Leave it to Jan Brewer to rain on a parade...

So here I was with this nice little scoop that Hugh Hallman, the Mayor of Tempe, was one of the aspirants who actually interviewed for the Secretary of State's job. His name had been on the seemingly endless list of Reps angling to replace Jan Brewer when she ascends to the Governor's job.

The planned post included sharp (if I do say so myself :)) ) analysis of why such a move would be both a good one for Hallman (getting out of the City budget wars before any serious service cuts and/or tax hikes take place on his watch) and a bad one for Hallman (quoting his opponent in his next race - "When the going got tough, Hugh got gone.") I was even going to write about how much he would be missed in Tempe...actually, not too many people would miss him. He has a rep as being vindictive and overly partisan in what is supposed to be a non-partisan job.

I even called Hallman's office and left a message with his chief of staff trying to fish for a quote (no call back, but even that would have looked good in a post).

Now nobody, including my source (a Tempe activist), thought Hallman was going to get the job, but it would have made for a fun weekend of speculation and checking on the City of Tempe's rules for succession. Unfortunately, I was at work and couldn't write it up, but I figured that was OK since the rumor earlier this week was that Brewer was going to announce her replacement next week.

There was plenty of time to write it up this evening after getting home.

Right? :)

So what happened this afternoon during the intervening hours?

Jan Brewer announced that she has selected former State Senate President Ken Bennett as her replacement.

Oh well, maybe we can hope that the rumor was a little off and Hallman was interviewing for another job with the Brewer administration.

Later!