State Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) held a victory celebration Monday night to claim success in the race for Arizona Corporation Commission, though his win over the next-highest vote getter, Sam George, is not yet official.
Stump celebrated along with supporters at a Phoenix restaurant, in anticipation that he will be officially declared victorious. With counting now ended, he leads Democrat George by over 2,000 votes, and will take the third open seat on the five-member ACC if his lead is reflected in the official canvass of election results by Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer, which is due out Dec. 1.
The two other seats will be filled by Democrats Sandra Kennedy and Paul Newman, who both garnered over 100,000 votes more than either Stump or George. However, the winner of the third seat remained in dispute after Election Day, as both Stump and George were within less than one-tenth of a percentage point of each other's totals.
Stump pulled away in the count days after election officials in Arizona's counties began tabulating early and provisional ballots, and has maintained his lead since.
Arizona law calls for a challenge of results only if candidates are separated by 200 votes or less, meaning it is unlikely George will have many options if the official canvass shows Stump with a lead exceeding 200 votes - a scenario that seems likely.
George has not conceded yet, but he is not expected to mount a legal challenge to the results if Stump is declared the winner, according to those who have spoken with him. Such a challenge would succeed only if it was found that there were serious problems with the election that could have significantly skewed the results.
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