2014 candidates update

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

More like a "committees" update since this is based on the actual formation of political committees; since every person who has ever held or run for office in Arizona is being talked about as a 2014 candidate, that would be too long a post.

This will be a short post. 🙂

…Christopher Campbell of Prescott Valley (R) has formed an exploratory committee for a run at the Corporation Committee.  The name sounded familiar, so I did a little research.  One "Christopher Campbell" was a big part of the "fake Green candidates" scandal in 2010.  That Christopher Campbell was a roommate of the daughter of former Arizona House speaker Jim Weiers.  He was one of many non-Green Party members who were recruited to run as write-in candidates in competitive races in an attempt to siphon votes away from Democratic candidates.  I don't know that this is the same Christopher Campbell, but this one was active with the MCRC (Maricopa County Republican Committee) the following year, and I am not a fan of coincidence.

…State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, the Democratic leader in the AZ Senate, has formed an exploratory committee to look at a run for AZ Secretary of State.  She is smart and well-spoken, and also term-limited out of the Senate.  Unless Ed Pastor takes a presidential cabinet post or an ambassadorship (or simply retires from Congress), a 2014 run for a seat in Congress for her seems unlikely. 

…Jim Holway of Phoenix (D) has opened an exploratory committee for a run at the Corporation Commission.  He is currently a member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), also known as the Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project (CAP).  Will Greene of Blog for Arizona has more information here.

…Andrew Walter, a former quarterback at ASU, has filed with the FEC to run for the Republican nomination for the Congressional seat currently held by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema (CD9).  Don't know enough about him to evaluate his chances against Sinema, but it may not matter – the Republican field in that race will be crowded, and unlike Walter, most of the other Republicans in the race won't be newbies.

Word is that he's been test-driving a campaign stump speech that makes the tea party look moderate; we'll see if he sticks with that.

More to come…