Sorry I didn’t answer your question last night — it got late in our time zone.
This is a solid R district. So solid the Democrats don’t always run someone. I think Trump won it by well over 20%.
The real issue is damaging our own political base. We all like the idea of the Cincinnatus but to be practical, politics is a career despite our aversion to the reality.
Arizona has a “Resign-to-Run” law which is fairly new. It means that challengers to incumbents who are not in the last year of their term must resign state office to run for a state elected position.
We have all these good people: I don’t see anything bad about the great swath of these candidates. Montenegro, Sylvester, Lesko, Yee and the list continues. They all must resign to fully seek this office because of when the special election is being held.
On the one hand, we have this winner take all primary system requiring no run off that makes for a lot of candidates and a it favors an incumbent. Was the Resign to Run law thought to limit that or protect incumbents? Who knows but we have many in the legislature and state and county offices that have to give up their political job (which often is a good percentage of thier income) to run. That is a bummer and jacks up the careers of these public servants that often make very little from these positions.
Thanks. Fast forward - who do you see wining?