Wednesday, November 19th, 2008...3:12 pm
McCain Goes and Ruins Everybody’s Plans
I heard the news that John McCain has gone ahead and filed the initial paperwork to run for yet another term in the US Senate in 2010. By the way, should he be re-elected and serve out his term, that would be thirty years in the Senate, edging out Henry Fountain Ashurst’s 29 years, but still dwarfed by Carl Hayden’s 42 years.
This ruins the plans of several people, including Jeff Flake and John Shadegg. Shadegg had earlier this year claimed that he would really like to be a senator. Since voicing this wish came after his “I’m-in-I’m-out” drama-sode, it led to further ribbing by unscrupulous wags such as I. Flake had been mentioned as a front runner for McCain’s seat in 2010 for the then-imagined vacancy as well.
(Of course, “front runner” this far out is a rather tenuous distinction. At one point in 2005, J. D. Hayworth was a “front runner” for governor, and it wasn’t that long ago that Ken Bennett was the “front runner” to replace Rick Renzi.)
This also wrecks other plans as well. Remember the scramble that happened for those two or three days when Shadegg wasn’t running for re-election? Imagine the scramble that would have happened if McCain’s seat would have opened up. The primary would have been a veritable pachyderm Illiad, leaving all sorts of room for mid and low level office holders to entertain running for higher positions.
Sigh. No such luck.
But, that’s okay, we still will have an open governor’s race on the Republican side that’s ripe for more bloodletting than Concrete Blonde back in 1990. Somebody actually mentioned Al Melvin, yes, Captain Al Melvin, to me as someone that might be interested. No, he was sober when he said that.
By the way, polling suggests that Janet Napolitano (who will be termed out in 2010) would do well in a race for senate whether or not McCain runs.
3 Comments
November 19th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
CNN is now reporting that Napolitano has been tapped for Homeland Security.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I will totally contribute to Captain Al’s exploratory committee.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
be careful, Donna, just what you wish for, you just may get it. No one thought he’d win the state senate seat……