Jeremy Bryant has joined Ginger Nelson in the race for Amarillo mayor.

The filing season opens officially Jan. 18 and concludes on Feb. 17. So it is not yet a lead-pipe cinch that these two individuals are going to actually be on the May municipal ballot. They say they will, so we’ll take them at their word.

Bryant is a businessman; Nelson is a lawyer. Both are pledging to restore “unity” to City Hall.

This is possibly shaping up as a most lively Amarillo City Council ballot. Good deal!

http://amarillo.com/local-news/2016-12-18/second-candidate-emerges-amarillo-mayor

Mayor Paul Harpole hasn’t yet declared his intention; we don’t know if he’ll seek a fourth term or hang it up. My guess is that he’ll call it a public service career … but it’s just a guess.

With two candidates already declaring their intention to run for mayor so early in the election cycle, it stands to reason to believe that more are on their way to City Hall to file their campaign papers.

And that’s just for the mayor’s office!

I’m wondering now what the future holds for the rest of the council. Three seats are occupied by individuals who were elected in May 2015 promising to be the agents of “change” for a city they contended had grown stale and too secretive.

They brought change, all right. The city manager and city attorney quit. They hired an interim city manager who served for a whole year before he decided to bail, but only after he muttered a profane epithet at a constituent.

What will the ballot challenge hold for those guys. One of them, Elisha Demerson, might run for mayor; another one, Mark Nair, is reported to be considering whether he wants to seek a second term; still another council member, Randy Burkett, appears the most likely incumbent to run again.

Then we have the fifth council member, Lisa Blake, who was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Brian Eades quit and left the city. Blake is untouched by the dysfunction that’s been demonstrated during the past two years.

I do hope we get a full ballot in 2017. Amarillo voters would be well-served by being given the chance to hear from a lot of candidates who believe they can do better than those who are already on the job.

I am looking forward to seeing if my wish comes true.