Full Biography for Harry E. Mitchell

Candidate for
State Senator; District 27

Harry Mitchell is a native Arizonan and a lifelong resident of Tempe. His folks still live in the Tempe home in which he was raised. He has seen our community grow from a small college town of less than 10,000 to a thriving urban center of almost 200,000 people. Few citizens have played as vital a role in shepherding this growth than Harry Mitchell.

Harry was first elected to the Tempe City Council in 1970. He was elected mayor in 1978, and he served his community and his fellow citizens in this capacity for 16 years. As Tempe's mayor, he spearheaded the effort to revive and revitalize Tempe's dying downtown area -- an area that has become one of the Valley's most successful business and entertainment centers. In leading this remarkable urban rebirth, he built partnerships of small business owners, neighborhood groups, corporations, investors and the leadership of ASU; partnerships that worked cooperatively toward common, and positive, goals. The results stand as a tribute to what can happen when community needs are placed above political gain.

During the 24 years Harry Mitchell was leading his community as a public servant, he also served the parents and young people as an American Government and Free Enterprise teacher at Tempe High School -- the same high school from which he graduated. Harry and his high school sweetheart, and wife of 36 years, Marianne, are the parents of two children, and are celebrating the birth of their first grandchild.

As our State Senator, Harry Mitchell will bring to the table his deep knowledge of our community, his commitment to stable and sustainable economic development, his respect for the integrity of our neighborhoods, and his understanding of the role of education at every level in helping to build our community's future.

District 27 has the opportunity to elect a State Senator -- Harry Mitchell -- who knows how to listen to all sides of an issue, whose door is never closed to his fellow citizens, and who brings a lifetime expertise and public service success to the pressing needs of our communities and our State. Harry Mitchell will be a good steward of our tax dollars, and a sound, mature voice for our needs.