Thursday, January 16, 2014

9 Republicans Vying For Arizona's 3 Swing Democratic Congressional Seats; Complete (and Final?) List of Official Congressional Candidates For Arizona's Nine Districts (With Links)

The primary fields for Arizona's three most competitive Congressional districts are likely filled, and there are 9 Republicans vying for the three Democratic incumbents.  Three incumbents have no challengers at all, and a fourth has one independnt challenger.

The most attention in the August 26 primaries will be focused in Districts 1 and 9.  CD1 comprises much of northern and eastern rural Arizona and is currently represented by Ann Kirkpatrick.  State lawmakers Adam Kwasman and Andy Tobin (House Speaker) have the most name recognition, but business owner Gary Kiehne got a fundraising headstart.  Jim Brown filed earlier this month, and Mike Olivas previously filed, but his paperwork makes it appear that he is no longer officially a candidate.

In Maricopa County's CD9, incumbent Kyrsten Sinema will wait to see whether newcomer/former ASU quarterback Andrew Walter can defeat two candidates who ran for the seat in 2012 - Vernon Parker (nominee) and Wendy Rogers.  Southern Arizona Democrat Ron Barber (CD2) will wait to see whether Martha McSally can repeat as GOP nominee vs. Shelley Kais.

Two Republicans who previously tried to defeat long-time Rep. Raul Grijalva in CD3 are giving it another shot, but no Republicans have stepped forward to challenge Ed Pastor in CD7.  A Democratic activist is opposing GOP incumbent Paul Gosar (CD4), and an independent has filed against Matt Salmon (CD5), but Republican incumbents David Schweikert (CD6) and Trent Franks (CD8) have no challengers.

Here is the complete list, with links and other tidbits:

Congressional District 1 (incumbent: Kirkpatrick-Dem; website):
--Jim Brown (R) (filed January 4, 2014) (Jim2Washington@aol.com)
--Gary Kiehne (R) (Previous article) (Website)
--Adam Kwasman (R) (filed Nov. 8, 2013) (Website)
--Andrew Tobin (R) (filed Oct. 17, 2013) (ran in 2010) (Website)
Congressional District 2 (incumbent: Barber-Dem; website):
--Martha McSally (R) (Previous article)(website)
--Shelley Kais (R) (Website) (filed October 29, 2013)
Congressional District 3 (incumbent: Grijalva-Dem):
--Gabriela Saucedo Mercer (R) (lost in general 2012) (website)
--Jaime Vasquez (R) (lost in primary 2012)
Congressional District 4 (incumbent: Gosar-Repub; website):
--Mikel Weisser (D) (political activist) (website)
Congressional District 5 (incumbent: Salmon-Repub; website):
--James Alan Samuelson (I) (filed Nov. 25, 2013) (no committee yet)
Congressional District 6 (incumbent: Schweikert-Repub; website):

Congressional District 7 (incumbent: Pastor-Dem; website):

Congressional District 8 (incumbent: Franks-Repub; website):

Congressional District 9 (incumbent: Sinema-Dem; website):
--Wendy Rogers (R) (lost in primary 2012) (website)
--Vernon Parker (R) (lost in general 2012) (website)
--Andrew Walter (R) (new to politics) (website)


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