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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

AZ-08: Kolbe Witholds Endorsement of Graf

Posted by James L.

Oh this is good. Just as a backgrounder, last night, the NRCC's preferred candidate to succeed retiring incumbent Republican Jim Kolbe in Arizona, Steve Huffman, lost his primary to right-wing firebrand (and anti-immigration advocate) Randy Graf. AZ-08 is a true tossup district that barely went for Bush over Kerry, but Kolbe was a rare creature: a gay Republican in moderate's clothing. The NRCC dropped at least $100k on this district in an effort to prop up Huffman, a moderate candidate in the mold of Kolbe--a signal indicating that the NRCC is not thrilled with their chances of holding this seat with Graf on the ballot. So, now that their candidate of choice has been defeated (43-37) by Graf, what is the NRCC to do? Especially now, after Jim Kolbe's principled stand:

“I congratulate Mr. Graf on his victory in the Republican primary. However, there are such profound and fundamental differences between his views and mine on several key issues that I would not be true to my own principles were I to endorse him now for the General election in November."

Cut him loose and focus on other, not-so-hopeless seats, is what they'll do.

(Hat-tip to jesselee.)

Posted at 03:45 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Arizona | Technorati

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Comments

I definitely think we should wait for at least one Giffords v. Graf poll before we declare victory here.

Posted by: Mark at September 13, 2006 04:28 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Thanks for the good news, can't say I'm surprised that Cong. Kolbe has refused to endorse Graf. Always nice to see this happen when the Gop experiences an ideological split. Should be interesting to see if either Huffman or Hellon chime in on this. This statement coming on the heels of Graf's 43.2% win doesn't bode well for the gop here.

Posted by: Predictor at September 13, 2006 04:47 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Here's a link to a poll released last week in the Arizona Daily Star showing a hypothetical Giffords/Graf match-up.

General matchups
● "If the general election were held today, whom would you support?"
Giffords-Graf
Giffords: 45.8 percent
Graf: 35.7 percent
Undecided: 18.5 percent

I live here in Tucson and can tell you that this will absolutely destroy the Republicans' ability to unify. Randy Graf is far-far to the right and has plenty of past quotes/interviews to serve as an embarrassment to the GOP for endorsing this self-described "Minuteman for Congress". Here's one example from the Daily Show.

Posted by: Man Eegee at September 13, 2006 05:49 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment