Harry Mitchell
Born and raised in Tempe, Mitchell earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Arizona State University in 1962. He later earned a master's degree in public administration from ASU in 1980. In 1964, he began teaching American Government and Free Enterprise at Tempe High School, which he had attended and graduated from not long before. The part-time nature of Tempe's City Council allowed Mitchell to continue teaching, and he did so for twenty-eight years, retiring in 1992.
Mitchell and his wife, Marianne, have been married for over forty years. They have two children, one of whom, Mark Mitchell, currently serves as Vice Mayor of Tempe. Other politically-active members of the his family have included Harry Mitchell's brother, Robert Mitchell, who served as mayor and council member of Casa Grande, Arizona, and his grandfather W.W. Mitchell, who served as a state legislator.
[edit] Elected official
In 1970, Harry Mitchell sought and won a seat on the elected-at-large Tempe City Council. Re-elected in 1974, Mitchell then sought the office of Mayor of Tempe in 1980, gaining a majority of votes cast in the primary and avoiding a runoff. He went on to win every subsequent election for Mayor in landslides until his retirement in 1994. A large statue of Mitchell stands just off Mill Avenue, next to City Hall and the other buildings comprising the Harry E. Mitchell Municipal Complex.
Mitchell's work as Mayor is often credited with revitalizing downtown Tempe, and building partnerships between small businesses, communities, corporations, investors, and Arizona State University to manage sustainable economic development and urban growth.
After retiring in 1994, Mitchell sought the Arizona Democratic Party's nomination for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, a constitutionally-mandated statewide-elected official charged with the management of Arizona's public schools. Mitchell narrowly lost in the primary--he attributes his only election loss to his inexperience in partisan races--and his opponent went on to lose the general election.
Four years later, however, Mitchell sought and won a seat in the Arizona Senate, representing Tempe and parts of southern Scottsdale. Even though his district was considered a "swing" district, Mitchell managed to win with clear majorities in each successive election. He has run under Arizona's Clean Elections law each legislative race which provides public financing to state-wide and legislative candidates as long as the candidates abide to certain restrictions and qualifications.
Facing term limits, Mitchell ran his last campaign for Arizona Senate in 2004. One year later, with the 2006 midterm elections approaching, Mitchell ran unopposed for chair of the Arizona Democratic Party after chairman Jim Pederson stepped down to run for the United States Senate. He was elected on August 20, 2005.
Mitchell oversaw much of the early ground work as the Arizona Democratic Party prepared for state-wide elections on November 7, 2006. He was instrumental in recapturing the Tucson city council from years of Republican control on February 1, 2006.
[edit] 2006 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives
Mitchell was head of the Arizona Democratic Party when a poll, sponsored by the Arizona Democratic Party and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was leaked; the poll showed Republican J. D. Hayworth would be in a tight race against any of a handful of Democratic opponents; the district was rated "Toss-Up" by the Cook Political Report. Mitchell was pressured by several Arizona politicians and Representative Rahm Emmanuel, then head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to enter the race against Hayworth.
Mitchell stepped down as the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party on April 7, 2006. He entered the race on April 10, 2006. He raised a total of $213,209 for his campaign in less than two weeks.
By of the end of June 2006, Mitchell had nearly $700,000 on hand. An October 16 SurveyUSA poll showed Hayworth leading Mitchell by only 48% to 45%. On October 27, 2006, the Arizona Republic departed from its tradition of endorsing Hayworth, and instead endorsed Mitchell. The polls demonstrated a slow, but deliberate, growth in the strength of Mitchell's popularity over the next few weeks.
On the evening of November 7th, election day, most major news media declared Mitchell the winner of the Congressional race, as the state poll numbers demonstrated a clear victory, but Hayworth refused to concede while the prospects for victory remained with the significant number of absentee and early-voting ballots to be counted. As the ballots were counted and the results were updated each day, Hayworth never demonstrated the significant gains he anticipated and ending up losing the election by more than 8,000 votes. Hayworth conceded on Nov. 14. Mitchell did not acknowledge his victory until Nov. 22.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Mitchell
