Gina Swoboda, former chair of the AZGOP, causes tumult in not one, but *two* races

...and she did that by switching the office that she's seeking.

Note: I received a head's up on this from watching AZ Family's Politics Unplugged (YouTube link)

She WAS a candidate in Congressional District 1 (CD1), one of the many people looking to replace David Schweikert, who's running for Governor this year.

For a long time, she and Joe Chaplik, a Republican state legislator from that area, were the biggest "names" in R primary in CD1.

Then former NFL placekicker Jay Feely went district shopping and jumped out of the CD5 contest, vying to replace Andy Biggs (like Schweikert, he's also running for Governor) and jumped into the CD1 contest.

So Swoboda looked at the race for Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS).

By filing a statement of interest, she can collect nominating signatures.

While the panelists on Politics Unplugged weren't sure she that she actually intends to enter the AZSOS race, but I think she does - she formed a committee for a run, so she can spend money in order to campaign for the office.

She does have one major problem - nominating sigs.  The signatures needed in order to run for for a statewide office (as AZSOS is) are significantly higher than they are for a CD, and the ones she has collect so far cannot be transferred.

From the sig requirements page -

She has approximately seven weeks to collect almost 7600 sigs (they're due by 3/23), and that will get her to just the minimum number required.  It won't be easy.

And if she turns in just the minimum, that will almost certainly result in one of the other AZSOS candidates filing a challenge.

My guesstimate is that she will need to submit nearly 11K sigs in order to withstand any challenges.

Is the popcorn concession at the office of the Arizona Secretary of State available?  😃