Primary Election Results

In case you missed it: the Arizona primary election was held yesterday, and voters had to decide on many worthy candidates (and a few dopes) to represent the different parties in the November general election. In my humble opinion, the primary election is more important than the general election because it gives the public the chance to cast ballots for those people who really represent their interests, rather than just voting for the Republican because they don't like the Democrat or vice-versa as in the general election. Looking at a GOP or Democratic primary closely and digesting the numbers can really provide a slice of how that party in that area thinks.

I was working the polls in my precinct all day yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to see any results until very late last night and this morning. Here is a rundown of each of the races as they will appear in November:

U.S. Senator:
John McCain (R)
Rodney Glassman (D)
Jerry Joslyn (G)
David Nolan (L)

House CD-1:
Ann Kirkpatrick (D)
Paul Gosar (R)

House CD-2:
John Thrasher (D)
Powell Gammill (L)
Trent Franks (R)

House CD-3:
Jon Hulburd (D)
Michael Shoen (L)
Ben Quayle (R)

House CD-4:
Ed Pastor (D)
Rebecca DeWitt (G)
Joe Cobb (L)
Janet Contreras (R)

House CD-5:
Harry Mitchell (D)
Nick Coons (L)
David Schweikert (R)

House CD-6:
Rebecca Schneider (D)
Jeff Flake (R)

House CD-7:
Raul Grijalva (D)
George Keane (L)
Ruth McClung (R)

House CD-8:
Gabrielle Giffords (D)
Steven Stoltz (L)
Jesse Kelly (R)

Governor:
Jan Brewer (R)
Terry Goddard (D)
Larry Gist (G)
Barry Hess (L)

Secretary of State:
Ken Bennett (R)
Chris Deschene (D)

Attorney General:
Felicia Rotellini OR David Lujan (D) (Too close to call)
Andrew Thomas OR Tom Horne (R) (Too close to call)

State Treasurer:
Andrei Cherney (D)
Doug Ducey (R)

State Superintendent of Public Instruction:
Penny Kotterman (D)
John Huppenthal (R)

Mine Inspector:
Manuel Cruz (D)
Joe Hart (R)

Corporation Commissioners:
David Bradley (D)
Jorge Garcia (D)
Brenda Burns (R)
Gary Pierce (R)

LD-19 Senator:
Rich Crandall (R)

LD-19 Representatives:
Kirk Adams (R)
Justin Olson (R)

Maricopa County Attorney:
Bill Montgomery (R)

The only real surprises for me in the results of the primary election are that Doug Ducey won the Republican Treasurer's primary by such a large margin over his competition, that the Attorney General's race is too close to call (as of this writing, Tom Horne leads Andrew Thomas by a meager 363 votes with a few precincts as-yet unreported), and that the McCain-Hayworth race wasn't really close at all. (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, though.)

Other than that, I expected Ben Quayle to win in CD-3, Gosar in CD-1, and Flake in CD-6. Brewer's and Goddard's wins in the gubernatorial race were expected, as were most of the other statewide races. I did suppose Paton would win over Kelly in CD-8 which didn't occur, and I predicted that Schweikert would lose to Ward in CD-5, which also was incorrect. Although in retrospect, Schweikert's win is not at all surprising given the amount of campaigning he did.

As for working the polls, I had a lot of fun, even though only about 100 people showed up for my precinct. It was very slow all day long, except for the half-hour setup in the morning (at 5:30am) and the 90 minutes between 6:30pm (30 minutes to polls closing) and 8:00pm when we finished packing everything up. I was a "Judge" for the election, meaning I got the task of assisting the Inspector with all of her duties. It was mildly confusing putting every seal and sticker in the right place to comply with elections requirements, but we got it all done without incident, and there weren't any problems all night long. The people there were impressed with how well I did and how much I knew about the elections process, and said they were going to recommend me to be the Inspector for the November general election (a job with a lot of responsibilities). We'll see!

Congrats to all who won, sorry to all who lost and put on a great campaign (such as Jeff Smith, who lost to Jeff Flake in the CD-6 primary).

On a final note, congrats to Dustin Cox, an old high school friend of mine who put on a good campaign for State Representative in the Tucson area LD-27 but lost to Sally Ann Gonzales in that Democratic primary. Dustin came in fourth of eight candidates in the very crowded primary, and captured 2,507 (unofficial total) votes as of this writing (942 behind Gonzalez). You did well, Dustin! I was rooting for you.