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Ed Cunningham (Mayor of Surprise, Arizona, candidate 2024)
From Ballotpedia
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Ed Cunningham ran for election to the Mayor of Surprise in Arizona. Cunningham was a write-in candidate in the primary on July 30, 2024.[source]
Cunningham completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Ed Cunningham provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on July 17, 2024:
- High school: Moon Valley High School and Agua Fria
- Military service: United States Army
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Building a brighter future together
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign Instagram
- Campaign YouTube
- Campaign YouTube video
Elections
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Surprise
Alyson Cline, Kevin Sartor, and Ed Cunningham ran in the primary for Mayor of Surprise on July 30, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Alyson Cline (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Kevin Sartor (Nonpartisan) | ||
Ed Cunningham (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)  | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cunningham in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ed Cunningham completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cunningham's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I will say it now and say it straight. I am a man who has a life full of moments of growth and challenge. I do not bring flawlessness to the Office of Mayor, but I bring a wealth of experiences and a mastery of building bridges and mediating through very hard challenges. I offer myself fully to the City of Surprise and my fellow residents, knowing that even though it is impossible to please everyone, I will work hard and tirelessly for everyone who lives in and visits our community.
I am a native Arizonan with a love for the Valley and my state, but I am not a polished politician. My family settled in Phoenix in the 1950s. Both of my parents were raised here at a time when the desert began at 35th Avenue. My father graduated from Sunnyslope and my mom from Maryvale. I grew up and attended Moon Valley High School until my senior year when my parents moved to Waddell and I graduated from Agua Fria. I have watched our West Valley farm community go from a gas station stop on the way to Vegas to the amazingly vibrant city that we are blessed to live in today!
- Transparency is absolutely necessary for every organization and business that serves the public. This is for two main reasons: accountability for those in office and those who work for the city, and enabling residents to make informed decisions about what they want those serving them to achieve. In all the years that I have mediated conflicts in business and community relationships, the root cause of almost every breakdown is misunderstood expectations. Transparency is the most important tool to avoid conflict and be effective as a city government.
- Community identity is important for many reasons, but most of all it brings us together with a common vision of who we are as Surprise residents. In this day and age, where powers are working so hard to divide us, it is even more imperative that we create and believe in who we are in Surprise. We come from many beautifully unique backgrounds and cultures. Each of us carries the stories built over generations of how we came to live together in this community. Individually, we are wonderfully unique, and together we are stronger for those differences.
- We are at a crucial crossroads in our city where the growth of the past meets the dream of what our future growth will look like. It is important now more than ever that we work on the now and make prudent decisions that future generations will be proud of and will continue. Part of prudent growth initiatives is to bear in mind that we are a desert and that one of our most precious resources is our water. As we allow more development to be permitted, we must keep in mind two things: water availability and conservation, and more importantly, retention of our water rights. We as a city should never allow something as precious as a basic human need to be out of our hands to control.
Having been a firefighter and paramedic here in the West Valley for over a decade, Ed learned firsthand the importance of making sure our first responders are not only trained to the highest level of standards but also equipped to handle any emergency situation that will arise. This must also be coupled with prudent eyes on the fiduciary responsibilities we have to every other program that the city manages to serve the residents of Surprise.
Servant-style leadership is the most important principle for an elected official or any government employee. Ego has no place in building and growing an organization, and a great leader will be the one with their sleeves rolled up doing the work along side their employees. This is the kind of Mayor I will be. More than most entities, a government has to have a servant leader mentality inundated throughout it. This is because we serve not only our fellow employees and elected officials, but more importantly, the residents of Surprise. When this style of leadership ripples throughout an organization, work is more effective, turnover is greatly lessened, we attract the highest quality of candidates, and growth is fluid and with a significantly less amount of contention.
The core responsibility of the mayor is to provide appropriate oversight to the city while incorporating the residents' vision into each conversation.
My first job was at the age of 8 when I was a paper boy and then working alongside my uncle from in home renovation from 10-13.
The mayor's top priority in office is to communicate the vision and views of the residents while ensuring transparency and accountability within the city government.
Best part of living in Surprise is the people. Having owned a restaurant that was known as a community hub, I had the blessing of meeting so many of our residents and building lasting relationships. No matter their backgrounds or beliefs, when we held charity events, everyone showed up and contributed. Every Christmas toy drive was packed with toys and helped organizations such as Eve's Place. Every water drive for the homeless brought pallet after pallet of cases of water. Our Surprise Firehouse Subs raised over $150,000 for First Responders and Military organizations. Jeep and car rally's raised over $20,000 for locals residents going through tough times. NONE of this would not have been possible if not for the generosity of the people of Surprise.
Our greatest challenge is dealing with the decisions that were made 10 to 20 years ago that didn't forecast the amount of growth our city is experiencing. We will need to take immediate action to keep an eye on the future landscape and liabilities of Surprise.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Mayor of Surprise |
Personal |
Footnotes
