Gilbert Public Schools elections (2014)

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2014 Gilbert Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
November 4, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Arizona Gilbert Public Schools Maricopa County, Arizona ballot measures Local ballot measures, Arizona

Two seats on the Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board were up for general election on November 4, 2014.

While incumbents Staci Burk and Jill Humpherys were up for re-election, Burk did not file to run in the election. Dawn Brimhall, J. Charles Santa Cruz, Reed Carr and Ron Bellus joined Humphreys on the ballot.

Humpherys and Santa Cruz won the general election.

See also: What was at stake in the Gilbert Public Schools elections?

About the district

See also: Gilbert Public Schools, Arizona

Gilbert Public Schools is located in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Gilbert Public Schools is located in the city of Gilbert, which lies in southwestern Arizona in Maricopa County. Phoenix is the county seat and the state capital. In 2013, Maricopa County was home to 4,009,412 residents according to United States Census Bureau estimates. In the 2011-2012 school year, Gilbert Public Schools was the fourth largest school district in Arizona and served 38,311 students.

Demographics

Maricopa County slightly overperformed compared to the rest of Arizona in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 29.5 percent of Maricopa County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.6 percent for Arizona as a whole. The median household income for the county was $54,385 compared to $50,256 statewide. The poverty rate in Maricopa County was 15.8 percent compared to 17.2 percent statewide.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Maricopa County (%)	Arizona (%)
White	84.7	84.0
Black or African American	5.7	4.6
American Indian and Alaska Native	2.7	5.3
Asian	4.0	3.2
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.3	0.3
Two or More Races	2.7	2.6
Hispanic or Latino	30.0	30.3

Presidential Voting Pattern, Maricopa County
Year	Democratic Vote	Republican Vote
2012	602,288	749,885
2008	602,166	746,448
2004	504,849	679,455
2000	386,683	479,967

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board is composed of five at-large, nonpartisan members who are elected to four-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was November 4, 2014. Arizona law required an automatic recount in the case of a tie. If a tie held, the winner would have been chosen by drawing lots in the presence of the candidates. There were no runoff elections. Members-elect assumed their board memberships on January 1, 2015.

Candidates were required to submit nominating petitions signed by qualified electors totaling 0.5 percent of the total voter registration in the school district to the county school superintendent between July 7, 2014, and August 6, 2014. For the 2014 general election, the number of required signatures was 400. The deadline for write-in candidates to file was September 25, 2014.

Voters were required to register by October 6, 2014, in order to vote in the general election. Early voting began October 9, 2014.

Elections

2014

Candidates

At-large

• Jill Humpherys
  • Incumbent
• Ron Bellus
• Dawn Brimhall
• Reed Carr
• J. Charles Santa Cruz

Election results

Gilbert Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Jill Humpherys Incumbent	31%	17,109
	Nonpartisan	J. Charles Santa Cruz	28.3%	15,613
	Nonpartisan	Dawn Brimhall	15.7%	8,660
	Nonpartisan	Ron Bellus	12.8%	7,073
	Nonpartisan	Reed Carr	12.3%	6,765
Total Votes				55,220
Source: Maricopa County Election Department, "General Election Results," accessed December 20, 2014

Endorsements

Jill Humpherys was endorsed by the following:

• G10 Business Leaders Of Gilbert
• Gilbert Chamber of Commerce
• Gilbert Education Association
• Gilbert Police Leadership Association
• Parents for a Fair School Board
• Save Our Dedicated GPS Employees
• Unite for Education
• Don Skousen, former board member and Gilbert Town Council member
• Van Dunham, former board member
• Adelaida Seversen, former board memeber
• Les Presmyk, former town council member
• Cynthia Dunham, former Mayor of Gilbert
• Wally Delecki, former Gilbert Public Schools superintendent
• Brad Barrett, former Gilbert Public Schools superintendent
• Jill Bowers, former principal at Greenfield Junior High

Ron Bellus was endorsed by the following:

• Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R)
• State Treasurer Doug Ducey (R)
• Sen. Andy Biggs (R-12)
• Rep. Eddie Farnsworth (R-12)
• Rep. Warren Petersen (R-12)
• Commissioner Bob Stump (R), Arizona Corporation Commission
• Commissioner Brenda Burns (R), Arizona Corporation Commission
• Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith (R), Arizona Corporation Commission
• Commissioner Gary Pierce (R), Arizona Corporation Commission
• Bill Montgomery, Maricopa County Attorney
• Hos Hoskins, Maricopa County Treasurer
• Eddie Cook, Gilbert Town Vice Mayor
• Victor Petersen, Gilbert Town Council
• Jared Taylor, Gilbert Town Council

Dawn Brimhall did not receive any official endorsements.

Reed Carr was endorsed by the following:

• John Lewis, Mayor, Town of Gilbert
• John Giles, Mayor, City of Mesa
• Ben Cooper, Gilbert Town Council
• Eddie Cook, Vice Mayor, Gilbert Town Council
• Jordan Ray, Gilbert Town Council
• Jenn Daniels, Gilbert Town Council
• Chris Glover, Vice Mayor, City of Mesa
• Kevin Thompson, Mesa City Council elect
• Denny Barney, Chairman, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
• Harrell Boyster, Former Justice of the Peace

J. Charles Santa Cruz was endorsed by the following:

• Gilbert Chamber Of Commerce
• Gilbert Education Association
• Unite For Education
• G10 Business Leaders Of Gilbert
• Arizona Police Association
• Dr. Brad Barrett, former superintendent
• Dr. Wally Delecki, former superintendent
• John Sentz, former town council member
• Barb Dwyer, former executive director of Gilbert Education Foundation

Campaign finance

As of the pre-primary campaign finance reports, candidates received a total of $39,886.71 and spent a total of $12,075.59 during the election, according to the Maricopa County Recorder's office.

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Jill Humpherys	$10,425.00	$2,872.56	$7,552.44
Ron Bellus	$1,755.00	$71.20	$1,683.80
Dawn Brimhall	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Reed Carr	$18,888.00	$6,070.91	$12,817.09
J. Charles Santa Cruz	$8,818.71	$3,060.92	$5,757.79

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2012 Two elections were held on November 6, 2012, for the Gilbert Governing Board. Three seats were up for regular four-year term elections. Another seat was up for a special two-year term election to fill a vacancy on the board. Jill Humpherys won the two-year term election. Gilbert Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Julie Smith 26% 29,497      Nonpartisan Lily N. Tram 19% 21,595      Nonpartisan Daryl B. Colvin 18.8% 21,341      Nonpartisan EJ Anderson 18.6% 21,145      Nonpartisan Blake A. Sacha 17.2% 19,498      Nonpartisan Write-in candidates 0.4% 462 Total Votes 113,538 Source: Maricopa County Recorder, "General Election November 6, 2012, Final Official Results," November 20, 2012 Gilbert Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 2-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jill Humpherys 54% 23,587      Nonpartisan Eric Johnson 45.6% 19,904      Nonpartisan Write-in candidates 0.4% 165 Total Votes 43,656 Source: Maricopa County Recorder, "General Election November 6, 2012, Final Official Results," November 20, 2012 2010 Gilbert Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Staci K. Burk 39.2% 21,939      Nonpartisan Shane Stapley 35.3% 19,738      Nonpartisan Blake A. Sacha 24.9% 13,909      Nonpartisan Write-in candidates 0.6% 315 Total Votes 55,901 Source: Maricopa County Recorder, "General Election November 2, 2010, Final Official Results," November 17, 2010

What was at stake?

As incumbent Staci Burk did not run in the election and fellow incumbent Jill Humpherys faced four challengers, the 2014 election was an opportunity for a shift on the school board with at least one new member guaranteed.

Issues in the election

Humpherys signature gathering criticism

The blog WestieConnect accused incumbent Jill Humpherys of inappropriately gathering signatures for her re-election candidacy. The blog posted photographs it claimed showed that Humpherys was soliciting signatures for her candidacy petition outside Gilbert High School on March 18, 2014, which the bloggers viewed as a violation of district policy. They cited Section KF of the district's policies, which states, "Posting of political signs and other electioneering activities will not be permitted on school property at any time including Election Day at school sites used as polling places." They argued signature gathering constitutes electioneering.

Hyumpherys responded to these accusations on her Facebook campaign page, saying, "I campaign in the correct way and abide by the law and by policy. I have been falsely accused of improperly collecting campaign signatures." She cited an option from the attorney general's office which states the following:

“	Board members, personnel or others acting on behalf of a school district may act as advocates, circulate petitions, and distribute election literature but only as private citizens, during non-duty time outside the classroom or other instructional settings, using their own or other private resources. Board members, personnel or others acting on behalf of a school district may engage in these activities at school-sponsored extracurricular activities, such as athletic events, only if they are not on duty or supervising or assisting with supervision or organization of the event. Personnel must not represent that they are acting on behalf of the school district or charter school while engaged in activities to influence the outcomes of elections.	”
—Attorney General of Arizona, (2004)

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Gilbert Public Schools election in 2014.

Deadline	Event
January 31, 2014	Campaign finance report due
June 30, 2014	Campaign finance report due
July 7, 2014	First day to file petitions
August 6, 2014	Last day to file petitions
August 22, 2014	Pre-primary campaign finance report due
September 25, 2014	Last day to file as a write-in candidate
October 6, 2014	Last day to register to vote in general election
October 9, 2014	Early voting begins
October 31, 2014	Pre-general election campaign finance report due
November 4, 2014	Election Day
December 1, 2014	Official canvass of election results due
December 4, 2014	Post-general election campaign finance report due

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Arizona elections, 2014

This election shared the ballot with general elections for Arizona's 1st, 2nd and 9th Congressional Districts, as well as eight state executive offices, the state senate, the state house of representatives, three statewide ballot measures, municipal elections and judicial elections.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Gilbert + Public + Schools + Arizona"

Gilbert Public Schools News Feed

See also

• Arizona
• Gilbert Public Schools, Arizona
• Arizona school board elections, 2014
• List of school board elections in 2014
• School board elections, 2014
• Maricopa County, Arizona ballot measures
• Local ballot measures, Arizona

External links

Suggest a link

• Gilbert Public Schools
• Maricopa County Elections Department