Arizona primary

UA Outreach Coordinator John Winchester to challenge District 1 Supervisor Ally Miller in Republican primary

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In case you missed it, those of you who live in District 1 of Pima County – Republican Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller (elected in Nov. 2012) will face a Republican challenger John Winchester in the August 30 primary. John is the Outreach Coordinator at UA Arizona Center for Judaic Studies.

John Winchester
John Winchester

Over on the Dem side, there are two running for this position as well – retired hospital administrator Brian Bickel and former adjunct communications prof. Jeff Farrell.  They too will face off in the August 30 Arizona primary.

from pimagop.org website:

“John Winchester was born and raised in Tucson with the values of service and investment in community.  Beginning when he was 10 years old, he volunteered in care homes bringing comfort to the elderly. When he turned 15, he started working in homeless shelters.  Today, John remains committed to serve the community by volunteering at the Arizona State prison complex, continued service in a shelter for women and children, working with the 4Tucson Government Domain to encourage Christian civic engagement in government, and acts as the Arizona State Director for Christians United For Israel.

John works successfully to build consensus on issues, bypassing political differences, for the purpose of achieving results.  As the Arizona State Director for Christians United for Israel, he works across Arizona building coalitions between Christian denominations,  as well as  relationships with the Jewish community on Israel-related issues.  John is known locally for his investment in the community and his ability to work among diverse groups of people to resolve issues and bring solutions.”

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Don’t coopt the voting rights movement to whine, “independent” voters.

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Wherein I express my annoyance with a certain type of holier-than-thou “independent” voter”

The New York primary took place Tuesday and a big story about it, at least on cable news and social media, was how massive numbers of “independent” voters suffered “voter suppression” due to not being able to cast a vote in the partisan primary. The deadline to change one’s party affiliation in New York (as opposed to a new voter registrant, which was last month) was all the way back in October.

I will say, from a purely partisan standpoint, that such an early deadline is a terrible rule as it impedes party building. Most people are paying little attention to the Presidential race a full year out from it, so New York political parties who agreed to the onerous deadline out of concern for voters from one party tampering with another party’s primary elections were missing the forest for the trees. Those kind of shenanigans rarely change outcomes anyway so it’s not a good idea for parties to foreclose their ability to use the Presidential primary as a way to recruit new registrants via conversion.

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2014 AZ Primary elections results – Southern Arizona (updated)

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AZ Blue Meanie has posted the early statewide results (and will do the final tally tomorrow), and I’m only reporting on the Southern Arizona races for U.S. Congress (CD 1, 2, 3), the Legislative Districts down here (Senate & House), and for the contested Justice of the Peace 1 race.

However, at my press time of Aug 26, 10 p.m. in the contested Republican statewide races: Doug Ducey is leading for Governor, Michele Reagan for Sec. of State, Mark Brnovich for AG, Diane  Douglas for Supe of Public Instruction, and Jeff DeWit for Treasurer.  There’s may be some upsets here esp. for AG and Superintendent of Public Instruction if the voting trend continues into the evening/morning.  The Dems had no primary races statewide except for Supe of Public Instruction and Dr. David Garcia is leading in that race.

UPDATED  8/27 (only for close races  in CD 1, LD 3 Senate, JP 1)

CD 1 (updated 9/2/14)

Ann Kirkpatrick (D), incumbent  50,585

Gary Kiehne (R)  18,157

Adam Kwasman (R) 15,069

Andy Tobin (R) 18,481

Too close to call between the Republicans in their primary.  Stay tuned.  UPDATE 9/2/14: House speaker Andy Tobin has the lead by 324 votes and rancher Kiehne has conceded today.

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