Following an unusually brutal primary season for Arizona incumbents, we preview the top open-seat Election Day races to be decided on November 4.
Mark Brnovich vs. Felecia Rotellini
Arizona Attorney General
Backstory: Lame-duck AG Tom Horne’s scandal-plagued term – and subsequent ouster in the 2014 Republican primary – robbed voters of what would have been an intriguing rematch between Horne and Rotellini, the former AG prosecutor he originally defeated to take office in 2010. Enter Brnovich, the former Goldwater Institute watchdog and gaming official who would seem to make up in establishment GOP bona fides what he lacks in vowels.
At Stake: Horne supporters touted his opposition to Planned Parenthood and Tucson’s ethnic studies program; very little chance those fights are taken up by Rotellini… or Brnovich, for that matter.
Michele Reagan vs. Terry Goddard
Arizona Secretary of State
Backstory: Having lost his bid for the governor’s seat in 2010, former Attorney General Goddard appears to be taking the back-door route. How else does one rationalize his decision to run for SecState, essentially a glorified filing clerk whose most exciting job description is being first in the line for the governorship? For Reagan, a state senator who defeated dark-money poster boy Justin Pierce and serial candidate Wil Cardon to win the nomination, it makes more sense.
At Stake: Call it the “Napolitano Scenario.” Fred DuVal, a guy with strong Washington connections, wins the race for governor in 2014, then takes a job on the Beltway two years later when the wife of his old boss (hint: her name rhymes with “Shmillary”) wins the Oval Office. In that scenario, we’d be swearing in either “Governor Reagan” or “Governor Goddard.”
Tom Forese/Doug Little vs. Sandra Kennedy/Jim Holway
Arizona Corporation Commission
Backstory: Granted, it’s not the sexiest job title around – “corporation commissioner” – but the five elected officials who sit on the commission wield a fair amount of power in Arizona, including regulating public utility companies. Forese and Little ran as a team in the Republican primary, besting a pair of candidates supported by the rooftop solar industry. Kennedy and Holway ran unopposed on the Democrat side.
At Stake: It was widely speculated that “dark money” originating from Valley utility company APS propelled the campaigns of Forese and Little; APS is also known to favor a property tax on residential solar panels to offset losses stemming from the growing solar panel industry.
David Garcia vs. Diane Douglas
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
Backstory: Garcia, a Democrat, served in the Arizona Department of Education under two Republican superintendents and was a research analyst for the Senate Education Committee and a consultant for the U.S. Department of Education. He supports more funding for schools and the federally mandated Common Core education standards. Douglas dashed John Huppenthal’s reelection bid in the Republican primary, running on an anti-Common Core platform. She previously served on the governing board of Peoria Unified School District and was its president in 2008 and 2009.
At Stake: Common Core. Douglas has made it clear that if she wins the superintendent seat, she will “stop the Common Core standards in Arizona.”
Congressional Bonus
Not an open-seat election – but the race for District 9 stands to be the Valley’s most hard-fought campaign.
Kyrsten Sinema vs. Wendy Rogers
U.S. Representative, Congressional District 9
Backstory: Democrat Sinema was first elected to District 9 in 2012, after serving in both chambers of the Arizona legislature. The Congresswoman supports gun control and tax increases on the wealthy, is pro-choice and has spoken out against what she calls the “Israeli occupation.” Republican Rogers is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with a platform that’s pro-small-business, pro-Social Security and so anti-Obamacare and anti-IRS that she’s said she’d eliminate both if she could.
At Stake: Representation for the largest Congressional District in Maricopa County (nearly 345,000 registered voters reside there), and potential swing toward one side of the political aisle in a district not considered the domain of either party, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index.
