Arizona GOP House Primary Crowded with Conservative Candidates

By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff Fri Jun 13, 12:03 AM ET

A wide-open Republican field of challengers to first-term Democratic Rep. Harry E. Mitchell has sparked endorsements and bold claims of conservative credentials. But the GOP still has no single consensus candidate for Arizona's 5th District race.

The 5th District, which covers Scottsdale and Mitchell's home base of Tempe, is a top contest for Republicans who want to regain the seat that Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth held for six terms: from the Republican Revolution of 1994 until he was ousted in the Democratic wave of 2006.

CQ Politics rates the race Leans Democrat.

Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, is publicly upbeat about the situation, saying that the primary so far has been "positive and issue oriented." But with six Republicans lined up for the Sept. 2 primary, support within the party is divided.

Candidates in the race have focused on key issues for conservative Republicans -- curbing illegal immigration, lowering taxes and balancing the budget.

Local pundits say the latest entrant into the race, Susan Bitter Smith, appears to be in the lead along with former Maricopa County Treasurer David Schweikert. Bitter Smith serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Water Conservation District and is executive director of the Arizona-New Mexico Cable Communications Association. Her base of support is in Scottsdale, where she lives and served on the city council.

Bitter Smith joined the field in mid-May, announcing her candidacy with the endorsement of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been nicknamed "America's Toughest Sheriff" for his hard-line approach to inmates and targeting illegal immigrants.

Arpaio described Bitter Smith as "a tough, principled conservative leader who gets things done," he said, adding, "We need her in Congress to lead the fight to enforce the law at our nation's borders."

The endorsement will win Bitter Smith support among voters who rank illegal immigration as their top issue, and she has the capacity to put serious personal resources into funding her campaign. She has not yet filed campaign finance reports since she entered after the most recent reporting deadline.

Schweikert is one of the longest-running candidates in the race. He picked up the endorsement of the anti-tax organization Club for Growth in November. Pat Toomey, the president of the group, said Schweikert was "a tireless defender of taxpayers who will continue to fight for taxpayers in the U.S. Congress."

As of March 31, the most recent information on file with the Federal Election Commission, the Club for Growth Political Action Committee spent $7,000 in independent expenditures supporting Schweikert and $4,000 in in-kind contributions. Schweikert argues his background balancing budgets for Maricopa County makes him the obvious choice to bring fiscal discipline to Washington.

Schweikert has put $272,000 of his personal money into his campaign and had $514,000 on hand as of March 31, making him the best-funded Republican candidate so far. The second best-funded candidate, lawyer and former lobbyist Jim Ogsbury, had $353,000 on hand by March 31 including $250,000 of his own money.

Ogsbury picked up a key endorsement on June 4 from former Rep. Jim Kolbe, who described him as a "principled conservative with deep Arizona roots and an understanding of the issues that face our state and our nation." Kolbe retired in 2006 after 11 terms in Congress representing southern Arizona's 8th Congressional District. The seat subsequently went to Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Analysts in the state say Ogsbury has run a strong grass-roots campaign, personally calling and visiting with district voters to ask for their support and gather petitions signatures ahead of the June 4 filing deadline. He is considered a potentially strong contender in the race, but is hampered by lower name identification than either Bitter Smith or Schweikert.

Former state House Rep. Laura Knaperek has drawn support from former top Republicans in the state legislature. In late May three former state House majority leaders -- Ernie Baird, Lori Daniels and Steve Tully -- endorsed Knaperek, while Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley endorsed her in March. Her base of support is in Tempe, but her low fundraising makes her a less viable candidate. As of March 31 Knaperek reported raising $100,000 and had $44,000 on hand.

State Rep. Mark Anderson has picked up endorsements from top Republican legislators, including state House Speaker Jim Weiers and Majority Leader Tom Boone, as well as from David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. Keene praised Anderson as a powerful reformer for Washington in the mold of Rep. Jeff Flake of the 6th District, just south of the 5th.

But Anderson's state House district covers only a sliver of the 5th District, giving him a smaller base of support than several of the other candidates, and his fundraising has lagged significantly as well. Anderson reported raising $89,000 and had $70,000 on hand as of March 31.

The sixth candidate, Lee Gentry of Scottsdale is the only candidate not expected to be a maor player in the race.

The third-quarter campaign finance reports, which are due July 15 and will cover through June 30, will give a better indication of which candidates are running well-funded campaigns. Mitchell, meanwhile, raised $1.4 million and had $1.1 million on hand by March 31.

Forty-three percent of the registered voters in the district are Republican, 29 percent are Democrats and 28 percent are not affiliated with either major party. District voters favored President Bush both in 2000 and in 2004. Both Democrats and Republicans portray the 67-year-old Mitchell as everyone's favorite grandfather, but Republicans charge he has not made good on the promises of his 2006 campaign, including support for soldiers and lowering gas prices.

"Thankfully Congressman Mitchell doesn't get lost when he goes to the floor to make votes," but he has not accomplished the goals he set, said McCaffrey of the state Republican Party.

McCaffrey said he did not expect the GOP candidates to race to the right on issues, with each candidate trying to "out-conservative" their primary opponents, but that they will come out against Mitchell.

"It will certainly be trying to one-up each other on how they're going to fix the problems that Congressman Mitchell won with in 2006 but has neglected since," he said.

But Democrats argue that Mitchell, who is so popular they erected a statue in his honor in his home town of Tempe, has a strong record to run on after his first term in office. Seth Scott, Mitchell's campaign manager, said the congressman has been a leader on fighting for veterans. Mitchell was the first member of Congress to introduce legislation to clean up the Walter Reed Army Medical Center after an expose found care for veterans was sub-par, Scott said, and has secured funding for veteran health care. "It's a pretty good record for a freshman," Scott said.

Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party, said Mitchell has done "an extraordinary job" representing the 5th District, including his efforts on energy. "Congressman Mitchell is working pretty visibly hard to change our dependence on foreign oil," she said.