Wednesday, January 17th, 2007...7:28 am
S.P.Q.U.S.A.
Interesting bit in Roll Call yesterday. Should John McCain win the presidency, or even if he resigns his seat upon nomination, Governor Janet Napolitano would appoint a successor. Unlike in some states, any appointee has to be of the same party as the person they are replacing. This means that Napolitano would have to find a Republican to replace McCain.
The article, which you can’t read without a subscription, names some Republicans friendly to Napolitano who she might choose:
If she chose an appointee from among her Republican supporters as some insiders speculate, it’s possible this individual could be drafted from her cabinet, if not the group of well-known Republicans who endorsed her 2006 re-election bid.
Among them are former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods (R) and Jack Jewett (R), a Tucson businessman and longtime member of the state Board of Regents. Current elected officials who backed Napolitano last year include Flagstaff Mayor Joe Donaldson (R) and Phoenix City Councilman Tom Simplot (R).
If Napolitano turned to her cabinet to replace McCain, she’d have 13 choices, including Bill Bell, director of the state administration department; Susan Gerard, director of the state Health Services Department; Don Butler, director of the state Agriculture Department; Pat Chorpenning, director of the state Veterans’ Services Department; and Gale Garriott, director of the state Revenue Department.
The supposition has always been that Napolitano herself wanted to run for Senate in 2010. To make this happen, she would have to appoint someone who would be willing to step aside in 2010, something appointees have done in other states.
Here is the funny part of the article (besides the soon-to-be-unemployed-under-a-Pullen-chairmanship Garrick Taylor using it as another reason to paint Napolitano as an out of touch extremist. That’s why she won, I guess): the close of the article names possible other candidates should Napolitano not make a go of it:
If she doesn’t run, Democratic Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva, and state Attorney General Terry Goddard (D) could be candidates.
My God, Gabby just got there! Give the gal a break. For some reason, Ed Pastor isn’t mentioned. With all due respect to Giffords and Grijalva, the direction of politics and demographics here doesn’t bode too well for a candidate from Tucson, but nice to see our folks mentioned. Actually, all three of these pols are Tucson born.
5 Comments
January 17th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Tommy just registered as a Dem. “I am a Socialist defense attorney who represent murders” Sinema just loves it. If we Dems don’t put up a strong candidate (not her fellow green Campbell) We need to throw in the towel.
Great commentary on Some Phoenix Blog
http://somephoenixguy.blogspot.com/
January 17th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
She’s sick of all you fat white guys without a sense of humor too.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Don’t forget balding
January 18th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I would have thought Napolitano would have appointed Barry Wong– former Republican state Senator and the guy she appointed to fill out that unexpired Corp Comm term– since she’s already put him on something and he’s been low-key about it.
The trick is, a special election would have to be held within a year, making it damn awkward for both whoever Janet appointed and for herself.
Other than that, Simplot is now a Dem, although I’ve heard Peggy Neely’s name thrown around as a Republican for Janet, and other Dem activists might not like it but I’ve always thought Phil Gordon would be a good candidate for Senate.
And actually, I wouldn’t call it great commentary, more like half-accurate and sometimes true stuff I’d rather post somewhere than bore people in conversation with.
January 18th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Phx guy,
I liked the Pinto Dems post, don’t be too hard on your self. Your stuff is good. Plus it is about the real AZ, Phx, GO DEVILS
Leave a Reply