Heading into the last half of February, there is still no sign of Democrat incumbent Charlene Pesquiera filing to run for re-election in the state Senate. I have reported here since she first picked up the seat that inside sources have several times quoted Charlene as saying she was not going to run again and her inaction is further evidence of her commitment to that. If she were planning to run, she would have at least filed and begun collecting signatures on Super Tuesday. Failing to do the obvious makes her intentions clear.
It appears that the Democrats are having difficulty filling the anticipated vacancy. There is no word from the party about a new candidate, and with the Republicans determined to take back the seat now well into the race with plenty of momentum in their home territory, it's almost too late for a Democrat to jump in. Some have speculated that in order to hold on to the two seats they picked up in 2006, the Democrats should run Wright for the House and Jorgensen for the Senate instead of throwing a body into the Senate race at the last minute and chance losing a seat they already have. At this point, however, it may be too late for either option.
The way it looks, the Democrats will sacrifice the Senate seat in order to run two candidates for the House and hope they don't end up losing at least one.
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7 comments:
Well, the Wright Jorgensen strategy will put the LD 26 house seats back in GOP hands. How can they single shot with two candidates? Two R's back in that district.
How can they hope to seriously contend with the Trent Humprhies juggernaut anyway? :)
If this is true, the Dems continue to bungle their way around in this state and it pisses me off. I think they missed a big opportunity last election and if they do it again, they deserve to remain a minority party here.
They missed a big opportunity? Huh?? They put a rep and senator in GOP heavy LD26, picked up USHR seats in CD5 and CD8, and re-elected Napolitano. Banned smoking in bars and restaurants. They already ran all the Republicans off of city council. And with the help of Bruce Babbitt taking part in another tainted deal, they politically castrated Renzi and gave their party two years to gear up for his seat. Exactly what opportunity did they miss? An initiative to ban the words "Wall" and "Mart" from the English language? Some minority party.
They did however do one good thing: the employer sanctions law. Thanks governor.
This post is nonsense. Pesquiera IS running and the author of this post thinks by saying otherwise that he will create some advantage for the GOP in November.
The REAL story in LD26 will be the acrimonious and party-splitting battle between Melvin and Hershberger for the GOP Senate nod. The Republicans will also have a three-way primary for the House. The Democrats, meanwhile, will NOT have a primary in either race and can focus on winning all three seats in November.
Hey Anon,
The big opportunity they missed was to pick up seats in the state legislature. In my opinion, they should have picked up more in a year that was a banner year for democrats nation-wide. Yes, they narrowed the margin slightly, but this was a perfect storm and in many places, they didn't run candidates or ran poor ones. I think they should have focused much more on building talent for the legislature and preparing.
Your point is well taken that they did pick up Congressional spots...excellent...and a few seats in S. Arizona, but we are still left with a GOP majority that is pretty solid. I think they should have gone all out...and if they don't this time, it will be a big disappointment.
The big battle definitely will be Hershberger versus Melvin.
ROGER--I totally agree with you re building talent for the legislature. The extremely low pay and the massive amount of time needed to properly prepare and campaign is likely to continue to limit potential legislators to the well-off, those with spouses/partners with good-paying jobs, retirees, and those with businesses that can essentially run themselves. It is difficult for the self-supporting and main family breadwinners to take such a plunge.
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