I really, really want Kyl to be defeated. Badly.

[NoodleBoy]

He's just so "Generic Republican Politician" it irks me. If he gets a primary challenge, I'm donating to his challenger (it's easier to defeat a non-incumbent), and when we get a strong Democratic challenger I plan on donating and volunteering. Someone mentioned Peterson as possibly running, and I'm a little hopeful he will-- he supposedly has some good fundraising skills, and currently Republicans raise nearly twice as much as we do in this state.

[City Lights]

1. I despise kyl.

I've written to him a couple of times and he doesn't even have the decency to write back. :grr: I called his office once and his receptionist had the nerve to argue with me about my comment. I'm thinking about changing my registration to independent just so I can vote in the GOP primaries. I'm sick of having radical right wingers shoved down my throat. If I'm going to be stuck with all GOP reps, I'd at least like to do what I can to elect the moderates by voting for them in the primaries.

[Lenape85]

2. Me too, and I think he could be beaten

He is nowhere near as popular as McCain and is an extreme right-winger in a state that usually prefers a different type of politician

[NoodleBoy]

3. Let's start naming names

just to get some thoughts thrown around.

The most obvious first would be Janet Napolitano. She's hardly hidden her Senatorial ambitions, and could run on her moderate record as Governor. would hate to lose her and possibly open the door to another Republican governor of AZ.

The next would be two also-rans-- Stu Starky, who ran against McCain this time around, and Paul Babbit, who ran against Rick Renzi. They both have moderate name recognition (Starky for anyone paying attention and Babbit in 1st District), which means they won't be completely unknown if they went up against Kyl.

Two who seem less likely would be Ed Pastor and Raul Grijalva, our two Democratic Reps to Congress already. It doesn't seem like either of them currently aspire to the Senate at this time, though. Another who would fall into this catagory would be Phil Gordon, mayor of Phoenix. He's popular around here, but I don't know how the rest of the state would react to him.

Even less likely would be State Senators. However, the only one who seems to be popular around Phoenix is Ken Cheuvront (who represents my district), and it would be difficult to elect an openly-gay man to a statewide office in AZ. Not even remotely possible--but a damn good choice-- would be Bruce Babbit, Paul Babbit's brother and former 2 term Governor. He'll be over 70 years old by then, however. If only he was 10 years younger.

[blondeatlast]

4. About Gordon: He seems to be a DINO, IMHO.

He ran a partisan mayoral race, but he seems to be socially well to the right of Rimsza. I work at the PPL, and it was his idea to put filters on library computers--IMMEDIATELY. The city council just bent over and let him do it. It cost the city a small fortune to have it done so fast, too, and we have to hire new staff in my office just to handle requests for unfiltering sites.

It was a major nightmare and a horrible embarrassment to the City Librarian, who had just been named Library Journal's Librarian of the Year.

Phoenix has been renown for its library system, but Gordon is showing in many small ways that he doesn't have a lot of support for us.

I could not in good conscience vote for Gordon for ANY office. As a Phoenix citizen, I feel like I've been very much had by him, and so do a lot of other Dems I know.

[blondeatlast]

5. This is gonna sound weird, but I think Cheuvront could have a chance.

They certainly can't "out" him, he's well known already. He has enormous respect in the legislature, and is a very charming, well-spoken guy who doesn't easily lose his cool.

What's important is that the state party get behind anyone who's running, and sadly, I don't trust them to do so. They were WOEFULLY absent in Starky's campaign.

McCain was willing to debate Starky, so he obviously took him seriously, even if the AZ Dem party didn't. I tell people McCain had more respect for Stuart than the AZ party did.

It would be great to see Bruce on the ticket, but I don't think it has a chance. God, I feel old, if he's approaching 70.

Yikes!

[NoodleBoy]

6. if McCain was willing to debate Starky, it was probably because he wanted

something to come into the 2008 race with: "Look, I debated a Democratic candidate, and I actually won." That kind of thing.

I can't blame the state party for not backing Starky-- he himself ran a good campaign, but he had little cash behind it. To me, his race actually highlighted the number of die-hard democrats there are in Arizona.

Anyway, I think the State party did fuck up in not using this Senate election year to get attention for raising money for state leg. candidates.

I didn't know that stuff about Gordon-- I do know that as far as public speaking goes, he needs alot of practice. I did a little work for a lobbyist who said they knew him for a long time, and that he'd never been very good at giving speeches, and also he has a hard time articulating his points. Like at the function I saw him speak at, he was asked a question about gay marriage, and he said he believed marriage should only be between a man and a woman. What he left out, the lobbyist told me, was that he was all for civil unions.

I don't know. I really wish people in this state weren't so homophobic, Cheuvront would make a great anything.

[LibeMatt]

8. McCain

Remember, McCain also has national stature, a rep as somewhat independent, and a lot more influence for AZ in the Senate than Starky would have had even in a Dem-controlled congress; I think that's why a lot of people voted for him. I even gave it a passing thought or two, until he started campaigning with Shrubbie. Bush got something like 20 points less than McCain did in AZ.

[LibeMatt]

7. Kyl does have...

...good people working for him. I took a class with one of them last year at U of A...if you ignored his plaintive Conservative asides, he (the aide, not Kyl) made every effort to be fair, and I learned a lot from him. At the very least, I could tell you in detail just why I was incensed every time I wanted to throw a shoe at the TV after seeing on the news the latest Kerry campaign 'oops'. For example, the Swift Boat Lies and their (mis-)handling...

(Aside: of course, the SCLM tended to make mountains out of invented or not-even-artifically-existent molehills when it came to Kerry and pretty much gave Bush a free pass on his real mountains of trouble, at least until the final few weeks, and then it was too little too late, and now, as per Newsweek, it's back to business as usual.)