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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Embattled GOP Rep. Renzi to Retire From Arizona Seat 8:00 PM; Aug. 23, 2007 Rick Renzi, a three-term Republican U.S. House member from Arizona, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of the 110th Congress and will not seek re-election in 2008. Renzi’s announcement ended months of speculation about his status, sparked by a pending federal investigation into his family’s business practices. Though Renzi has denied wrongdoing, an FBI raid in April on a business owned by his wife cast a cloud over his political future and prompted him to surrender his committee assignments ahead of what would have been strong pressure from House Republican leaders to do so. Questions about Renzi’s 2008 intentions intensified when he reported weak fundraising for his House campaign committee. Renzi, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), raised only $184,000 in the first six months of this year, putting him in the bottom third of all candidates who have filed with the FEC to run for the House in 2008. The sprawling 1st District in northeast Arizona, which Renzi has represented since his first election in 2002, is potentially a partisan battleground, and Democratic officials planned to target it in next year’s election whether Renzi ran or not. The question is whether having to defend the 1st as an open seat hurts the Republicans’ chances of holding it — or if a fresh-faced candidate without Renzi’s baggage might actually have a better chance of keeping the seat in GOP hands. The national parties’ House campaign organizations took sharply different tacks in reaction to Renzi’s retirement statement. Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), said in a statement that Renzi was “following the Republican Conference corruption playbook” used by former Reps. Bob Ney of Ohio and Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California during the run-up to the 2006 elections. Both of those Republicans first announced they were retiring from Congress, but later pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and resigned their seats. But Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), called Renzi a “hard worker and a dedicated legislator ... a tireless advocate for the people of rural Arizona.” Cole added, “He has a determined spirit that will be missed by both the voters in his district and his colleagues here in the U.S. House.” Cole said the party intended to keep the seat and would immediately move forward in discussions with interested candidates for the 2008 election. Several Republicans have been named as possible contenders. Among them is former Arizona state Senate President Ken Bennett, who left the legislature because a term-limit law barred him from seeking re-election in 2006; Bennett said he would seriously consider running in an open-seat race. Rancher Steve Pierce described himself as reluctant to run, but said he has been in contact with Republican Party officials about a possible candidacy. Other Arizonans mentioned as possible GOP contenders include state Sen. Tom O’Halleran; state Rep. Bill Konopnicki; and conservative Sydney Hay, who took third place against Renzi in the 2002 Republican primary in the 1st District. NRCC chief Cole warned that Democrats looking to win the seat would have to “answer for the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi” — the House Speaker from California — “and the low approval ratings of the Democrat-led Congress.” But several Democrats lined up to run in the 1st District well before Renzi announced his retirement. Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick resigned her seat in the Arizona House last month to enter the race, in compliance with Arizona’s resign-to-run requirement for state officeholders. Also running is Mary Kim Titla, a former television news reporter who would be the first American Indian to represent the district’s significant Navajo constituency, and lawyer Howard M. Shanker, who has won high-profile cases on behalf of Indian tribes and conservation groups. A pair of former congressional contenders also are considering the race. One is Steve Owens, current director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, who lost competitive challenges to Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth in a different district in 1996 and 1998. The other is businessman George Cordova, who lost the 2002 1st District race to Renzi by 4 percentage points. The ethics controversies that Renzi has been forced to deflect expanded just months after he survived a 2006 election in which Democrats tried to tie him to an overall “culture of corruption” they blame on the Republicans who then controlled Congress. Their efforts were unsuccessful, as Renzi defeated Democratic lawyer Ellen Simon 52 percent to 43 percent. Simon considered a second try in 2008, but announced earlier this year that should would not run. No one answered the phones at Renzi’s office in Washington, D.C., or his district office in Flagstaff, Ariz., after hours Thursday.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Deborah Pryce from Ohio called it quits yesterday. She is finishing her 6th term and on NPR, she said she is quitting because she has a five year old daughter. When the reporter noted that the child was 4 last year, so what changed, she said the Democrats have made politics so nasty, she won't participate any more and kids in preschool were saying mean things about her. This is very unlikely, and the unmitigated GALL to claim DEMOCRATS have turned politics nasty cracks me up. Bottom line is, her seat will almost certainly flip Democratic.
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