Fountain Hills mayor still up in race against Joe Arpaio; results in other northeast Valley elections

Some of the metro Phoenix's most hotly contested local races have been decided by voters in northeast Valley communities, where unofficial votes on Wednesday show how the area's three dozen candidates are stacking up.

Fountain Hills Mayor Ginny Dickey, who has held her seat since 2018, is beating out former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, although her lead was shrinking as more ballots were counted.

"I think it was a big turnout for in-person voting, which did cut into (my) lead," Dickey said on Wednesday. "We're cautiously optimistic. We've got about a 400 vote lead right now, and we'll just have to see if that's enough to withstand the rest of the votes being counted."

Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt of court in 2017 for ignoring orders to stop racial profiling at MCSO, but was later pardoned by then-President Donald Trump. He lost his bids for sheriff in 2016, for U.S. Senate in 2018 and for sheriff again in 2020.

“It’s a very close race (and) it’s not over until it’s over,” Arpaio said.

The 90-year-old former sheriff added that he wouldn't rule out another run for office if he ends up losing. “If I lose by 400 votes or whatever, I still made a great, great showing — a big time showing."

The biggest vote-getters for the town's three open council seats were candidates Brenda Kalivianakis, Hannah Toth and Cindy Couture.

Like the mayoral race, it's too soon to call a clear winner for the council elections, according to Fountain Hills Town Clerk Linda Mendengall.

Vote tallies may change throughout the week as early ballots dropped off on election day and provisional ballots are counted.

Crane leads Carefree mayoral race

In Carefree, Councilmember John Crane led Peter Sample in their bids to fill four-term Mayor Les Peterson's role once he steps down later this year.

"This is my first run for mayor, so it's really humbling to have the confidence of the voters," said Crane, who added that one of his first goals is to "mend the fences" after what he described was a "contentious election" with a lot of "negative campaigning."

"The key thing to me is making sure the community knows what's going on and to involve them in everything — give them a seat at the table. I think that's the way we mend those fences and make good decisions."

Carefree Town Council candidate Sheila Amoroso and the five council incumbents running for reelection were leading in that race on Wednesday.

Morris leads Cave Creek mayoral race

Similar to Carefree, Cave Creek had six Town Council seats up for grabs. Incumbent Kathryn Royer received the biggest chunk of votes counted so far. Councilmember Thomas McGuire and challenger Tom Augherton were tied Wednesday for the second highest number of votes.

Candidates Dusty Rhoades, Paul Eelkema and Mayor Ernie Bunch — who opted to run for council this year — were the other top vote-getters in Cave Creek's council election at this point.

Bunch gained serious ground as counting continued on Wednesday, securing enough votes to push himself into sixth place and bump newcomer Anna Marsolo off the top vote-getter list for the time being.

"There's still a tremendous amount of mail-in ballots that were dropped off at the precincts yesterday that probably won't be counted until the end of the week," Bunch said on Wednesday. "I'm not getting real excited about anything at this point. I'm too close to the bottom to get excited."

Councilmember David Smith is trailing Marsolo, and Ron Sova — another underperforming incumbent — was parked in a distant ninth place.

In Cave Creek's mayoral race, sitting Councilmember Bob Morris was leading former Councilmember Eileen Wright.

PV Mayor Bien-Willner leads

In Paradise Valley, Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner had taken the lion's share of counted votes on Wednesday in his race against Councilmember Julie Pace, who launched a bid to unseat the current mayor earlier this year.

"I'm incredibly excited about the town's future and looking forward to the next several years," Bien-Willner said on Wednesday.

Incumbents Anna Thomasson and Ellen Andeen led the race for Paradise Valley's three open Town Council seats, while newcomer Christine Labelle received the third highest number of votes.

Incumbent Paul Dembow landed in last place.

The winners in all four towns will be responsible for community challenges such as how to regulate short-term rentals, manage growth and ensure adequate water supplies.

Reach Sam at sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @KmackSam.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arpaio trails in bid for Fountain Hills mayor; other area updates