Final campaign spending reports from the 2010 election season revealed desperation by ultimately unsuccessful candidates who loaned their campaigns large amounts of money, as well as aggressive spending by winning candidates who likely didn’t need it.

Nationally, Democrats suffered disaster in the general election. In Arizona, it was even worse. For the first time since 1994, Republicans swept Arizona’s statewide offices. Even the Attorney General’s Office, which has been in Democratic hands for the past 12 years, couldn’t withstand the Republican tsunami.

Tom Horne played it safe long after the polls closed, but the Republican attorney general hopeful declared victory after his 5-point lead held through the night.

Polling on Arizona’s statewide races has consistently shown GOP candidates on top, and Republicans are optimistic that the anti-Democratic mood sweeping the state and the country will give them total control of state government.

Only a couple of relatively competitive races stand between Republicans and their first sweep of Arizona’s six statewide offices since 1994, not including the Corporation Commission.

A judge denied Republican attorney general candidate Tom Horne’s request for an injunction against television ads being run by a Democratic-funded group, Horne said.

Many Democrats view the attorney general’s race as their best chance of winning a statewide office in 2010, and national organizations from both sides have spent nearly $1 million in the final weeks of the campaign.

A poll released Tuesday shows that Republican Tom Horne and Democratic Felecia Rotellini are about even among likely voters in the Arizona attorney general race.

The candidates for Arizona attorney general have made the race less about the issues facing the state's next top prosecutor and more a contest of experience — and their assessments of each other are brutal.

Tom Horne and Felecia Rotellini were feeling the financial pinch after their hard-fought primary wins in the attorney general’s race.

The two candidates for Arizona attorney general spent more time throwing figurative elbows at each other than selling themselves to voters during a debate Wednesday.