No candidates win seat in primary; Gifford bounced

The Sahuarita Sun

None of the candidates for Town Council was elected in Tuesday’s primary balloting, and so the top six vote-getters will run in the May 19 mail-in general election for three council seats.

Duane Blumberg led with 1,380 votes out of 3,164 votes cast, less than the 50 percent necessary to win a seat outright.

David “Gif” Gifford, who placed seventh with 735 votes, was eliminated.

The others: John J. Sullivan, an incumbent, with 1,243 votes; Kara Egbert, 1,139; Rosanna Gabaldon, 1,067; Alex Jacome, 880; and incumbent Roger Minor, 840.

Incumbents ran second and sixth in a field of seven, and the self-styled “anti-incumbent,” Gifford, ran last.

Blumberg is from Quail Creek and got strong support from Vice Mayor Phil Conklin, who was the only primary election winner in 2007, when Quail Creek voted about 90 percent for him in an overwhelming turnout.

Candidates from Rancho Sahuarita ran second, third, sixth and seventh: Sullivan, Egbert, Minor and Gifford. Gabaldon lives in La Joya Verde and Jacome lives near Twin Buttes Road and La Canada Drive.

Gabaldon had support from the Democratic Party of Pima County and she and Minor had support from the statewide plumbers and pipefitters union.

The turnout was 27.3 percent, with 3,164 votes cast out of 11,592 registered voters, well below the 51.5 percent recorded in 2007, when a controversial and highly publicized initiative regarding wastewater services was on the ballot.

The general election is a mail-in election and ballots go out 33 days before they are due May 19.

New council members will take office either May 26 or June 8.

Official results can be found at www.pima.gov/elections/results.htm.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738