DEARTH WATCH

Keenly aware of this, Nadolski is obviously trying to tone it down. She refuses, for example, to badmouth her opponent--much. As a result, she loses her no-nonsense edge, which many say has always been her best feature. The kinder, gentler Nadolski sounds like a candidate for the mayor of New Age Sedona:

"I'm so convinced that part of what's wrong today is violence, and I'm also pretty convinced that a lot of the violence comes out of our own mouths. And that's what we're handing our children," she says.

"I would really like to talk about, more than anything else, that in order for us to move forward, it has to be a complete and total willingness to begin to recognize that we have to begin to work together for the good of us all. And it sounds so pappy. And I know that. And it's what I've really struggled with. But it's really the way I feel."

Huh?
This new attitude has not gone unnoticed. Ferd Haverly--a civic naysayer and former editor of the fringe publication The Current, who himself considered running for mayor--complains Nadolski isn't aggressive enough.

The tough-talking Haverly is prone to comments like, "Skip Rimsza's part of the problem. He's the problem, he's tied right into the movers and shakers that want to run this town without regard for the public interest," and, "The futures forum got trashed under Johnson, all levels of real citizen participation got trashed under Johnson, and Skip was right there when he did it."

As for Nadolski? "She wants to win," Haverly gripes. "She doesn't want to piss everybody off.