Brewer cruises to victory in GOP primary

Jan Brewer isn’t yet the next Jane Hull, but she’s gotten far enough to avoid becoming a latter-day Rose Mofford.

Brewer has won the GOP primary, and she now has a chance to become only the second secretary of state to win a full term as governor after inheriting the job.

Hull won a full term in 1998 after taking over for former Gov. Fife Symington. Mofford, who took over as governor in 1988, declined to seek a full term two years later.

The Republican primary for governor effectively ended a month ago, when Brewer’s two main rivals bowed out of the race. On Aug. 24, the incumbent governor dominated the primary, winning the GOP nomination with about 81 percent of the vote.

A Brewer win in the upcoming general election would cap a dramatic turnaround for a governor who was so unpopular with the Republican base one year ago that some didn’t think she would even seek a full term, and so wounded at the start of the year that many doubted she could make it through a Republican primary.

Only one candidate, the unknown and poorly funded moderate Matt Jette, was actively campaigning against Brewer for the Republican nomination by Election Day, though millionaire Buz Mills kept his name on the ballot after he suspended his campaign in July. With about 14,600 votes, Jette trails Mills and state Treasurer Dean Martin, both of whom put their campaigns on hiatus more than a month ago.

Mills, who spent an astounding $3.3 million on the race, has garnered about 38,000 votes, while Martin tallied about 24,000.

State Treasurer Dean Martin, who dropped out of the race in July, remained on the ballot as well because by the time he officially withdrew from the race, it was too late to print new ballots. Votes for Martin will not be counted.

After a year of budget blunders, legislative gridlock and conservative opposition to her push for a tax hike, Brewer limped into 2010. All that was needed to end her 28-year career, it seemed, was an opponent with Mills’ money or Martin’s public profile.

But Brewer’s once-floundering campaign was buoyed in April when she signed SB1070, Arizona’s landmark illegal immigration bill. Brewer’s popularity skyrocketed after she signed the bill, forcing Mills, Martin and former Arizona GOP Chairman John Munger out of the race.

At Arizona Republican Party headquarters, Brewer maintained her defiant tone against the federal government and the policies of her Democratic predacessor, Janet Napolitano.

“President Obama is doing to this country what Janet Napolitano did to Arizona: spending beyond our means, growing entitlement programs, and being the voice of organized labor,” Brewer said at Arizona Republican Party headquarters. “Arizona knows full well that my gene election opponent is cut from the same cloth as President Obama and our former governor.”

The turnaround isn’t complete yet, however. Brewer faces Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard in the general election, which Goddard hopes to turn into a referndum on the poor state of Arizona’s economy under the governor’s watch.

Most polls show Goddard trailing Brewer in a head-to-head matchup, and many show Brewer beating Goddard by double digits in his third run for the Ninth Floor.

Goddard, who has referred to Brewer as a “one-trick pony” to national media outlets, said Brewer lead will wane once voters shift their attention from the popular illegal immigration law to Arizona’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate and her poor record on job creation.

Goddard has also been critical of Brewer for her ties to the private prison industry in the wake of a high-profile jailbreak near Kingman. Three convicted murders escaped from a privately run, medium security prison, and two of the escapees are accused of murdering a couple in New Mexico before they were caught. Some of Brewer’s closest advisors, both inside and outside her administration, have close ties to the private prison industry.

Brewer said Goddard is grasping for issues, and said he is trying to deflect attention away from his lack of ideas.

Brewer’s campaign has repeatedly said SB1070 is not the sole reason for the change in her electoral fortunes. Campaign spokespeople note that Brewer’s poll numbers initially started rising when she finally got her budget plan through the Legislature in March, one month before SB1070 landed on her desk. At the time, polling showed Brewer running neck and neck with Martin and Mills, a retired telecommunications magnate who owns a firearms training facility in Paulden.

But the boost Brewer gained from SB1070 derailed the once-promising campaigns of Martin and Mills, who has continued to be critical of Brewer for her sales tax hike. He said the governor’s massive lead in the polls was the result of a bill that she had little to do with, and other Brewer critics echoed those sentiments.

When Mills suspended his campaign, he refused to endorse her, and even kept his campaign committee open so his supporters’ protest votes against her would be counted. Mills posted an Election Day message to supporters on his campaign website, and even put up some new signs only days before the primary.

But now that the primary is over, conservatives are coalescing around the Republican candidate as she prepares to face Goddard in the general election.

In a press statement, Mills congratulated Brewer on her victory and wished her good luck against Goddard. But he also hinted that he hasn’t forgotten about the tax hike that led him to challenge her in the first place.

“It is my hope that Governor Brewer brings the issue of fiscal responsibility to the table. A central theme of my campaign was a balanced budget without burdening the taxpayers,” Mills said. “As a conservative Republican, I would urge Governor Brewer to carry that message forward as she takes on the liberal policies of Terry Goddard.”