability to appear an honest, "regular guy" at a time when everybody thinks politicians are lying weasels gives him the vote. Far from being the typical stoic, bureaucracy-riddled circus-act hack we love to hate, Walkup is less a politician then he is a citizen--probably because he is a newcomer to politics. A onetime aerospace executive, Walkup's first campaign in 1999 as a Republican was against pro-Democratic odds in Tucson, and he won--becoming the first Republican mayor since 1987. Tucsonans love underdogs, no matter what the political persuasion.
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