Sam George

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.

Sam George appears to be losing hope in his effort to overtake state Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, as ballot counting enters its final day and Stump maintains a steady lead over the Democrat.

The ACC race is the last major race left undecided, as only a few thousand votes - and at times a few hundred - have separated the two since Election Day. However, the lead in votes Stump has maintained continues to hold up, and at latest count tops George by 2,568.

State Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) remains ahead of Sam George, his Democratic rival for an open spot on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Friday's last count from the Arizona Secretary of State's office has Stump leading George by 2,901 votes - a similar lead to the one he's maintained since he overtook the lead from George at the beginning of the week.

Republican Bob Stump has increased his lead over Democrat Sam George in the as-yet-undecided race for the last remaining spot on the Arizona Corporation Commission, according the latest tally from the Arizona Secretary of State's office.

As of Thursday afternoon, Stump leads George by 3,689 votes - almost 1,000 more than he led by on Wednesday at roughly the same time. With most of the uncounted votes coming from Republican-dominated Maricopa County, it seems increasingly less likely that George will be able to overcome the solidifying lead of his rival.

State Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) still leads Democrat Sam George in the continuing race for the third open seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, but his lead has shrunk slightly, according to the latest count by the Arizona Secretary of State's office.

While official results in the race won't be released until Dec. 1, when the Secretary of State's official canvass of all ballots is due to be put out, Stump, who once trailed George in the counting, is holding onto a fairly significant lead as the votes continue to be tallied. Stump now has 2,702 more votes than George, out of over 5.2 million ballots cast in the ACC race.As of Monday night, Stump was ahead by more than 3,000 votes.

State Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) now leads Democrat Sam George by just over 1,000 votes in the still-undecided contest to see who will fill the third open seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

With 100 percent of precincts now reporting, Secretary of State Jan Brewer's office has the tally at 829,902 for George and 830,956 for Stump, a change from the previous count which showed George leading Stump by several hundred votes.

The official canvass from the Secretary of State isn't due until Dec. 1, though results may be known before then. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of provisional and absentee ballots are yet to be counted, especially in Maricopa County, which contains most of the state's population.

UPDATED 

Most of the votes have been counted in the race for the three open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, but so far the race for third is still on.

Returns from the Arizona Secretary of State's office show that Democrats Sandra Kennedy and Paul Newman are all but certain to secure the first two slots, with Republican candidates Barry Wong and state Rep. Marian McClure (R-Tucson) likely too far back in the count to be in consideration.

However, the race for the third seat is nearly even. Sam George, the third of three Democratic candidates, and state Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) are locked in a battle for the final slot that might come down to the last vote counted.

Half of all votes have been counted, and so far none of the six candidates for Arizona Corporation Commissioner are significantly outpacing or under-performing against any other.

As it stands, Democrat Sandra Kennedy leads the pack with 17.8 percent, while state Rep. Marian McClure (R-Tucson) trails at 15.8 percent.

That means there is no greater than a 2 percent difference between any of the candidates in the race.

In the race for the three empty seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Democratic team's hopes appear to be buoyed by new internal poll numbers, while Republicans remain cautiously optimistic of their chances, according to two of the candidates.

Democratic candidate Paul Newman said he didn't know how the vote was going to end up, but that two rallies at which he appeared over the course of Monday "should translate positively" for the Democratic candidates. 

Newman was the second-highest vote getter in the four-way Democratic primary where Kara Kelty was eliminated. He and fellow Democratic nominees Sam George and Sandra Kennedy have dubbed themselves the "Solar Team," and are focusing on issues of renewable energy, solar at the forefront.  

"Arizona needs strong advocates for solar," said Newman. "We absolutely should be the solar leader of the world."

A day after the Arizona primaries, Two Republican candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission are still waiting to see which of them will be on the general election ballot.

Barry Wong currently leads John Allen by 1,000 votes, out of more than 720,000 votes cast. Only 13 precincts, or .6 percent of total precincts, have yet to report, but those votes could make the difference.

There are three seats on the ACC to fill, meaning three slots open on the general election ballot for both the Republicans and Democrats.

Arizona state Reps. Bob Stump (R-Peoria) and Marian McClure (R-Tucson) have already earned their places on the November ballot in the Republican column, grabbing 21.5 percent and 14.7 percent of the vote respectively. After a close race for third on the Democratic side, the slate is set as Sam George, Laura Kennedy and Paul Newman.