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www.ahwatukee.com
STRIKING UP THE BAND
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
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NEW COMPETITION
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SOUP NAZI’S LOCAL TIE
ho will win the McSally-Sinema slugfest? Will the nation see a game-changing Blue Wave? And what propositions will emerge victorious amid a furious ad blitz for or against some of them? While all those questions might keep people up late next Tuesday, Ahwatukee voters have their own share of nail-biters in the Nov. 6 General Election to ruin a good night’s sleep. Amid continuing uncertainty surrounding the performance of the County Recorder’s office after last August’s ballot-counting debacle, the Legislative District 18 and the two school district elections will provide plenty of downto-the-wire suspense regardless of whether results emerge Tuesday night – or sometime
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PLAYOFF BRACKETS
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Wednesday or even Thursday. And independents likely will have a strong influence on the outcomes in those three jurisdictions. In LD18, Republicans dominated registration with 53,751, but registered independents number 49,711 – significantly higher than the 40,080 registered Democrats. While the district includes pieces of Chandler, Tempe and Mesa, Ahwatukee registration figures show Republicans lead in registration with 18,762 to 16,855 independents and 16,039 Democrats. The gaps among those three registration categories shrinks considerably where both Kyrene and Tempe Union High School districts’ numbers are concerned. While there are 34,391 registered Republicans in Kyrene, Democrats and independents aren’t far behind with 31,906 and 31,577, respectively.
And in Tempe Union, Democrats have a major registration lead with nearly 61,000 compared to about 50,000 Republicans and approximately 56,500 independents.
LD 18
With control of at least the State Senate hanging in the balance, LD 18 is among a handful of legislative districts across Arizona that is being watched closely. It also is perhaps the most expensive of all the legislative campaigns in Arizona. Like many legislative races across the state, education has emerged as the dominant theme in the LD18 senate and house campaigns with over $550,000 in contributions combined and over $235,000 spent. A replay of the 2016 election, DemocratSee
ELECTION on page 24
Local teen heading to Abu Dhabi for competition BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributor
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@AhwatukeeFN
Plenty of nailbiters await Ahwatukee on election night BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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@AhwatukeeFN |
sports at the prestigious games. Getting to that rarified level has taken a lot of training, and swimming at innumerable state and national competitions. Her most recent competition was the Special Olympics Arizona 2018 Swimming Championships, a part of the Special Olympics Fall Classic. She won gold medals in relay and breast stroke, and silver in freestyle in the standalone event at the Southwest Valley YMCA in Goodyear. This past year has been an excellent one for the 4’10” teen. Emory took home two gold medals and a
hen Emory Russell was 5, she accompanied her two older sisters to the Pecos Community Center Pool for summer fun, eventually joining them in swim competitions. For her, at her age group, it was the Pecos Pirates swim team. Little did her parents Kevin Russell and Cheryl Ross foresee that initial splashing would eventually propel their youngest to the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The week-long competitions begin March See COMPETITION on page 22 14, and 19-year-old Emory and her parents are readying for an “adventure of a lifetime.” (Special to AFN) Open Houses: She is the only Arizona athlete attend- Emory Russell, 19, of Ahwatukee, checks out one of gold medals she’s won in recent swim meets ing the International Special Olympics, and many Saturday, February 20th at 9:00am there she’ll join the other 23 swimmers from that helped her become the only Arizonan in the Special Olympics February 24th next at March. 6:00pm throughout the U.S. competing Wednesday, in various International
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KEYSTONE
MONTESSORI A Foundation for a Lifetime of Learning
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• (480) 460-7312