Dems could sweep Pima County Board of Supervisors

Democrats will have at least four of the five seats on the Pima County Board of Supervisors for the next four years, unofficial voting results show.

But the sole Republican on the board Steve Christy is in a tight race with Democratic challenger Vanessa Bechtol’s for District 4, which covers eastern Pima County, including portions of Tucson and Vail.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, Christy had taken a slight lead.

Christy is currently the longest-serving supervisor having been first elected in 2016.

A win by Bechtol would mean a Democratic sweep for the board. And it also would mean no supervisor on the board would have been elected before 2020.

The last time the Board of Supervisors was all Democrats: 1954 when it had 3 members, according to research by Tom Prezelski, a former state legislator and author of the book “Californio Lancers.”

Christy and Bechtol could not be immediately reached by the Star Wednesday afternoon.

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All three Democrat incumbents: Rex Scott, Matt Heinz, and Adelita Grijalva, the board’s chair, each had healthy leads, unofficial results show.

The county had tallied 306,504 ballots as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Over 411,000 ballots were cast for this year’s elections, according to Pima County’s unofficial turnout page.

“Pima County has been a Democratic county for decades, but (it’s) the quality of candidates and the quality of campaigns that they’re running,” Scott said. “I’ve lived here most of my adult life, and Republicans used to do a better job of fielding candidates who could not only appeal to the members of their party, but who could attract Independents and maybe even some crossover Democrats. And I don’t think the local Republican Party has fielded that kind of candidate in most city or county races in a long time.”

Heinz echoed Scott’s point that the election outcome “speaks to the quality of the candidates that we put forward.”

Jennifer “Jen” Allen, the soon-to-be supervisor for District 3, said in a post Wednesday morning on social media, she said she is “profoundly honored” to become the district’s next supervisor and is thankful that voters “put their trust in me and gave me this opportunity.”