Candidates for Pima County assessor Suzanne Droubie, a Democrat, left, and Jo Ann Sabbagh, a Republican.

 Provided by the Candidates

The race for the office of Pima County assessor is on with Suzanne Droubie being named the Democratic Party nominee and Jo Ann Sabbagh vying to make the November ballot following a primary as a Republican write-in candidate.

Droubie won 58% of the Democratic primary vote against two opponents, Brian Johnson and Dustin Walters, incomplete vote tallies showed on Thursday.

The Assessor’s Office is responsible for determining property tax amounts and which properties receive tax exemptions. It is currently occupied by Democrat Bill Staples, who did not seek reelection.

Sabbagh may qualify for the ballot in November if she received enough votes in the primary. The county has yet to tally write-in votes but plans to have those results next week.

Droubie works in the private sector assisting with property tax services, but previously spent seven years doing mass appraisals in the Assessor’s Office and a year doing property support for the Pima County attorney.

She is a precinct committeeman for Legislative District 11 and chairperson of the Pima County Animal Control Advisory Committee. She ran for the office in 2016 as an independent, a choice she said she later regretted.

If Droubie wins, she wants to enhance customer service through outreach and communication, making sure people are aware of exemptions that are available to them, she said.

She wants to make the Assessor’s Office more accessible through pop-up offices temporarily set up in hard-to-reach parts of town, ready to answer taxpayers’ questions and help with forms. She also wants to add bilingual services and make the website more user-friendly, with more information for homeowners and developers.

Of her primary win, Droubie said she ran a clean race and that she’s looking forward to working alongside other Democratic candidates in the general election.

Sabbagh lost a bid for state treasurer in 2018. She is an accountant and business owner, which she says makes her a strong candidate for the position.

She has 35 years of experience in public accounting, 16 years of owning a public accounting firm and has a federal license to deal with income tax and other tax issues.

Sabbagh sees several issues with the office that she’d like to fix, including property valuations and business property tax she says hurts small-business owners.

β€œThere are systemic problems within the system,” she says. β€œIt’s time to have these systemic issues addressed and corrected and not have the taxpayers of Pima County pay the price as they have been for years.”

She serves on several volunteer boards, both fundraising and professional.

β€œTo me it’s important to give back to my community and to my profession,” she says.

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Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223. On Twitter: @DanyelleKhmara.