A Republican candidate for mayor has surfaced this week.
Albert Pesqueira, who describes himself as a former social worker and youth pastor, filed paperwork to qualify for the ballot as a write-in candidate.
With more than 49,000 Democrats voting in last month's primary, Pesqueira is going to need a lot of voters to write his name on the ballot to become mayor.
And supporters need to spell his name correctly — election laws don't offer a lot wiggle room in terms of significant deviations to count a write-in candidate's name.
While it's mathematically improbable Pesqueira will be Tucson's next mayor, 4,828 Tucson Republicans entered a write-in name in the primary even though there was no GOP candidate for the seat.
Unfortunately, the city doesn't track write-in votes for unofficial candidates, so we don't know how many pets or celebrities gathered votes in the primary.
It's unclear how many people will vote in the November general election, but turnout is expected to be lower because participation drops when city voters don't also have a chance to vote for president or governor.
There are roughly 258,000 registered voters inside the Tucson city limits
Pesqueira says Tucsonans should have another choice for mayor other than Democrat Regina Romero or independent Ed Ackerley.
"I've been a conservative all of my life," Pesqueira said. "I just think that there should be an option."
