State Sen. Kelly Townsend’s entry into a southeastern Arizona congressional race is likely to complicate a crowded GOP race.
Townsend doesn’t live in the new Congressional District 6, which stretches from Casa Grande, through the northwest side of the Tucson metro area, covers the eastern half of Tucson, and includes most of the southeastern corner of the state. She lives in Apache Junction, which is 40-50 miles north of the district’s northern border.
That’s legal — a candidate for Congress only needs to live in the same state as the congressional district, not in the district itself. But there were already six Republicans running for the nomination.
Her entry is likely to split the right wing of the district’s Republican primary electorate. This could ultimately affect the outcome of a race that the GOP views as a possible congressional seat to pick up from Democrats.
The new district largely overlaps the old Congressional District 2. Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick represents that district and has chosen not to run again.
Candidate Brandon Martin, who won the GOP nomination in 2020 before losing the general election to Kirkpatrick, said he views the race as between the “establishment” GOP candidate, Juan Ciscomani, and everyone else.
“I believe she splits the vote,” Martin said of Townsend. “I think she plays more to the Trump crowd, if you will. We both operate in that area.”
That could potentially benefit Ciscomani, a longtime top aide to Gov. Doug Ducey who is closely connected to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The other GOP candidates running in the district are Jason Bacon, Lucretia Free, Young Mayberry and Kathleen Winn.
On the Democratic side, the candidates now in the race are former state Sen. Kirsten Engel, state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, and Marcos Urrea. Former state Rep. Randy Friese dropped out of the race in September. Martin said he viewed Friese as the toughest Democrat for a Republican to face.
Steele leaving the Legislature
State Sen. Victoria Steele announced this week that she will not run for election to the Legislature again.
Instead, Steele said, she is planning to run for justice of the peace in Precinct 1. That seat is currently held by Justice of the Peace Adam Watters, a Republican. Steele is a Democrat.
Steele represented Legislative District 9 as a member of the House beginning in 2012 and the Senate beginning in 2018. The new legislative districts have not been formally confirmed yet, but redistricting has placed Steele in the new LD18. That’s a heavily Democratic district that includes much of the Catalina Foothills and midtown Tucson.
Democratic candidates have rushed into the race in that district. Morgan Abraham and Kat Stratford have announced their candidacies for the Senate seat.
Democrats Nathan Davis, Nancy Gutierrez, Chris Mathis and Charlie Verdin have entered the race on the House side.
Republican Linda Evans is running as a Republican for House in the district. Stan Caine is running for Senate on the GOP side.
Watters wants to run again
It’s been unclear whether Watters has a political future after an incident in which he fired a gun near a man later convicted of stalking him.
On Tuesday, Watters filed a statement of interest to run again for the seat he currently holds, justice of the peace in Precinct 1. Steele is the only candidate who has so far announced a plan to run against him.
She is not an attorney, and Watters is, but you do not have to be an attorney to run for justice of the peace.
After a series of harassing incidents, Watters confronted a man driving past his home in the Catalina Foothills on Feb. 14, 2021. Watters ordered the man to get out of his car and on the ground, then fired a shot striking the ground near the man.
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office weighed whether to bring a criminal charge against Watters but declined. County Attorney Kent Volkmer said the decision was due to the likelihood Watters would justify firing the shot as self-defense.
“This office concluded we had no reasonable likelihood of conviction and as a result, we chose not to bring forth criminal charges,” he said.
However, a complaint is still pending at the state commission on judicial conduct.
The man who Watters confronted, Tucson landlord Fei Qin, was convicted of stalking in December and sentenced Jan. 12 to 1½ years in prison.
Ducey appoints journalist Rivera
Longtime Tucson journalist Lorraine Rivera has accepted a position as director of Ducey’s Southern Arizona office.
Rivera, a native of Douglas, has been a longtime broadcast journalist in Tucson, most recently the producer and host of Arizona 360 at Arizona Public Media. She replaces Becky Freeman, who has worked in Ducey’s Tucson office since he became governor in 2015.
At that time, the first director of the office was Ciscomani, now a candidate for the GOP nomination for Congress in southeastern Arizona’s new congressional district.
Justice of Peace Taylor resigns
Pima County Justice of the Peace Doug Taylor resigned from his judgeship on Jan. 6.
His district, Precinct 5, had been eliminated late last year by the Pima County Board of Supervisors in a recent realignment of districts to account for declining caseloads. His term in office was set to end in late 2022.
