Lewis, Pittinsky, Sharkey to join SUSD board

Nov. 20—SLP it is.

What was designed as an individual battle became a team sport in the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board race.

With three seats up for grabs, six candidates — Jeanne Beasley, Drew Hassler, Gretchen Jacobs, Donna Lewis, Matt Pittinsky and Mike Sharkey — aggressively campaigned.

Two teams formed early on: "SLP," Sharkey, Lewis and Pittinsky; and "JBH," Jacobs, Beasley and Hassler.

The clear winner: SLP, backed by Democrat/progressive groups, according to unoffical results.

Lewis was the top vote getter, followed closely by Pittinsky and Lewis.

Those three will begin four-year terms as unpaid board members in January.

Jacobs, Beasley and Hassler were each thousands of votes behind the winning three.

Lobbyist Jacobs, paralegal Beasley and Coach House bartender/owner Hassler were running as "JBH" — with the slogan "Just Be Honest."

The three told the Progress they were "hybrid" (Jacobs) and conservatives (Beasley and Hassler).

Pittinsky sidestepped a question about SLP's priorities when the three take board seats.

"It is premature to address top priorities," he said. "As of this writing there are still votes to be counted.

"We are excited to learn from the continuing board members and the ones who are leaving, as well as district leadership."Going by "SLP" are Sharkey, an Arizona State University executive director; Lewis, former superintendent of Cave Creek Unified School District; and education software entrepreneur Pittinsky.

They identified to the Progress as "centrist" (Lewis) or "moderates" (Pittinsky and Sharkey).

Though school board races are nonpartisan, the JBH trio received financial backing from conservative groups and endorsements from local Republican organizations while the SLP three received funding from liberal/progressive groups and endorsements from local Democratic organizations.

All six SUSD board candidates this year raised nearly as much as the collective field of six that ran in 2020 — with three 2024 individual candidates topping the collective fundraising of board candidates four years ago.

And campaign finance reports show huge political action committee funds flooded the Scottsdale public school race.

The Virginia-based conservative organization the 1776 Project backed team JBH trio with mailers and $57,000 total support — while Arizona advocacy group Stand For Children pushed $140,000-plus to the SLP team.

Individually, all six candidates raised at least $30,000 — with the members of SLP each topping $50,000.

County, state races

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors had all five seats up for election.

In county District 2, which includes Scottsdale, early voting shows incumbent Thomas Galvin, a Republican, was the winner.

At 58%, Galvin he decisively beat Julie Cieniawski's 42%.

Cieniawski, a Democrat, is a member of the SUSD Governing Board.

LD 4

Republican Carine Werner, who has often traded barbs with Cieniawski at SUSD meetings, won the election for the state senate seat in District 4, which includes much of Scottsdale.

School board members are permitted to have other elected positions.

With nearly 52% of the vote, Werner easily defeated incumbent Democrat Christine Marsh.

Incumbent Matt Gress and fellow Republican Pamela Carter — who failed in a Scottsdale City Council bid in 2022 — were elected as the District 4 representatives.

LD 3

Parts of North Scottsdale are included in District 3, where Republican John Kavanagh is the incumbent senator and Republicans Alexander Kolodin and Joseph Chaplik the representatives; all are up for reelection.

Richard Corles was the lone Democrat on the ballot for representative of District 3.

Kavanagh was a walk-in winner, facing no challengers for his seat.

In the race for the two LD 3 representative seats, Chaplik and Kolodin easily won reelection over Corles, who won less than a quarter of votes.