Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Update on AZGOP National Committeeman and CD8 Candidates

The latest word on the street is that Bruce Ash has definitely thrown his hat into the ring to be considered for the national committeeman slot. Randy Graf is still not fully committed, but so close we think he will be in by Saturday's meeting. Bruce Ash and Bill Montgomery stand to gain in the position since they both plan to run for office again and would like the opportunity to hobnob with potential state and national contributors. Bill understands the benefits of funding campaigns outside of Clean Elections having run a Clean Elections campaign in the last election. Bruce is talking about funding a good chunk of his own campaign. Randy Graf is clearly looking for a broader opportunity to be involved and influential in the party beyond Arizona and is giving no indication he his running for public office.

As for the CD8 congressional race, Bruce Ash is definitely in, and, despite the rumors, Randy Graf is definitely not in. Bee is said to have the Click money in his pocket, so to speak. Of course, that didn't help Huffman, but then Huffman had other problems to overcome.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee I thought Tim Bee was just elected by the voters to be focused on his job in the State Senate ? Did I miss something ?

Anonymous said...

Ah young Jedi, much to learn you have, much to learn.

Don't you know Republicans can walk and chew gum at the same time?

When the time is right, Tim will graciously step aside; a fine replacement to complete his term will fill his shoes and complete his final session.

Tim will then begin his journey to Washington to be part of the valiant rebellion against the evil Emperor Pelosi and her dark apprentice Darth Giffords.

Run Tim run! The force will be with you.

Bruce P. Murchison said...

Even though Tim has a lot to work on this session, it would be wise to set up an exploratory committee in order to show his interest in running. With his name recognition and leadership qualities, he doesn't need to "step aside" until next year. He only needs to show he is running to help keep the field clean. We don't need a lot of people running if we have a strong candidate like Bee. Please Bee, just say the word.

Framer said...

Bruce,

Bee is running unless something catastophic happens in the meanwhile. Bruce Ash is running as well. At this point I would place the odds of Paton running as under 50%.

There may be more candidates, but I don't see how they will get the neccessary funding.

I suspect Bee vs. Ash would be a relatively clean primary in comparison with last year.

Bruce P. Murchison said...

Paton may want to go for Bee's seat in the Senate. With Bee's background, I believe he is the stronger candidate. Ash is a nice guy and may even have the leadership skills needed to serve in Congress, but it is the experience and political power Bee possesses that is needed to defeat Giffords.

Framer said...

Bruce,

We will have some district 30 news coming soon.