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Teamwork was paying off for the Democrats in the Arizona Corporation Commission race Tuesday, while the Republican leaders included two candidates who ran on a ticket and another who did it on his own.

By press time Tuesday night, it appeared the "solar team" of Sam George, Sandra Kennedy and Paul Newman, who is from Bisbee, would be the victors on the Democratic side.

With 83 percent of the results in, Kennedy had 31 percent unofficially, Newman had 26 percent and George had 22 percent.

"It says we have the knowledge, the ability to connect to one another, to open the process," Kennedy said. "This is a Corporation Commission that we will return to the people."

Solo Democratic challenger Kara Kelty wasn't far behind, at 21 percent.

On the Republican side, Tucson's Marian McClure and one of her running mates on a three-person slate, Bob Stump, had taken the lead. Stump unofficially had 22 percent of the vote, and McClure 14 percent. Rival Barry Wong, who wasn't part of a slate, was the third Republican leader, with 12.9 percent of the vote.

Republican John Allen, who ran on his own, was close behind Wong with 12.8 percent of the vote with 83 percent of polls reporting late Tuesday.

McClure would say only that she remained "cautiously optimistic" until she could see more numbers come in.

"Right now, I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing," she said.

In all, eight Republicans and four Democrats were running for the three seats being vacated by incumbent Republicans Jeff Hatch-Miller, Mike Gleason and Bill Mundell.

Much of the discussion during the race centered on the renewable-energy standard passed by the all-Republican commission almost two years ago in a 4-1 vote.

The standard says state- regulated utilities must generate 15 percent of the state's energy from renewable resources by 2025.

The notion of putting such a requirement in place didn't sit well with three Republican candidates who ran as a team — Rick Fowlkes, Joseph Hobbs and Keith Swapp.

The three have said reversing the mandate is the biggest issue facing their potential constituents, though they all favor renewable energy. They just don't think the government should tell the utilities how to go about implementing it, they said.

Meanwhile, another team — this one made up of Democrats George, Kennedy and Newman — ran a series of radio and television advertisements touting their support for the renewable-energy standard. They've been claiming Arizona's only hope of keeping it in place was for voters to vote for all three of them.

McClure, a former state legislator who tried to take on the payday-loan industry earlier this year, is the only Southern Arizonan besides Newman running for a seat on the commission.

She has said she wouldn't have voted for the renewable- energy standard when it happened, but now that it's in place she won't repeal it, either.

Democrats haven't had a majority on the Arizona Corporation Commission in more than 10 years.