Arizona's Politics tried to bring some straightforward coverage of the Jon Kyl retirement announcement and the reactions it engendered. And, if you have not yet seen our posts about Kyl's net worth declining while in the Senate, and about the fundraising effort designed to urge Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to run for the seat... well, please click on and read those before reading the articles linked below!
Most of the articles and columns speculating about who will run to be the 11th (according to comments made by Kyl yesterday) U.S. Senator from Arizona were pretty standard fare. However, some did add to the big picture. Arizona Republic D.C. reporter Dan Nowicki apparently spoke with Rep. Jeff Flake (R-CD6) last week and confirmed that he is interested. Real Clear Politics added that they found Arizona sources who said that former Arizona Governor (current Homeland Security Secy.) Janet Napolitano "has already begun calling out to activists in the state to gauge support."
This Talking Points Memo report cites an anonymous Arizona Democratic source as trying to forestall other Democrats from getting into the race until the recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-CD8) makes a decision as to whether she is willing/able to run for the seat. Yes, her recovery seems to be proceeding miraculously, but this surprised the heck out of me. The Washington Times advanced the Giffords angle last night by getting well-known Arizona pollster Bruce Merrill to state (on the record) that she would be a "shoo-in" if she is able to and decides to run.
Oh, I almost forgot: I did try to find my own mini-scoop in the speculation sweepstakes. At about noon, I came across this brief tweet from former Rep. Harry Mitchell: "Things are going to get interesting." I could not resist replying thusly: "@HarryEMitchell Fmr staffers Tweeted they'd like YOU to run; any other comment than "things are going to get interesting"? Are you running?" Mitchell has not tweeted since.
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