Arizona Town Council Tie Settled By High Card Draw
There was a tie in the Gila Bend town council race, and the candidates settled it Wild West style
It was, as these things go, about as Wild West a showdown as you’re going to get these days.
The town? Gila Bend, Arizona.
The game? High Card Draw, which I don’t think is technically the name of the game of two people picking cards out of a deck to see who has the highest card, but it sounds cool, especially when added to Gila Bend, like this: “High Card Draw in Gila Bend.” (By the way, it’s pronounced “Hee-luh,” so go back and read it all again. I’ll wait. We cool? Cool.)
The stakes? The winner gets a seat on town council. The loser, presumably, would go back to just going to town council meetings and making them longer by getting up to speak about something-or-nuther going on in Gila Bend. (Most recent news item: Flooding temporarily closed SR 238).
The above was exactly (more or less) the scene on Tuesday in the media tech room of the Gila Bend Unified School District offices, where five residents gathered in the peanut gallery to watch the results of the game of High Card Draw between a pair of town council candidates: Jesus Rubalcava and Athena Guerrero.
Why were they drawing cards? Because back in July, they tied -- at 67 votes apiece -- to see who would serve on the council.
And according to Arizona law -- and frankly, this should be the law everywhere -- there is only one way to settle such a situation: By lot.
That’s it. That’s the law. “By lot.” What that means, apparently, is by random chance.
Make my day
So, according to The New York Times, the decision on how to settle this was left to Patricia Riggs, the town clerk, as played by Clint Eastwood in my mind.
She pooh-poohed Rock, Paper, Scissors and did away with drawing straws.
“We thought that was kind of boring,” Ms. Riggs said, hopefully with a squint.
So it was decided a deck of cards would do the trick.
Incredibly, this was the second time Rubalcava found himself in this position. Back in 2014, he won his council seat on the flip of a coin.
Now, it was going to be the pull of a card that determined if he won or lost his seat.
So the two candidates stood there Tuesday night in the hallowed halls of the school district offices, where Riggs read the rules: She would pull the cards. Aces high. Ties broken by suit. Spades trump all.
Riggs pulled first for Guerrero. Three of clubs. She sighed, according to the reports.
Then she pulled for Rubalcava …
The card was …
The three … of SPADES!
Rubalcava wins.
“Who would have thought?” Riggs said to the room.
Well, I mean, there was a 5.8% chance she was going to pull another three, so it’s not really that shocking, but that’s a tale for another day.
Jeff Edelstein is a longtime columnist, reporter, radio host, and fantasy sports aficionado, not necessarily in that order. He lives in New Jersey with his family.
