Ex-Lawmaker Debra Brimhall Back as Debra Pearson in College Board Election

By Ray Stern The typical voting dilemma: Do you vote for the devil you know, or the devil you don't know? In the case of Debra Pearson, it might be both. Before she was married on December 31, 2006, Pearson's name was Debra Brimhall. (Here's her wedding picture with husband...

By Ray Stern

October 14, 2008

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By Ray Stern

The typical voting dilemma: Do you vote for the devil you know, or the devil you don't know?

In the case of Debra Pearson, it might be both. Before she was married on December 31, 2006, Pearson's name was Debra Brimhall. (Here's her wedding picture with husband Craig Pearson. That's Arizona House Speaker Jim Weiers performing the nuptials).

This is the same Brimhall who lobbied for the NRA, occasionally dressed as Xena the Warrior Princess, and once co-sponsored a bill to limit news reporters to 12 years on the job. Now she's running for District 3 seat on the Maricopa County Community College Governing Board.

Okay, so it's not as devious as the name change by the ethically challenged Sam Vagenas, a former political consultant who remade himself this year into Arizona Corporation Commission candidate Sam George.

Pearson goes by "Debra Brimhall Pearson" on her Web site and has used both last names in recent lobbying work and at a recent public forum at Paradise Valley Community College.

But voters take note: Her campaign filing papers list her only as "Debra Pearson," so that may be all anyone sees on the ballot.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.