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Arizona decides House candidates |
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By Michael O’Brien
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Posted: 09/03/08 06:50 AM [ET] |
Two of the southwest’s most competitive races were settled in Tuesday’s Arizona primaries, as the candidates to succeed scandal-plagued Rep. Rick Renzi (R) in the 1st District emerged, along with the Republican challenger to vulnerable first-term Rep. Harry Mitchell (D) in the 5th District.
State Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick decisively won her four-way primary against former television news anchor Mary Kim Titla, trial lawyer Howard Shanker, and activist Jeffrey Brown to become the Democratic nominee in the 1st district.
With 88 percent of precincts reporting, Kirkpatrick had received 48 percent of the vote, with her nearest challenger, Titla, polling at 32 percent. Shanker received 14 percent, and Brown received six percent.
Kirkpatrick had used a very strong fundraising advantage in the race to her advantage, having raised just under $1.8 million through the end of August according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
On the Republican side, Arizona Mining President Sydney Hay won the four-way primary to succeed Renzi, who was indicted in February on corruption-related charges.
Hay had received 38.6 percent of voters’ support, with 89 percent of precincts reporting. Hay beat out former State Department official Sandra Livingstone, who received 34.7 percent, and two minor candidates, Tom Hansen and Barry Hall, who garnered 17 percent and six percent, respectively.
Despite having spent over $720,000 on the race through the middle of August, Kirkpatrick reported still having $440,000 in cash on hand going into November’s race against Hay. Kirkpatrick has additionally benefited from being placed on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) “Red to Blue” program.
Hay will face an uphill battle in the 1st District, which the Cook Political Report rates as a “lean Democratic” race. Hay has raised substantially less—just $350,000 through the end of August—than her opponent, reporting $105,000 in cash on hand through the end of August, less than a quarter of Kirkpatrick’s savings at the end of the same period.
In the 5th district, former Maricopa County Treasurer David Schweikert closely won the six-way Republican primary, beating main challenger Susan Bitter Smith 30 percent to 28 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday. Former state Rep. Laura Knaperek received 15 percent, state Rep. Mark Anderson received 14 percent, and lobbyist Jim Ogsbury received 12 percent.
Schweikert had received an endorsement form the conservative Club for Growth in the race, which had taken aim at Bitter Smith, calling her a “liberal on economic issues” in an August 21 release.
Bitter Smith had sought to close the gap with Schweikert in recent weeks, infusing her campaign with $125,000 in personal funds, more than a third of her total fundraising to date.
Schweikert will take on Mitchell, the first-term Democratic incumbent who is on the DCCC’s “Frontline” program to hold onto as many endangered Democratic seats as possible this fall.
Mitchell has substantially outraised Schweikert in the race, which the Cook Political Report also says leans Democratic.
Mitchell has raised almost $1.9 million in the race to date, and still had $1.3 million in cash on hand through mid-August, despite still spending a heady $550,000 to date in the race.
Schweikert has raised less than half as much to date, just $700,00 this cycle, though he reported having that same amount in cash on hand in mid-August.
The races in the 1st and 5th districts will join the 8th as this fall’s most competitive elections in Arizona. The candidates in that race, first-term Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and state Sen. Tim Bee, did not face primary challenges on Tuesday. |
