Updated: Eleven independents have notified the Pima County Board of Supervisors of their desire to replace the recently resigned Representative Daniel Patterson. The deadline for notifying the Supervisors passed at the end of today.
The Board of Supervisors selected a five-person citizen panel to review the hopeful replacements. The panel is scheduled to meet tomorrow to review the applicants.
The panel has until Friday to recommend three finalist to the Board of Supervisors for their consideration. Then the Supervisors have five business days to choose Patterson’s replacement.
The applicants must be independents, as Patterson changed his registration to independent almost immediately before resigning in disgrace from the Arizona State House. He attempted to change it back to Democrat, but missed the window of opportunity by mere minutes.
The independent L29 applicants are, Sergio Arellano, Stephen Cody, Nicholas Fontana, Albert Jordan, James Kelly, Robbin Larson, Michael Oatman, Stephania O’Neill, John Orr, Joseph Scott, and Leon D. Sierra.
The Arizona Independent Candidate Coalition, a new political committee, urging the Pima County Board of Supervisors to focus on an independent being appointed to the State House in Legislative District 29.
Independents, Republicans and Democrats each have about a third of the registered voters in the current district and in the new Legislative District 2.
The AICC supports candidate Albert Jordan, an independent since he first registered to vote at age eighteen.