Saturday, April 28th, 2007...11:09 am
If Mitchell Is Toast, Where Are the “Top Tier” Candidates?
After the last election, you’d often hear near cackling from Republicans about how Harry Mitchell was some one-term fluke, destined to join the ranks of Sam Coppersmith, Karan English and Jim McNulty as Democratic one-term wonders. (The wonders don’t care, we don’t give a damn…) We heard how a Republican, any Republican, would run over Mitchell like an Abrams tank over a teddy bear. Woe be onto that Democrat that dare disturb the natural order of things and represent our district, they were saying.
So, if that’s true, where are the myriad of top-notch candidates to take Mitchell down? Matt Salmon was mentioned, but he’s apparently not interested. Hugh Hallman has told people that he isn’t interested. Laura Knaperek’s name is being floated, but she came 3,000 votes behind two-twenty something Democrats in her last race for State House in a district that was until recently bulletproof Republican. The very fact that she is considered “top tier” is an indication of the problem. Some even talked about a triumphant return of J. D. Hayworth. Lets just say that that probably won’t happen. And Michelle Reagan? She was once the “it girl,” but her name didn’t even grace Sonoran Alliance’s rather exhaustive list of possible candidates.
The name that is coming up as a “definite” is Jim Ogsbury, who until recently was a lobbyist in DC but moved back to Arizona and works for Triadvocates, a lobbying firm up in Phoenix. Barely a household name, except for households with “Ogsbury” on the mailbox. Already, there is some grousing from some corners of the Republican party that with the current mood, a DC insider would be the wrong nominee. There is a point there, Ogsbury worked in the DC office for Jones Walker, a Louisiana based law firm. There he lobbied for various companies connected to the oil and defense industries (to be fair, also the Boys and Girls Clubs and Yeshiva University). Being a lobbyist for oil companies is probably not the best candidate profile when gas could be well over $3.00 per gallon when it is time for him to file his petitions.
A big part of Mitchell’s win was Hayworth’s connection to the cesspool that was the lobbyist-leadership complex that had developed over the last decade or so. So why nominate a lobbyist, especially one whose old firm boasts of its connection to disgraced would-be house speaker Bob Livingston?
Is it too soon to predict that 2008 will be a good year for us Democrats?
4 Comments
April 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Ted,
You left out David Schweikert
http://treasurer.maricopa.gov/office.htm
April 28th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
How about Espresso Pundit, Greg Patterson? A-ha-ha-ha-ha! Just kidding.
I would bet a brazilian dollars that Hugh Hallman is polling like crazy, but that he’ll decide in the end to run again for mayor for the 2008-2012 term. In 2012, redistricting will open up one or two more congressional districts, and the kids’ll be older. But you KNOW that Barbara Sherman is whispering in his ear that he should whack Harry NOW.
Knaperek has been bested not only by Mitchell, but also by Meg Burton Cahill and by a couple of whippersnappers barely old enough to not smoke in a bar. Plus, her whole gestalt screams “gorgon”. It would be fun to watch Harry mosey over her on his way to the finish line.
Nobody ever heard of Ogsbury. But nobody ever heard of Renzi, either, until he became Congressman-elect Renzi (of course, he has a little TOO much name recognition now).
April 29th, 2007 at 8:53 am
One freshman dem who won’t be a one term wonder: Gabrielle Giffords.
Congresswoman Giffords is doing everything right to be in Congress for the long haul.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Daniel,
Wholeheartedly agree on Giffords, but also feel Mitchell, if he does his job, will fare just fine. The reaping of what has been sown is gaining traction for the GOP that has plunged us into bloodshed and debt with no end in sight.
Tenet’s book, sound or not, will draw blood.
The pendulum has swung far, and it’s on its way back.
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