Sunnyside recall: Quintero, Giffin in landslide over incumbents
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Dylan Smith/TucsonSentinel.comSunnyside Boardmember Buck Crouch holds up a chart May 13 while accusing Superintendent Manuel Isquierdo, far right, of fudging the numbers of high school graduates from the district.
In unwelcome news for Sunnyside's Manuel Isquierdo, two challengers are leading the incumbents in the district's recall election — one which will determine the fate of the controversial superintendent. Rebecca Quintero and Eric Giffin were handily leading over board members Bobby Garcia and Louie Gonzales in unofficial returns.
Both contested races saw a challenger besting an incumbent by a 3-1 margin. It would take just one incumbent being voted off the five-person Governing Board for Isquierdo to lose his majority of support.
County elections officials tallied ballots from all 17 precincts in the district, with only about 100 left to count Tuesday. The results should be made official by Friday.
Mike Polak, another challenger, trailed in a three-way race with Quintero and Garcia.
Quintero, known by her nickname of "Beki," had 58 percent of the vote in her bid to remove Garcia from office. Giffin, a former member of the board, had 75 percent in his bid to unseat Governing Board clerk Gonzales. The pair will finish out the terms of the recalled boardmembers, through December 2016.
The recall was pushed by opponents of Isquierdo, whose contract was extended last year in a controversial 3-2 vote. Garcia, Gonzales and Eva Carillo Dong voted for the contract. Board members Crouch and Daniel Hernandez voted against it. Quintero and Giffin have said they would move to end Isquierdo's contract.
A recall effort against Crouch and Hernandez last year was abandoned as supporters did not file petitions after failing to gather enough signatures to force a vote.
Isquierdo's opponents opted to not seek to recall the other member of the district's Governing Board, Dong, as her term ends later this year.
Turnout in the recall election was about 15 percent; 4,076 ballots were returned of the 26,646 mailed out.
Gonzales and Garcia will remain in their seats until the election is certified by the Pima County Board of Supervisors, at a meeting scheduled for June 3.
Unofficial returns
- Bobby Garcia: 901
- Mike Polak: 768
- Rebecca Quintero: 2,356
- Write-in: 6
- Eric Giffin: 2,888
- Louie Gonzales: 981
- Write-in: 8
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buck crouch, eric giffin, eva carillo dong, louie gonzales, manuel isquierdo, mike polak, sunnyside, susdMore by Dylan Smith
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