Candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission won’t have to worry about a primary election for the three seats up for grabs in November.

Three Republicans and three Democrats are running for the seats, meaning each of the six people on the ballot will advance to the final for the seats on the commission that regulates Arizona’s public utilities, businesses and more.

Among them are a curring ACC commissioner, a former Chandler council member and a former Democratic Party leader from Pima County.

Ylenia Aguilar

Ylenia Aguiar has a history of local involvement and business work in the Valley.

Aguilar, a Democrat, was born in Mexico and grew up in Arizona and Illinois. She has served as a governing board member for the Osborn School District in Phoenix as well as on the Vitalyst Health Foundation Board of Trustees.

Currently she serves on the board for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, a seat she was elected to in 2022. The board oversees the Central Arizona Project and water imported from the Colorado River.

Currently, Aguilar is the business development manager for Gybe, a water analytics company.

Jonathon Hill

An Arizona native, Hill is hoping to bring his scientific background to the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Hill, a Democrat, was born in Kingman and raised in Phoenix.

He has lived, studied and worked in Tempe since 2000.
His science background is highlighted as working as an engineer and scientist at the Arizona State University Mars Space Flight facility for the past 17 years where he operated the university’s camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey craft and its instruments on two Mars rovers.

He also has worked on other NASA missions, including supporting the University of Arizona’s Osiris REx asteroid mission

Hill earned degrees in aerospace engineering, geological sciences and Russian from ASU and in 2022.

Rene Lopez

Rene Lopez is seeking to transition from a role on the Chandler City Council to serving on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Lopez, a Republican, joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in nuclear engineering. He earned a commission through Reserve Officer Training Corps starting off as a cryptolgoic officer before he worked with Navy Special Operations as a third-generation sailor.

Having growing up in Mesa, he is a graduate of Dobson High School.

Lopez has served in various roles for the Republican Party, including district chairman. He was elected to the Chandler City Council in 2014 and reelected in 2018 after serving on the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee.

Lea Marquez-Peterson

Lea Marquez-Peterson is the lone ACC incumbent running in the race. She was first elected to the commission in 2020 after being appointed to the seat by then-Gov. Doug Ducey in 2019.

As the commission’s lone representative from southern Arizona, Marquez-Peterson, a Republican, came from a long history in business prior to serving on the commission. She served as president and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber from 2009 to November 2018. Prior to that, she served as executive director of Greater Tucson Leadership from 2005 to 2009.

A Tucson resident, Marquez-Peterson serves on several community boards, including the Arizona Judicial Council, the Pima County Workforce Investment Board and is the past president of the National Association of Women Business Owners in Tucson.

She has degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Joshua Polacheck

Joshua Polacheck has a history in government with the U.S. Department of State as well as work of the executive director of the Pima County Democratic Party.

Polacheck grew up throughout the West before his family settled in Tucson. He earned a degree in history from Brandies University before joining the U.S. Department of State and becoming a foreign service officer with tours in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Zimbabwe and the Dominican Republic.

He then earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Havard University Kennedy School before returning to Tucson. He worked for the Democratic Party through the 2020 election and has been working as a leadership and public affairs consultant with Spyex for the past three years.

Rachel Walden

Rachel Walden, a Mesa resident, is a bringing a business career and work on the Mesa Public Schools governing board to the race for the ACC.

Walden, a Republican, has lived in Arizona since she was a child. She earned a degree from Arizona State University and continued at ASU for her post-graduate work and worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant.

In her career, Walden has worked managing institutional accounts for The Vanguard Group of investment advisers. She has held securities licenses and undergone training on fraud prevention and other securities-related topics.

Walden was first elected to the Mesa school board in 2022. She is a precinct committeeman and state committeeman for Legislative District 10.