9 big surprises in the primary election

CD 3:

Ben Quayle beats field in CD10

From the outside, it looked like Quayle was rocking on his heels in the waning weeks of the campaign.

His name was in the headlines for days in connection with the racy website DirtyScottsdale.com, now called TheDirty.com, but he pulled out a surprising and comfortable victory.

“Ben posted a handful of satirical, fictional writings on a website that no longer exists,” said Jay Heiler, Quayle’s communications director. “As alleged political scandals go, this one won’t rank high in the firmament.”

Chad Willems, a Republican political consultant, said he believes Quayle was aggressive early in the campaign in securing enough early votes before the Dirty.com story broke.

“I was shocked, I thought it was going to be a (Vernon) Parker or a (Jim) Waring race, but money talks and he had enough of it; so did (Steve) Moak,” Willems said.

CD 8:

Jesse Kelly over Jonathan Paton

Kelly credits a strong volunteer base for carrying him to victory over Paton, who had money, name recognition and support from the political establishment.

The conventional wisdom was Paton was on his way to a six- or seven-point win, Chad Willems, a Republican consultant said.

“This was an upset, a clear surprise. This was a shocker,” Willems said.

Willems added that Paton ran a frontrunner campaign, focusing on Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords until late in the race when Kelly started turning heads.

Kelly didn’t see it as an upset as he rattled off a list of the keys to his success, such as a good fundraising effort and effective advertising, but nothing fired him up more than talking about the 1,500 volunteers who he said helped make 35,000 live calls and knock on 25,000 doors.

“It’s difficult no matter how much money anyone raises to stand up against a really strong grassroots effort,” Kelly said.

Secretary of State:

Christopher Deschene over Sam Wercinski

Wercinski outspent Deschene by $30,000 and began his campaign a year before him, but Deschene won in a landslide.

Barry Dill, a Democratic political consultant, said he didn’t see Deschene’s victory as an upset.

Deschene’s mail and voter contact were “far superior” to Wercinski’s, and Deschene ran as an outsider, which worked to his advantage, Dill said.

“Wercinski made a mistake, I think, by touting his resume as an insider in the Napolitano administration,” Dill said. “That’s kind of contrary to the mood of the public right now.”

LD 16 House:

Catherine Miranda over Cloves Campbell Jr.

Miranda had no doubt she would beat the incumbent, Campbell, but she was still surprised by the election’s outcome.

“I guess the surprising part was the new candidate in the district got me by (420) votes,” Miranda said of Ruben Gallego.

Her roots run deep in the district, her name carries weight and she knocked on thousands of doors, she said.

Campbell, who has served two terms, said he believes low voter turnout did him in since he didn’t do as well in some precincts as he thought he would.

Barry Dill, a Democratic consultant, said his observation was that Gallego and Miranda just worked harder.

LD 6 Senate:

Lori Klein over David Braswell

The district’s House race wasn’t the only upset.

Klein trounced Braswell, the incumbent who was appointed to the seat earlier in the year, on her first try at running for office.

“I thought it would be a lot closer, I was shocked,” Klein said.

She set about differentiating her traditional conservative values from Braswell’s voting record, which she said showed he was fiscally moderate.

LD 22 House:

Steve Urie over Laurin Hendrix

Hendrix was the incumbent but he said he effectively was up against two other incumbents in Urie, a former Gilbert town councilman, and Eddie Farnsworth, a former House majority leader.

Couple that with a minimal effort and you get an upset by 401 votes.

“I didn’t campaign real hard last time and I didn’t campaign hard this time,” Hendrix said.

Urie said he focused on the issues of education, unemployment and border security, all of which resonate in the conservative district, and stayed on message.

Besides hitting every candidate forum and going door to door, he sent out e-mail blasts and three mailers.

LD 7 House:

David Burnell Smith’s comeback

When the Clean Elections Commission removed Smith from office in 2005 for overspending campaign money, he took his case all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court.

That never-say-die attitude led him to top a seven-candidate field.

“I don’t think the old Clean Elections situation had anything to do with it,” said Smith, who was the first candidate in the nation to be removed from office for violating public-funding laws. “They voted for me because of my policies, my beliefs and what I want to do for the state.”

Willems said he believes Smith benefitted from low voter turnout and his opponents not bringing up his Clean Elections problems.

“I don’t think many people took David seriously as a candidate, so I don’t think they went after him on that stuff,” Chad Willems, a Republican consultant, said.

LD 11 House:

Eric West over Shawnna Bolick

West was limited on cash because he ran as a Clean Elections candidate, and Bolick spent more than $81,000 on her campaign.

And West garnered only two endorsements while Bolick got six. But West didn’t let that slow him down.

“People familiar with our district felt I had a chance,” West said.

He decided not to run against his opponents but to emphasize his positions and values.

“I ran a positive campaign, I did a lot of door knocking,” he said. “I think people still respond well to optimism.”