Senate President Tim Bee is weeks away from filing an exploratory committee in a potential bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the 8th Congressional District.
Bee, R-30, has taken incremental and cautious steps in the direction of running for Congress, keeping his eye on the CD-8 seat but maintaining that his options are open after his Senate term ends next year.
His most recent step followed reports that Arizona’s first-term Democratic representatives have been highly adept at raising money.
Giffords raised more than half a million dollars during the second quarter alone, ending with nearly $1 million cash on hand as of June 30.
U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell, CD-5, took in nearly $600,000 in contributions in six months and has more than half a million dollars on hand as of June 30, according to federal election records.
Bee: Funds will be ‘determining factor’
Bee said funds would be a determining factor whether he pursues a congressional race.
Bee said he plans to file the necessary exploratory organization documents with the Federal Election Commission.
The time frame is “a couple of weeks,” he said.
Filing exploratory committee papers is regarded as the first step toward a congressional race. The senator has been cautious not to announce a congressional candidacy because doing so within this year means he would have to resign his current post. Staying as Senate president, a high-profile job, appears to be a strategy to allow him to stay in the media spotlight before he officially hits the campaign trail next year, observers have said.
After the last legislative session, Bee said he was in a “testing the waters” stage, where he could raise a limited amount of money. In July he attended a clinic by the National Republican Congressional Committee on what it would take to run a congressional race.
The exploratory process is “a step in the direction of really taking a serious look at it and finding out the support there,” he said.
Bee said he has been talking to people about fund raising and early responses have been “very positive.”
The GOP is targeting Giffords in a bid to retake control of Congress, which it lost to Democrats in the wave of the anti-war sentiment in last November’s elections.
Giffords had, in fact, triumphed in a territory that leans Republican. There are 148,006 GOP voters registered there; Democrats number 128, 941, according to a July 2007 voter registration report from the Secretary of State’s Office. However, the swing vote is huge. Independents and others registered totaled 106,304.