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Wednesday, March 4. 2020
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Election 2020 kicks off in earnest this weekend BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
W
hether you are looking forward to it – or dreading it – the 2020 election campaign season for county and state offices officially begins Saturday. March 7 is the first day when candidates can file their petitions for a place on the Aug. 4 primary election ballot. And for Ahwatukee Republicans, that could mean a five-way race for two nominations in the Legislative District 18 House race. Although the deadline for filing petitions is
April 6, party faithful among both Democrats and Republicans and election junkies can get some idea of what awaits this summer from statements of interest that potential candidates are now required by law to file before they can get a single petition signature. Those statements of interest are filed with the Maricopa County Recorder for local races and with the Arizona Secretary of State for legislative and statewide contests. At the county level, Ahwatukee voters in both parties may have some primary election decisions to make, at least according to statements of interest that have been filed so far.
Six Republicans are vying for their party’s nomination for county assessor. Five Democrats have filed statements of interest in the County Attorney primary. Two from each party have filed statements for county school superintendent while two Republicans threatened to duke it out for the County Recorder nomination. And five Republicans could be vying for the Republican nomination for sheriff. Meanwhile, for the County Supervisor district that includes Ahwatukee, only incumbent
see ELECTION page 8
Mountain Pointe counselor ‘MPOWRs’ students BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
M
elissa Ronneseth is on the front lines of the campaign to curb the spiraling problem of teen suicides in Arizona and the East Valley. A former math teacher-turned-counselor at Mountain Pointe High School, Ronneseth meets weekly with six groups of students who gather voluntarily for discussions that usually are framed by a 12-step program modeled after the one used by Alcoholics Anonymous. The 12 steps in this program, called MPOWRD, were developed by teenagers under the guidance of Susan Rothery, a counselor who worked largely with at-risk kids in the Paradise Valley Unified School District for 33 years before she started the nonprofit Teen Addictions Anonymous. Rothery has trained counselors, youth program leaders, school administrators and others in using MPOWRD to help teens confront the challenges of growing up in the 21st cen-
Mountain Pointe High School counselor Melissa Ronneseth facilitates voluntary sessions six times a week for students to discuss various issues, using a 12-step program that a Phoenix counselor developed with teens to help deal with the challenges facing teenagers today. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer)
tury. As Rothery, Ronneseth, countless experts who work with adolescents and teenagers
themselves will tell you, those challenges
see COUNSELOR page 20
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