Pima County Supervisors choose Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton to fill Senate seat

The Pima County Board of Supervisors appointed state Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton to fill the Legislative District 10 seat in the Arizona Senate on Tuesday.

The appointee will replace state Sen. Kirsten Engel, who stepped down from the LD10 position last month to focus on her run for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Stahl Hamilton, a Democrat, is a Presbyterian minister who has served in the Arizona House of Representatives since January. Her appointment will leave a new vacancy in the House that county officials will have to fill in the near future.

She was one of three nominees chosen by LD10’s Democratic Committee to fill the open state Senate seat. State law tasks the county’s Board of Supervisors with selecting one of those three candidates.

Among the other nominees were Tom Chabin, a former state legislator and Coconino County supervisor, and Larry Waggoner, a Marine veteran who serves as second vice chair of the LD10 Democrats.

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Supervisor Rex Scott moved to appoint Stahl Hamilton this week after voting to delay the selection on Oct. 5 so that he could have more time to speak with the candidates.

The District 1 supervisor said all of the candidates were qualified at Tuesday’s meeting, but that he chose Stahl Hamilton because “she knows the players in the legislature and they know her.”

Scott added that “100%” of the legislators he spoke with were in favor of Stahl Hamilton’s appointment.

Four of the five supervisors voted to approve the appointment. Supervisor Steve Christy, the lone Republican on the board, chose to abstain.