The four incumbents in the Oro Valley mayoral and Town Council recall election maintained leads in their races, according to unofficial voting results Wednesday.
Pima County still has about 20,000 ballots to count from Tuesday’s elections, but it was not known how many of those are from Oro Valley. The totals posted shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday include all 15 precincts in the town and a number of early mail-in ballots.
Two of the Town Council races are extremely close, but the other two incumbents lead by wider margins.
Incumbent Mayor Satish Hiremath is leading against challenger Pat Straney, who ran against him in last year’s election. Hiremath is ahead 51 percent to Straney’s 43 percent.
Former mayoral candidate Joseph Winfield, who dropped out of the election in an October debate, has almost 6 percent of the vote, despite asking the public not to vote for him.
In the council races:
- Lou Waters
- , six-year Town Council member, is ahead of challenger
- Steve Didio,
- 51 to 49 percent, with Waters leading by 311 votes.
- Joe Hornat
- has a slight lead over challenger
- Ryan Hartung,
- 51 to 49 percent, but he’s ahead by only 125 votes.
- Mary Snider
- is leading challenger
- Shirl Lamonna,
- 50 percent to 36 percent, with
- Doug Burke
- third. Snider has been a Town Council member since 2010.
Despite the early results, none of the challengers has conceded defeat.
The recall was initiated after the council and mayor voted to approve the $1 million purchase of El Conquistador Country Club and a half-cent sales increase to pay for improvements to the clubhouse, which has been converted to a community center.
