Six people have applied for the Pima County Board of Supervisors seat left vacant by the resignation of Adelita Grijalva.
An online public forum with the six applicants will be hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Go to http://tucne.ws/1s5e to watch.
Grijalva, who was re-elected to her second term in November, resigned as supervisor after announcing last week that she will be running for the Tucson congressional held by her late father Raúl Grijalva. He died March 13.
Adelita Grijalva
Supervisors expect to name a replacement for Grijalva on April 15.
The candidates for the county seat are:
- Lewis David Araiza, Sr., a former teacher and social worker. Most recently, he taught at Gallego Intermediate School from 2020-21 and then became a counselor at Los Niños Elementary, according to his resumé. Araiza’s teaching career began in the late 1970s when he taught English at Salpointe Catholic High School.
- Kimberly Baeza, a Pima County employee since September 2012. She began her county career in the public library system. In April 2013, she moved to the county’s Wastewater Reclamation Department, starting as a lab technician before quickly moving to a lab chemist. She is now the permit and regulatory compliance officer within the department, a post she’s held since July 2022.
- Andrés Cano, currently the city of Tucson’s director of federal and state relations. He leads the city’s legislative and grants strategy and advocates for city policies to state and federal lawmakers. Cano previously served in the state House and at one point was minority leader.
- Richard Hernandez, a longtime retiree who says he is an education and community activist. In his letter of interest, Hernandes called himself “a champion for students at (Pima Community College), Sunnyside schools, the City of South Tucson and LGBTQ+ communities.” Hernandez said he would not seek election to the office.
- Karla Bernal Morales has been the vice president of the Arizona Technology Council’s Southern Arizona regional office since March 2020. Before that, Morales worked in various capacities within the University of Arizona for nearly 2 1/2 years. Most recently, her resumé says, Morales was director of multicultural advancement in the school’s DEI and Title IX division. She also spent 13 years working for the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
- Cynthia Abril Sosa Ontiveros is a product marketing engineer for Texas Instruments, Inc., where she’s worked for over a decade. Since 2019, Ontiveros has served as a campaign chair and committee member for United Way of Southern Arizona, according to her resumé. Last year, she was recognized as “Woman of the Year” and a “40 under 40 recipient” by the Tucson Hispanic Chamber, she said in her letter of interest.
Each applicant was required to submit a letter of interest, a resumé, a financial disclosure statement and a conflict-of-interest form.
