The Arizona Senate may not be on national Democrats’ target list, but state Democrats think the impending GOP primary showdown between Sen. John McCain and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth could give them an opening.
Likely candidate Rodney Glassman, a member of the Tuscon City Council and Air Force JAG Reserve Officer, sent around an e-mail to supporters Thursday declaring that “the war between John McCain and J.D. Hayworth is on,” and recalling the 1976 Senate race when “two Arizona Republican political heavyweights ... attacked each other so fiercely in scorched-Earth primary campaigns that a political newcomer from Tucson was able to win a long-shot campaign.”
Glassman clearly hopes history will repeat itself. He is currently exploring the race and is fundraising, but is capping donations at $20 as a show of support for local clean election efforts.
Glassman is also capable of self-funding, said Democratic state party Chairman Don Bivens. There would be “no financial advantage for either side” should Glassman run against McCain, Bivens predicted.
Hayworth is expected to announce his intentions soon and prospects for a flareup of long-simmering tensions within the state’s GOP faithful is a possibility, not to mention what could be a fierce political contest.
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