Candidate petitions starting to roll in

Politically speaking, the coming week will be marked by a flurry of activity at the offices of the AZ Secretary of State and the recorders' offices in the various counties.  Literally hundreds of candidates will be submitting thousands of nominating petitions in their efforts to gain a spot on the ballot in August or November.

Most candidates submit their petitions as late as possible in order to maximize the number of signatures, but a few do so earlier. 

Among the most interesting of those:

- Doug Quelland, a former Republican state representative who was removed from office and still owes fines because of some campaign finance violations, is making a run for the state senate in the new LD20 as an independent (filed directly for the November ballot).

Note: Quelland may be found to be ineligible for the ballot under a new law that bars candidates from the ballot if they have campaign-related fines that they haven't paid.  That law is still subject to review by the US Department of Justice before it becomes effective.

- In the race for the Democratic nomination for state senate in LD24, Rep. Katie Hobbs and former state senator Ken Cheuvront each filed 931 signatures in support of their candidacies.  The fact that they filed the same number of sigs isn't significant, but filing the exact same number of sigs?  Meaningless, but cool, in a numbers geek sort of way (full list of primary filers here)

- In the race for the Republican nomination for the new CD9. one Jeff Thompson has filed 795 signatures.  It was a bit of a surprise to many observers, including me, because there aren't any filings for an Arizona candidate named Thompson on the FEC's website.

He could be the first candidate to run into legal troubles (not counting Quelland's ongoing issues, because those started years ago), because federal law and FEC rules/guidelines require that candidates register with the FEC once they reach certain financial thresholds or they engage in "campaign activities."

Among the activities they consider to be "campaign activities"?

Taking "action to qualify for the ballot."

Gathering and submitting nomination signatures qualifies as such action.

It will be interesting to see how, or even if, the other Rs in the CD9 race react to the apparent entrance of a newbie.

On the plus side for candidate Thompson:  even though it isn't a legal requirement, Thompson appears to live in CD9, unlike most of the other candidates (based on his filer address on the AZSOS' website, which tracks back to a house in Ahwatukee).

The list of Maricopa County candidates who have filed sigs is here.