I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how hard the local party and the Democratic candidates for City Council are working. To date I've received:

• one telephone call that asked if Leal, Uhlich and Trasoff could count on my support and to ask if I would put a sign for them on my lawn (I live an apartment complex and don't have a lawn of my own, so no go there)


• one direct mail piece from Karin Uhlich's campaign that took exactly the right tone in bringing a lot of the less flattering points of Kathleen Dunbar's record (and there are a lot of them) to light


• one pretty good direct mail piece from the county party on behalf of all three Dem candidates; and


• I just received a recorded telephone message with the Governor and a representative of the county party reminding me that I can vote by mail

I don't know whether Ronstadt and Dunbar's people are being as aggressive with their campaigns. I'm definitely seeing a lot more lawn signs for Uhlich and Trasoff. In fact, I've only seen one Fred sign and no Kathleen signs.

It's clear the Pima County Democratic Party is being smart with this election by running a strong, concerted, well-organized GOTV effort. If I were asked to call the race today, I'd say that Leal and Uhlich are sure bets (Steve is running unopposed after yet another Republican had to withdraw because of a scandal).

The race to watch will be Ward 6, where Councilman Rondstadt has inexplicable crossover appeal, but Trasoff is a strong candidate who will hopefully start going for the jugular soon.

The city race I'm waiting for is Carol West's. Now that she's an independent, the county party can field a strong challenger to unseat that particularly nutty turncoat.