That paradigm shift might ease the pain of possible losses in the races for Maricopa County sheriff, assessor and attorney, which Republican candidates narrowly led early Wednesday morning.
As of 2:13 a.m. Wednesday, incumbent Democratic supervisor Steve Gallardo was besting his Republican challenger with two-thirds of the vote. And former firefighters Danny Valenzuela and Joel Navarro, both Democrats, were ahead in their respective districts.
Incumbent Supervisor Thomas Galvin, a moderate Republican who held off a primary challenge, and Republican U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Trump stalwart, had already amassed sizable leads against Democratic contenders by the same time.
Incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell was running 6 percentage points ahead of Democrat Tamika Wooten. Mitchell heavily outspent Wooten and had considerable help from an independent expenditure committee backed by the owners of the Arizona Cardinals and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
As the first Black woman to seek the office, Wooten’s candidacy was historic. But the pro-tem judge was hobbled by a paucity of funds and a mysterious lack of support from local Democratic bigwigs, who now have some splainin’ to do.
In the Assessor’s race, Republican Eddie Cook was leading Democrat Gregory Freeman by a little more than four points. And Democrat Laura Metcalfe was less than a percentage point ahead of Republican Shelli Boggs.
Jerry Sheridan, once a high-ranking member of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, leads Democrat Tyler Kamp in early election results.
Screenshot via Arizona PBS
Sheriff Joe 2.0
Meanwhile, Jerry Sheridan, the former chief deputy to ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, was leading Democratic newcomer Tyler Kamp by more than 33,000 votes. Sheridan comes with considerable baggage, including being found in contempt by a federal judge in the federal racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, which resulted in his name landing on the county’s Brady list of dishonest cops.The racist policies of the Arpaio-Sheridan regime directly led to federal oversight that has cost the county $250 million and counting. Sheridan as sheriff could mean a return to the agency’s bad old days and more head-butting with the federal court, foreshadowing a continuation of Melendres’ high price tag.
Kamp hammered that line of attack during his campaign. Unfortunately, the relatively unknown Democrat has professional stains of his own. A city of Phoenix investigation found that the former Phoenix police lieutenant sexually harassed a rookie cop while both were employed by the department.
But if Democrats control the Board of Supervisors, which in turn controls the county’s purse strings, the board could serve as a check on any shenanigans Sheridan seeks to pull.
The board could also restrain Republican county recorder candidate Justin Heap, a state lawmaker who is cozy with election denialists. Last month, the current Board of Supervisors and incumbent Recorder Stephen Richer — whom Heap defeated in the Republican primary — agreed to transfer some responsibilities from the Recorder’s Office to the board.
As of early Wednesday morning, Heap led Democrat and political newcomer Tim Stringham by just 0.2 points, a tad more than 2,200 votes. When New Times caught up with Stringham at the state Democrats’ watch party at the Hilton Phoenix Resort at the Peak, he was still smiling. Asked how confident he was that he would prevail, he gave a good answer.
“I’m absolutely agnostic,” he said. “The results will be what the results will be, and we’re happy to accept whatever the results are.”
In other words, que sera, sera. Doris Day couldn’t have sung it any better herself.
