Through the primary election on July 21, Verde Valley voters have weighed in on the decisions facing us and decided that overall not much is changing between the last election and the new one for the next two years.
In statewide elections, most of the partisan races were uncontested, leaving incumbents unchallenged.
In the race for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, current Republican Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who is term-limited from running again for her seat, ousted incumbent Republican Tom Horne, who has been embroiled in scandals in every statewide post he has served in. Yee will face Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz in November.
Incumbent Republican Arizona State Reps. Selina Bliss and Quang Nguyen fended off challenger Shawn Dell Wildman. They will face Democrat Christine Dargon from Camp Verde in the heavily Republican Legislative District 1.
Current interim Camp Verde Mayor Marie Moore defeated perennial candidate Wiley Cline for District 2 Yavapai County supervisor in a bid to replace Dee Jenkins, the interim supervisor and former Camp Verde mayor whom Moore replaced after Jenkins opted not to run for a full four-year term. No Democrat is challenging Republican Moore so the race is de facto decided, barring any last-minute and unlikely-to-win write-ins.
Cottonwood City Council won’t change too much. Incumbent Councilman Christopher Dowell and incumbent Councilwoman Debbie Wilden both won reelection easily, meanwhile Scott Ellis pushed out incumbent Councilman Stephen DeWillis. Though Ellis a technically a “political newcomer” being that this is his first elected office, it’s hard to call him that in the traditional sense because he was the Cottonwood’s Community Development director for 12 years before his current role as Clarkdale Community Development director. As such, he has served the residents of Cottonwood longer than any of his new colleagues.
Write-in Heather Piper White, who ran as a regular candidate in 2024, actually had the most number of votes of any write-in candidate in the county —363 as of press time — more than any write-in for state or federal office.
Incumbent Camp Verde Councilwomen Patricia Seybold was reelected and will be joined by newcomer Tanner Bryson. Incumbent Councilwoman Robin Godwin and Jackie Baker, who served on Camp Verde Town Council off and on over numerous terms dating back to the late 1990s, differ by just 10 votes and may be heading to an automatic recount.
Clarkdale only changes slightly as incumbent Councilwoman Laura F. Jones and newcomer Ben Kramer ran unchallenged, with Kramer to replace retiring Councilwoman Lisa O’Neill, who did not run.
The biggest change in the Verde Valley is Camp Verde mayor. Current Vice Mayor Wendy Escoffier lost her bid for the mayoral seat to Gary Thompson. Both candidates have decades of service to the Town of Camp Verde and the Camp Verde community at large so the election was largely a toss-up going into election day.
The races for Sedona mayor and the three Sedona City Council also weren’t that dramatic, despite lots of clamor and noise going into election day. Vice Mayor Brian Fultz defeated newcomer Henry Silbiger and Councilwoman Melissa Dunn won reelection, so the only two council members this cycle who sought to remain were both retained. Newcomer Tony Hauserman, a longtime coach at Sedona area schools and well-known figure was also elected.
The current top vote-getter, Jean-Christophe Buillet, a local hotelier, ran with a “slate” of two council and a mayoral candidate promising vast change to city operations, but it appears the electorate was largely unmoved by the “slate” as a group. Of the four, he was the only one elected.
Sedona voters also retained its alternative expenditure limitation, aka “home rule,” passing it again by more than 60% as voters have since 1996 despite quadrennial attempts to reject it by a handful and anti-municipal government folks who never gain traction beyond about 30% to 40% of the electorate.
Sedona voters also approved Proposition 403, which will prevent housing at the Sedona Cultural Park. The lack of such a housing solution for Sedona means that those who work in Sedona’s tourist and service industry will continue to look toward Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Cornville and Rimrock for their housing needs.
We applaud the election’s winners and thank all those who ran for office. The next election is only two years away and we hope that these candidates stay involved and run again in two years.
