The nephew of Barry Goldwater, the right-wing U.S. senator who was the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, said Friday that he is running for governor of Arizona. Don Goldwater confirmed his candidacy to seek the nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, but he declined to elaborate in advance of news conferences planned for Tuesday.
The 50-year-old Goldwater is a Republican Party activist and a former board member of the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix think tank with libertarian leanings.
Barry Goldwater, who died in 1998, helped found the modern Republican Party in Arizona and served five terms as U.S. senator before retiring in 1987. He lost the 1964 presidential race to Lyndon Johnson.
Even though many Arizona voters have moved to the state fairly recently from elsewhere, Barry Goldwater's national prominence still should make the name ring for them, said Bruce Merrill, an Arizona State University professor who conducts statewide polling for the university's PBS television station, KAET. "It's worth plenty in a media society," Merrill said. "It's a magic name."Don Goldwater will join a developing field of Republicans seeking the party's 2006 gubernatorial nomination.
Former state Senate President John Greene, a fiscal conservative and social moderate, has already announced. Current Senate President Ken Bennett has said he intends to announce in the coming weeks whether he will formally explore a bid for governor.Napolitano won a narrow victory in 2002 but enjoys strong poll ratings.
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