Jauregui elected; 4 face runoff

Taking more than 20 percent of the vote, former Cottonwood Mayor Ruben Jauregui was the top vote-getter in the Cottonwood City Council election Tuesday, March 8. He won 915 votes, the only candidate to be elected outright.

Cottonwood City Clerk Marianne Jimenez reported 1,783 ballots cast in the all mail-in election. To win outright, a candidate had to garner at least 893 votes, she said.

The numbers reported so far do not count ballots dropped off on election day.

If the vote holds up, incumbents Duane Kirby and Terence Pratt will face Jesse Dowling and Mary Eichman in the Tuesday, May 17, general election, Jimenez said.

Close behind Jauregui, with 16.1 percent of the total, was Pratt, a Yavapai College English professor and former liberal arts dean.

Dowling and Eichman bested Kirby and incumbent Darold Smith. Eichman won 16.03 percent of the vote and Dowling won 13.99 percent. Kirby, with 13.01 percent, and Smith, with 12.83 percent, round out the ballot.

By law, the May 17 ballot may contain only twice the number of candidates as seats available, Jimenez said.

That means Smith and Alan E. Lawhorn, with 7.28 percent of the vote, were eliminated from the race.

Incumbent Cottonwood Mayor Diane Joens garnered 95 percent of the vote in the mayoral contest, but faced no challenger.

Her former opponent, food bank administrator John Ask, was disqualified from the race for lack of proper nominating petitions.
None of the candidates could be reached for comment as of press time.