2012 Campaign Committee update

Some of this has been covered elsewhere (or here earlier), but some of it is new, so here goes -

- Republican state senator Frank Antentori (LD30) has filed paperwork to form a committee to "explore" a run for Congress next year.  By making it an exploratory committee, he avoids running afoul of Arizona's resign-to-run law.  Look for him to make it "official" after the first of the year.  The filing was with the IRS, not the FEC, and I'm not sure how that affects the reporting requirements for it.  As of this writing, there isn't any current Antenori paperwork on the FEC's website.

- Democrat Mark Holub Stonebraker of Sierra Vista has formed an exploratory committee for a run at a House seat in LD25.  After redistricting, that district designation will probably change.

- Open committees for LD18 Senate, up for a recall election in November  (partisan affiliation included for reference only - this election is non-partisan) -

- - Russell Pearce (R) - of course - he's the one being recalled

- - Robert Herandez McDonald (D) - however, in a phone conversation, he stated that he is NOT running in the recall election

- - Olivia Cortes (R) - something of a "stealth" candidate

- - Michael Kielsky (L) - something of a perennial candidate.  He's always running for something, though as a Libertarian, he never needs more than a couple of dozen sigs to get on a ballot.  It will be impressive if he gets the 600+ sigs needed for this race.

- - Tommy Cattey (I) - he's already dropped out of the race and endorsed...

- - Jerry Lewis (R), a well-respected Mormon leader who filed his nominating petitions today.

Others involved in this recall election:

- The Maricopa GOP, which has formed an independent expenditure committee to support Pearce

- Tom Tancredo's Team America PAC (not affiliated with the movie - while the movie is over-the-top satire, Tancredo and his cohorts are just over the top), which has formed a committee to support Pearce

-  Matt Tolman, a Pearce ally and former chair of the LD18 Rs has formed a "citizens' " committee to support Pearce

There are/will be others.  In addition, there are a number of Arizona-registered corporate PACs and other committees that will be able to funnel money into LD18 in support of Pearce.  I couldn't find any committees opposed to Pearce, other than the candidate committees.


In the only significant Maricopa County news, one Richard Hensley (R) of Peoria has formed a committee to run for Maricopa County Supervisor.  He doesn't list a district, but based on his address, it seems he is gearing up to run against Max Wilson, the Republican incumbent in SD4.

In Scottsdale and Tempe, no candidate committees have formed recently.

Later...