Thursday, August 23rd, 2007...6:20 pm
Sayonara, Rickster
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As has been noted by a thousand other bloggers earlier today, Rick Renzi made his expected announcement that he will not run for re-election next year. At least he didn’t claim he did it to spend more time with his family.
The official R-Cubbed Betting Shop and Horchata Bar will be taking bets on which “mentioned” Republican announces first.
11 Comments
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Everyone, please Contact Representative Renzi and ask him to immediately resign his office. We, here in CD-1, do not deserve a lame-duck Congressman who has already quit serving on his House Committee assignments. We need a new Representative ASAP.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:18 pm
And here comes the train of Republicans to announce their candidacy! I can’t wait for them to all explain their supportive comments of Renzi the last few months. Go Ann GO!
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Amen Karen!
It will be so nice to finally be rid of this guy. Now let’s hope we can replace him with a good Democrat who can win the general like Steve Owens!
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Michelle and everyone – write letters to the editors, write Renzi, post e-mails, make phone calls, – contact your friends and fellow voters in and outside of CD-1 to demand his resignation. Barrage every media outlet and every person you can think of. I do not want one more day of him. CD-1 will suffer even more if he stays to the end of his term.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I want to lay a couple of bucks on a longshot candidate: JD HAYWORTH. Yes, he doesn’t live in CD-1, but then he doesn’t have to.
I really doubt that he’s really run, but the man has just enough ego to believe he could actually win in a district that he used to represent. (well, a portion of his old district is a part of CD-1). I figure if I am going to be, I am gonna pick the longshot with the biggest payoff. (well, maybe using the word payoff in a discussion involving CD-1 isn’t the wisest thing to do)
August 24th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Pushing Renzi to resign now is a bad idea — unless you’re a Republican who wants his replacement to have the advantage of incumbency next year. If he serves out his term, Repubs will field several candidates and have to spend money on a primary, just like the Democrats will be doing.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Actually Steve, if Renzi resigns before May, state statute would require the governor to call a Special Election – both a primary and a general – within 10-15 weeks.
Here’s the actual statute: http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/16/00222.htm&Title=16&DocType=ARS
So we would essentially have the same primary and general, just earlier and with lower turnout.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Michelle,
It would actually mean we would have two generals and two primaries, the specials and the ones that are regularly scheduled. It would aid those with large personal wealth (i.e. Bennett or Konopnicki) if we were to have a special election. Then they would be able to enter the regularly scheduled election as an incumbent with no primary opposition.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Union_guy –
True on both points but I wouldn’t discount our Democrats ability to raise enough cash to counter Bennett or Konopnicki. I would hope the national party and the state party would make an investment as well.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I agree with you Michelle. I think that the personal problems of bennet and konopnicki would be the biggest issue. i also think that the dems, either kirkpatrick or whoever else, would very much be able to raise plenty of money to handle a special and a general.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
What? Miss 15 months of banging on the Republican corruption issue? Renzi’s our poster boy. No way; he should stay.