Replacing Ben Arredondo

As you may recall, former Republican turned Democrat state Rep. Ben Arredondo resigned his Legislative District 17 seat in the Arizona House of Representatives not quite two weeks ago.

Legislative District 17 Democratic precinct committee members expect to meet next week to recommend three nominees to fill the state House seat left open when Rep. Ben Arredondo resigned last Friday after pleading guilty to felony charges. (emphasis added)

The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Tempe Escalante Community Center.

State law requires precinct committee members to nominate three potential replacements within about three weeks, after being notified of the vacancy by the secretary of state, if the Legislature is not in regular session, or within five days if it is in regular session.

LD 26 Democrats will hold a meeting to allow Precinct Committeemen for the old LD17 to nominate those three people whose names will be forwarded to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The meeting will be held at the Escalante Community Center, 1250 E Orange St, Tempe, at 6:30pm this evening. It is OPEN to the PUBLIC, but only the LD17 PCs will be allowed to nominate and vote.

To qualify for the appointment to the House, a person must reside within the boundaries of the old LD17 (most of Tempe).

It is a safe bet that current Democratic LD26 House candidate Juan Mendez will be one of the people approved for the list of names to be forwarded. The other current Democratic LD26 House candidate, Andrew Sherwood lives outside of the old LD17, so he is ineligible.

I will report on the meeting later tonight.