This year’s race to fill the seat of longtime Republican Sen. Jon Kyl will be Arizona’s first truly open race for U.S. Senate since 1994.
In each of the past eight Senate elections, Kyl or Republican Sen. John McCain, have run as incumbents and won rather easily.
This year, there are two Democats and two Republicans vying for the seat. In the Republican primary, Rep. Jeff Flake and Mesa businessman Wil Cardon are facing off. In the Democratic primary, former U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona and former Democratic state chairman Don Bivens will square off.
The primary is Aug. 28 and the general election is Nov. 6. The winner will become Arizona’s first new Senator in 18 years.
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The last time Arizona voters elected a new U.S. Senator was in 1994 when Kyl, having finished his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Samuel Coppersmith, by a margin of 54 percent to 40 percent.
Kyl has since won reelection in 2000 and 2006.
McCain has been a senator since 1987. Since beating Democrat Richard Kimball in 1986, he’s been reelected four times.
Whoever wins this year will join a select group — there have been only 10 U.S. Senators in the state’s 100-year history.
Congressional experience a modern precursor
Recent history suggests Flake may have the inside track for the Senate seat: both McCain and Kyl were sitting U.S. Representatives when they won Senate seats.
McCain had served two terms from 1983-1986. Kyl served three terms in the House from 1987-1994. Flake has served six terms in the House from 2000-2012.
More distant history, however, provides hope for Carmona, Bivens and Cardon. Only two of the eight senators prior to McCain and Kyl had been members of Congress: Ralph Cameron, who served from 1921-1927, and Carl Hayden, who served from 1927-1969.
The four Senators sandwiched between those two and McCain and Kyl came from varied background:
• Democrat Ernest McFarland, who served from 1941-1952, was a judge of the superior court in Pinal County prior to winning a Senate seat.
• Republican Barry M. Goldwater, who served two stints from 1953-1965 and 1969-1987, was a Phoenix City Councilman prior to his first run for Senate.
• Republican Paul J. Fannin, who served from 1965-1977, was the Governor of Arizona prior to joining the Senate.
• Democrat Dennis W. DeConcini, who served from 1977-1995, was the Pima County Attorney prior to his election to the Senate.
Longest tenures
McCain and Kyl’s long stints as senators are the norm in Arizona.
Eight of the ten senators have served at least 12 years. Only two Senators have lasted fewer years: Democrat Marcus A. Smith, who was senator nine years from 1912-1921; and Republican Ralph H. Cameron, who was senator for six years from 1921-1927.
Carl Hayden holds the distinction of being Arizona’s longest-tenured senator. He was senator 48 years from 1927-1969. Prior to that, he served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If McCain finishes his current six-year term, he will finish tied with Barry M. Goldwater for the second-longest tenure among Arizona senators. Goldwater served 30 years between two stints in Congress.
Party lines
Republicans have held a decided advantage over Democrats in the last 60 years, with four of the past five new senators elected being from the GOP. But in the first half of the 20th century, the Democrats ruled with four of the five new senators being Democrats.
This year’s election will break the historical tie between the parties, which is locked up at 5-5.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com
Stay tuned to the Pueblo Politics blog throughout 2012 for news, updates and information about Arizona politics. You can follow the bloggers on Twitter — Arizona Daily Star reporters Brady McCombs, Rhonda Bodfield, Becky Pallack and Tim Steller — by clicking on our names.
