Political newbie Dorean Taylor was beating two-term Mesa Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury at the ballot box in Tuesday’s recall election, according to unofficial results Tuesday.
The initial count, which dropped at 8 p.m., showed Taylor with 52.78% of the nearly 16,000 ballots cast by District 2 voters. Spilsbury had 47.22% of the votes. According to the county the vote count will be updated daily.
In the only other ballot question for Mesa voters, Valleywise Health’s proposed $898 million bond was passing by less than 1%.
If Taylor wins, she would finish Spilsbury’s remaining term, which ends January 2029. District 2 covers Central and Southcentral Mesa.
The recall petition was pulled just weeks after Spilsbury took office in early January for her second four-year term. The petition singled out three votes she had cast as justification for her removal. But in actuality it was partisan politicking in play, according to Spilsbury and her supporters.
Both Spilsbury and Taylor and their sign-carrying proponents stood outside Brimhall Aquatic Complex on Southern Avenue on Tuesday hoping to sway undecided voters on their way in to vote. People also were dropping off their ballots.
“I’ve been out here since 8 a.m. talking to people,” said Taylor, about two hours before the polls were to close. “I’m very thankful I’ve had a wonderful run up to this point.
“It’s been a positive experience, I’m still feeling really good. Everything is in God’s hands.”
Taylor stationed herself near a table manned by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, which backed the challenger.
Spilsbury, like Taylor, felt good going down the final stretch.
“We’ve been out canvassing for eight weeks,”said Spilsbury, who was positioned across the drive from Taylor and her camp. “I’ve had dozens of volunteers out – Republicans, Democrats, independents. We have it all on my side.
“I love this coalition I’ve created. I have a campaign manager that’s a Democrat, a campaign manager that’s a Republican. I’ve got Dems out knocking doors for me that have never knocked doors for a Republican before. I have had so much support from so many different kinds of people. And that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to show that we do not have to all agree.”
Spilsbury said she’s been getting hundreds of calls since morning from people expressing their support and praying for her.
Regardless of the election’s outcome, Spilsbury said she will continue to do her job until the county certifies the results.
Resident JoAnne Robbins, who took out the recall papers, specifically pointed to Spilsbury’s votes to approve converting a hotel into an emergency homeless shelter in District 2 for domestic violence victims, veterans and families, raise utility rates and increase council salary.
The utility rates, approved last year, and salary increases were each passed unanimously on a 7-0 vote by council. The 7% pay raise for the mayor and council of the state’s third largest municipality was approved in 2023 and took effect this year. The emergency shelter, approved in late 2023, was a split vote.
Nonetheless Robbins with the support of Turning Point, solicited over 5,000 signatures. The conservative organization funded and helped coordinate the recall.
A total of 3,858 signers were verified and certified to be qualified voters, exceeding the 3,070 minimum number of signatures required by state law to trigger a recall election, according to the City Clerk’s Office.
In her defense Spilsbury in a statement released early on called the move to oust her from office driven by a special-interest group funded by out-of-state money. She added that the purpose of a recall is to remove elected officials for committing egregious acts that violate the oath of office.
It didn’t sit well with the more conservative members of her Party that Spilsbury, a Republican, openly endorsed Democratic candidates, including Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential Election. She was vilified on social media and also censured by the Legislative District 9 and LD 10 Republican committees.
In the days heading into the election, a video was released featuring former Mesa Mayor John Giles speaking in support of Spilsbury, whom he encouraged to run for council five years ago. Arizona Alliance for Integrity was behind the video.
“When was the last time you heard about a boy going into a girl’s bathroom or locker room in Mesa?” Giles said in the video. “You haven’t because it isn’t happening.”
During the petition drive for signatures, Spilsbury was accused of allowing men to use women public restrooms and locker rooms because she voted for a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in Mesa against protected groups based on race, sex, age, ethnicity and gender identity. That vote was taken in 2021.
Giles in the video condemned the recall campaign, saying it “is based on dishonesty and manipulation.”
“It’s a political power grab by a special interest group that is pouring money into Mesa to impose a far right, partisan agenda on our nonpartisan city government,” he said. “Please reject this power grab and vote to retain Julie Spilsbury on the Mesa City Council.”
Giles, a Republican, also threw his support behind Democrats and even spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2024. Had he not left office in January after being termed out, he’d mostly likely have been a subject of a recall.
In previous elections, Spilsbury has proven to be popular with her constituents at the ballot box.
In the 2024 July Primary election, Spilsbury trounced her opponent with 65.91% of the votes cast or 8,120, according to Maricopa County Elections. Melody Whetstone garnered 33.75% of the ballots cast. Spilsbury won by a greater margin than in her inaugural 2020 run where she received 55.28% of the ballots.
For the special election, a total of three people pulled papers but Lincoln Jack and Miriam Gastelum withdrew, leaving Taylor to face Spilsbury.
According to the City Clerk, the cost to Mesa for the county to conduct the election was $104,577 based on the total registered voters – 49,329 – in District 2.
