About 87 school district committee members Legislative District 20 You must select three finalists to send to the Pima County Board of Supervisors. The board could elect a replacement as early as Tuesday, July 11, but it could wait until then to hold another meeting in two weeks.

Kano, 31, announced his resignation on July 4 after two and a half terms in Congress, including one session this year as House Minority Leader. He moved to Boston to pursue a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University.

As of Thursday, seven candidates have expressed interest.

• Elma Alvarez, a teaching professional at Miller Elementary School in the Tucson Unified School District, has represented Democratic candidates throughout Southern Arizona.
• Wesley Crew is a U.S. Department of Labor legislative staffer who previously worked for Living United for Change (LUCHA) in Arizona and the Biden presidential campaign.
• Andrew Curley is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Arizona, whose research focuses on indigenous extractive industries.
• Lourdes Escalante, a member of the Yaqui tribe from South Tucson, Ariantha indigena sin fronteras.
• Sami Hamed has run for two local elections and is a former staff member of Congressman Raul Grijalva and a Democratic activist.
• Akanni Oebola is a former member of the Southern Tucson City Council, acting mayor of the city, and former chairman of the Democratic 21st congressional district.
• Betty Villegas is the former Director of the Pima County Housing Authority and the current Director of Housing and Community Development for South Tucson.

After the death of Pima County Superintendent Richard Elias in 2020, Villegas took over as interim successor and vowed not to run in the next election before being elected.

But this time, he said he would stand for election if he was chosen to replace Mr. Kano.

Leslie Stark, chairman of the Democratic committee for the constituency, said those seven may not end up being the only candidates. Recommendations from the floor are also possible.

Once the final three are selected, their names will be passed to the Pima County Board of Supervisors for consideration.

LD 20 is part of four different supervisory districts. Most of the residents are represented by District 5 Supervisor Adelita Grijalva and District 3 Supervisor Sharon Bronson. However, some provinces are also in District 1, headed by Supervisor Rex Scott, and District 2, headed by Supervisor Matt Heinz.

With about two months left in the effort to recall State Senator Justin Wadsak, it’s unclear how far the recall organizers are progressing.

30,981 valid signatures must be collected by Sept. 5 to force a recall election for Mr. Wadsak, the Republican who represents the 17th District.

Rolande Baker, who is leading the effort, said he didn’t know how many signatures had been collected. They are gradually printing and distributing petitions, with at least 15,000 distributed so far. Each sheet can contain up to 10 signatures.

I don’t know how close he is to the goal, but it’s clear he’s been improving since Wadsak.

On July 4, the senator tweeted, “The woman who filed the recall was ‘Rolande Baker’, a registered communist in Arizona (real), and a member of the U.S. Supreme Court over abortion. He spent a night in federal prison in November 2022 on charges (sic).” . She hates America. “

Truth be told, there is no way to be registered as a communist in Arizona because it is not a legal party in Arizona. In fact, Baker is registered as a Democrat, and he has been on the register since 1972, he said.

She was arrested at the U.S. Supreme Court in November, but not just for “raiding” the court. She and her two others then rose to their feet and read a short statement protesting the Roe-Wade reversal. She spent the night in a Washington DC prison.

Despite the recall efforts, Mr. Wadsak has stuck to the cocky style that has brought him to the front lines of the Republican Party in his first term as a senator this year. Her fellow LD 17 Rep. Rachel Jones recently snapped a photo of her in front of the Old State Capitol with her rifle pointing down.

In addition to similar guns, the two wore matching high heels.of Social media post In statements made in late June and early July, they called themselves Second Amendment supporters and called for donations.

Whether or not Wadsak faces a recall, she already has a Democratic challenger in the 2024 election the party is looking forward to.

Amy Fitch Last month, he announced that he would challenge for a seat in a narrowly Republican constituency. Fitch is a longtime abortion rights advocate and co-founder of Arizona’s for Reproductive Freedom and the Tucson Women’s March.

In 2021, the State Board of Zoning has drawn up Legislative District 17, centered on Tucson, from the northwest, across Santa Catalinas, across the Tanque Verde Valley and down to Vail. The goal was to create constituencies that favored Republicans.

In 2022, Wadsak defeated incumbent Senator Vince Leach for the Republican nomination. Leach has filed papers to run against Wadsak in next year’s Republican primary.

The Republican, who narrowly lost to Democrat Rex Scott in the 2020 Pima County mayoral election, plans to challenge Scott next year.

Spain announced plans to seek the Republican nomination for District 1 of Pima County, which covers the northwest, parts of Marana and the Catalina foothills.

In 2020, Scott defeated Spain by just 730 votes to become the first Democrat to represent his constituency in decades. Since then, the district has been reorganized, making it more Democratic than it was then, narrowly favoring Democrats over Republicans.