Droubie takes lead in Democrats' primary race for Pima County assessor

In the race for the Democratic Party’s nominee for the office of Pima County assessor, incomplete vote tallies show Suzanne Droubie leading with 58% of the vote against two opponents, Brian Johnson and Dustin Walters.

The office is responsible for determining amounts on property taxes and which properties receive tax exemptions, and is currently occupied by Democrat Bill Staples, who did not seek reelection.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face write-in candidate Republican Jo Ann Sabbagh in November.

If Droubie wins the primary and general, she would be Pima County's first female assessor.

She currently 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.

Droubie 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.

Droubie plans 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 taxpayer’s questions and help with forms. She also wants to make the website more user-friendly, with more information for home-owners and developers, as well as adding bilingual services.

Droubie said she ran a clean race and that she's looking forward to working alongside other Democratic candidates in the general election.

"I wanted to prove that you could still win it and the best policy is to just go out there and promote yourself and not try to drag anybody else down," she said. "I am just tickled that Pima County still feels the same way, that a clean positive race is still the way to go, and I'm so excited about turning the assessor's office into a resource and all of the wonderful changes that we're going to make."

Johnson has 14 years of experience in county governments. He worked in the county Assessor’s Office for nine years as an appraiser and senior appraiser and in Pima County administration’s Finance and Risk Management Department in the property assessment litigation unit.

He ran for assessor in 2016 and lost the Democratic primary to then-incumbent Staples, gaining 37% of the vote.

Walters is a senior appraiser in the Assessor’s Office, where he’s worked since 2014.

Before that, he worked in sales, operations and customer service in the private sector. In more than 12 years combined working for Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, Walters managed dozens of employees and a multi-million dollar budget.