Shay Stautz, who had received the most contributions among Republican challengers to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, withdrew Wednesday from the race for the second congressional seat, saying he no longer sees "a clear path to victory."
The former University of Arizona lobbyist turned candidate confirmed the news to the Star on Thursday, after two petitions were filed to challenge the 1,541 signatures he had turned in earlier this month to put him on the ballot for the primary.
The petitions, fled within the last week and obtained by the Star on Thursday, challenged some of the signatures turned in by Stautz and argued they would put him below the 1,371 signatures required to be on the ballot. One claim challenged 313 signatures, while the other challenged 144, on allegations that some of the signatures were fraudulent, as well as questions about residency, party affiliation and voter registration.
Stautz said he made a decision not "to challenge the challenge" because he felt he would have reached "this point in the coming months anyway." The coronavirus outbreak and restrictions it has put on campaigning have made it difficult to challenge an incumbent, he said.
That leaves three remaining candidates left in the Republican primary for CD2 β defense contractor Brandon Martin, Pima Community College employee and former Arizona Daily Star columnist Joseph Morgan and business owner Noran Eric Ruden.
According to the most-recent FEC filings, Stautz had garnered $137,101 in total contributions, compared to $135,338 for Ruden, $98,369 for Martin, and $23,931 for Morgan.
Kirkpatrick, in her first term in CD2, has raised more than $1.25 million. She does face a challenger in the Democratic primary in August, attorney Peter Quilter. No campaign filings were available for him, as of Thursday.
The district has been historically competitive, with Republicans and Democrats trading the seat over the last decade. But analysts favor Kirkpatrick; Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball has the district listed as "likely democratic" in his most-recent outlook.
Republican candidates chip in for servers, musicians
Speaking of Stautz, he and Justine Wadsack, a fellow Republican running for the state's 10th legislative seat, helped launch a Facebook page, titled "Tips for Tucson," to help provide money to musicians, bartenders and servers struggling as a result of coronavirus business closures.
Wadsack and Stautz teamed up with Kyle Blessinger and Eric Smith, who both work in the service industry, to launch the page, which has already attracted more than 600 members.
Those wanting to give money are given access to a spreadsheet with Venmo or Facebook links to offer their favorite bartenders, musicians or servers tips.
βWeβre in a crisis here. Everyone needs to try and help," Stautz said. "These are ways a candidate should be engaged at the local level β actively getting involved in a circumstance like this."
Wadsack, who got her start as a server and helped open The Independent Distillery, said they've purposely tried to keep it apolitical. They've been able to keep the donations between the giver and receiver by cutting out the middle man.
She admitted this is just a "stop-gap" measure, but that just giving $10, $20, or $30 can help some people pay off their cell phone bill or buy dinner.
βI know what that means to these people. These are people I care about deeply," she said. "It's kept people afloat."
Spanish-language ad targets McSally
Advancing AZ, the "dark-money" group that has hammered Republican Sen. Martha McSally's health-care record, is back with another advertisementΒ β this is time in Spanish.
As part of a $1 million campaign in both Tucson and Phoenix, the group released a new ad featuring a woman, Lucia, and her mother, who both have diabetes. They take aim at McSally, who has previously voted to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act.
"Martha McSally made us promises," Lucia says in Spanish. "But she didnβt keep her word."
Open Secrets, which tracks politics spending, detailed back in September how Advancing AZ, sometimes known as Honest Arizona, had rolled out $145,000 into ads aimed at McSally's health-care voting history.
The group is chaired by Steve Gomez, who was featured in a 2018 anti-McSally ad from Democratic dark money group Majority Forward. Sam Coppersmith, a one-term Arizona congressman and former state Democratic party chair, is listed as a director, while Hunter Henderson, one of the groupβs advisory board members, works for the Democratsβ state-level super PAC, Forward Majority.
