With a deadline of June 14 to turn in nominating petitions, fewer than half of those who have filed campaign committees for state elective offices had qualified for the ballot, secretary of state records show as of the morning of June 8.
Of the more than 250 campaign committee filings for the top executive offices and the Legislature, 111 candidates had qualified for the ballot by turning in their quotas of signatures of registered voters, and a last-minute rush is expected.
“We’ve been able to manage it so far, but we’re preparing for quite of storm of activity,” said Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne.
In the governor’s race, where 16 people filed campaign committees, only four candidates had qualified as of June 8, but two more Republicans were expected to file before the deadline, setting up a four-way GOP primary Sept. 5 for the state’s top office.
Democrat Governor Napolitano, Republicans Len Munsil and Gary Tupper and Libertarian Barry Hess have qualified.
Republican Mike Harris says he will turn in nominating petitions before the deadline. Another Republican, Don Goldwater, did not return phone calls, but, according to several supporters, has gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but was still working on obtaining the required number of $5 contributions to qualify for public funding, a challenge that many candidates, especially Republicans, have found daunting.
“We’re running in a [Clean Elections] system that we’re against,” said Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-22, a Goldwater supporter.
Deadline is June 14
While they must meet the June 14 deadline for filing nominating petitions, publicly funded candidates have until Aug. 31 to turn in their $5 contributions. Gubernatorial candidates, for example are required to gather more than 4,000 $5 donations.
Ms. Napolitano, a publicly funded candidate who, along with Mr. Munsil, quickly gathered their $5 contributions, was asked why other gubernatorial candidates have failed or are struggling to do so.
“Maybe they don’t have as large a base as they thought they did,” she said.
The vast majority of candidates have registered as publicly funded, but only 34 had received their initial funding as of June 8.
With little chance of qualifying for the governor’s race, Steve Moore, a Mesa Republican, and independents Paul Michael Kasparian of Casa Grande and Ilias Kostopoulos of Mesa filed their campaign committees this month.
“So I say if I run for office and if I try my best, my example might help somebody make decision — somebody who has more funds than I, more money than I, speaks better English than I — to do something and help our state,” Mr. Kostopoulos said.
At one point early in the year, big political names, such as Congressman J.D. Hayworth, former Governor Fife Symington, Senate President Ken Bennett, former Senate President John Greene, Mary Peters and later Sheriff Joe Arpaio were on the list of possible candidates for governor. Mr. Greene and former judge Jan Smith Flõrez dropped out of the race, citing the difficulty of raising money.
94 have qualified for legislative seats
A total of 70 people had filed campaign committees for 30 seats in the Senate, and 145 for the House’s 60 seats. Of the total 215 legislative hopefuls, 94 had qualified as of June 8.
In other statewide races, Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer and Libertarian Ernest Hancock have qualified for that office, along with Democrat Attorney General Terry Goddard in his bid for re-election.
Democrat Slade Mead and Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne have qualified for the schools job.