In what was more like an end-of-the-campaign political rally, four incumbent Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) members who were re-elected last fall were sworn in for their new staggered terms on the five-member regulatory panel. Each commissioner thanked spouses, family members, campaign workers and ongoing ACC staff members for support in the election campaigns during a brief ceremony in Phoenix.

Commissioners Bill Mundell, Jeff Hatch-Miller, Mike Gleason and Kris Mayes were administered the oath of office by Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Jones. The fifth ACC member, Chairman Marc Spitzer, was not up for re-election and is in the middle of his first term, which ends in January 2007. Mundell, Hatch-Miller and Gleason were elected to four-year terms. Mayes was appointed to the ACC to fill a vacancy, and thus she had to stand for election before the end of her term, which ends in January 2007.

Existing Arizona law limits commissioners to serving only two consecutive terms, so the three newly re-elected ACC members will serve until their terms expire at the end of 2008.

In addition to specific thanks given out by each of the four newly elected commissioners to campaign aides, Mundell also thanked Spitzer for “keeping the train running while we were out campaigning.” Spitzer was the lone vote in favor of the proposed sale of UniSource Energy to a private investment group as the other four commissioners joined forces to reject the proposed sale just before the Christmas holidays last month.

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