Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Renzi Succession?
Rick Renzi, (R-AZ), the Congressional District 1 is in hot water. The FBI is investigating for a sweetheart land swap that was one of the reasons the Federal Prosecutor in Arizona was dumped by Alberto Gonzalez for no apparent reason.
Renzi resigned his positions on all Congressional committees but for the moment is resisting resigning from Congress. Democrats are lining up in case Renzi sees the error of his ways and does resign rather than serve under a cloud for the rest of his term.
If he resigns Gov. Janet Napolitano has 10 days to set a special election date. There will be a special primary 105 days following the resignation and then a special general election 35 days after the special primary.
Candidates include Ellen Simon. She is a former ACLU lawyer who ran against Renzi in 2006 and came within 3 percentage points of turfing him out. Other Democratic contenders -- at the moment -- are State Representative Ann Kirkpatrick; Jim Pederson the 2006 Democratic Senate candidate; Bob Mitchell, former mayor of Casa Grande and brother of Rep. Harry Mitchell, Jim Ledbetter, an attorney; Kim Titla, a TV newscaster and Coconino County Supervisor Liz Archuleta.
If this occurs and if a Democrat wins our party will have a majority of the Arizona Congressional delegation. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) created a special election fund in anticipation of a Renzi resignation. "This is the first time we've created a fund of this nature," a DCCC spokesman said.
If you choose to join the fray log onto the DCCC's web site or contact me for more details.
Renzi was elected in the first place by smearing his Democratic opponent. Our candidate in 2002 was a Hispanic attorney from, I think, Globe. Renzi has been reelected by premier performance in delivering pork to the Navajo Nation though he subsequently double crossed the Navajo by ignoring their objections to the expansion of the Arizona Snow Bowl in Flagstaff into land that the Indians hold as sacred. The Nation's objection was that snow making was going to use brown water.
Pretty exciting.
John
Renzi resigned his positions on all Congressional committees but for the moment is resisting resigning from Congress. Democrats are lining up in case Renzi sees the error of his ways and does resign rather than serve under a cloud for the rest of his term.
If he resigns Gov. Janet Napolitano has 10 days to set a special election date. There will be a special primary 105 days following the resignation and then a special general election 35 days after the special primary.
Candidates include Ellen Simon. She is a former ACLU lawyer who ran against Renzi in 2006 and came within 3 percentage points of turfing him out. Other Democratic contenders -- at the moment -- are State Representative Ann Kirkpatrick; Jim Pederson the 2006 Democratic Senate candidate; Bob Mitchell, former mayor of Casa Grande and brother of Rep. Harry Mitchell, Jim Ledbetter, an attorney; Kim Titla, a TV newscaster and Coconino County Supervisor Liz Archuleta.
If this occurs and if a Democrat wins our party will have a majority of the Arizona Congressional delegation. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) created a special election fund in anticipation of a Renzi resignation. "This is the first time we've created a fund of this nature," a DCCC spokesman said.
If you choose to join the fray log onto the DCCC's web site or contact me for more details.
Renzi was elected in the first place by smearing his Democratic opponent. Our candidate in 2002 was a Hispanic attorney from, I think, Globe. Renzi has been reelected by premier performance in delivering pork to the Navajo Nation though he subsequently double crossed the Navajo by ignoring their objections to the expansion of the Arizona Snow Bowl in Flagstaff into land that the Indians hold as sacred. The Nation's objection was that snow making was going to use brown water.
Pretty exciting.
John
