LD 10 PCs Send a Slate of 3 Candidates for State House to Pima Supervisors

This evening, November 15th, LD 10 held an election via Zoom and ElectionBuddy to select three candidates for selection by the Pima County Board of Supervisors to replace Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton in the Arizona House. Senator Stahl Hamilton resigned her House seat when appointed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors to the LD 10 Senate seat from which Kristen Engel had resigned to focus on her candidacy for Congress.

There were five candidates for the three nominations to the Board: Morgan Abraham, Tom Chabin, Mitzy Cowell, Eddie Saavedra, and James Ticknor.

The candidates were selected via block voting by 91 eligible voters (including proxies):

Round 1: Each PC was required to choose three candidates of the five. The first two candidates past the post of 50% plus 1 were Tom Chabin with 79 votes, and Morgan Abraham with 59 votes.

Round 2: The three remaining candidates – Mitzy Cowell, Eddie Saavedra, and James Ticknor – entered the second round of balloting in which each PC was required to select only one candidate. Mitzi Cowell was the third candidate selected with 46 votes.

Tom Chabin has served previously for five years in the Arizona House of Representatives in ’07-’12, as well as stints on his local school board and the Coconino County Board of Supervisors.

Morgan Abraham is a managing partner at Abraham Capital, an affordable housing development firm, and an Army reserve intelligence officer. He was previously UofA student body President, President of the Pima Young Democrats, and served as Treasurer for the Pima County Democratic Party.

Mitzi Cowell entered the race late – just 49 hours prior to the election according to her speech – and cited her involvement in LD 10 party activities and her career as a musician, an advocate of the arts and humanitarian aid, as well as her academic background in electoral theory and voting rights, focusing on felon disenfranchisement. She pointed out that all the other candidates were men, which, to my mind, provided a likely motivation for her sudden entry into the race. During her speech, she made the point that the State House is currently 42% women, and that percentage was likely to fall unless a woman was appointed to replace Senator Stahl Hamilton in the House.

Next, the Pima County Board of Supervisors will make their selection for appointment to the LD 10 House seat at a future regular meeting, most likely in December.