Two Republicans narrowly led the race for two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission on Tuesday after a campaign in which ethics and renewable energy were major issues.
Republicans Justin Olson and Rodney Glassman led Democratic former commission member Sandra Kennedy and Democratic political newcomer Kiana Sears by a small margin in early results. Olson and Glassman each had about 26 percent of the vote, with Kennedy at about 25 percent and Sears at 23 percent.
Olson is a Mesa tax analyst and three-term legislator who was appointed to the commission in October 2017 by Gov. Doug Ducey. Glassman is an attorney and University of Arizona graduate and a former Tucson City Council member who now lives in Scottsdale.
They were polling ahead of Kennedy, a Phoenix small-business owner and former legislator who served on the Corporation Commission from 2009 to 2012, and Sears, who spent six years as a utilities consultant for the commission.
The Corporation Commission has been under complete Republican control since 2013 and has had only two Democratic commissioners, including Kennedy, since 1999.
Like other recent elections, this yearβs Corporation Commission race focused largely on support for renewable energy β along with a ballot proposition to mandate greatly expanded use of renewables.
The clean-energy proposition was defeated handily.
But the race also focused on ethics, amid a series of scandals since the last election including a former commissioner charged with bribery, another commissioner who resigned because of a conflict of interest, and charges that some commission members have become too cozy with Arizona Public Service Co., the biggest state-regulated utility.
Both Republicans said they support expanding the use of solar and other renewable energy resources, but they opposed Proposition 127, which would have mandated that Arizona utilities get half their energy from renewables by 2030. The current Arizona renewables mandate is to reach 15 percent renewable energy by 2025.
Both Kennedy and Sears supported Prop. 127.
Citing the past scandals and approval of a controversial APS rate increase, the Democrats portrayed the Republican commission as a rubber stamp for APS and other utility interests.
But Olson and Glassman campaigned on promises to restore ethical accountability to the commission, which besides utility rates regulates securities sales, corporations and pipeline and railroad safety.
Olson said he supports tighter restrictions on commissioners and noted that he backed a ban on commissioners accepting donations from regulated utilities.
Glassman, who is a major in the Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate Generalβs Corps, said he would have the commission adopt the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct to avoid conflicts of interest.
