Who is running≠
Rep. Mark Anderson, Senate President Tim Bee, Sen. Tom O’Halleran, Rep. Bill Konopnicki, former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, and Rep. Russell Pearce have declared or are thinking about running for Congress.

To resign or not to resign≠
That, for sitting legislators, is the first question they must answer when they consider running for higher office. Already this year, one lawmaker has given up her seat to run for Congress.
But what about the five other representatives and senators currently mulling a campaign to get to D.C.≠ Will the Legislature have an upheaval of new members mid-term, or will the other potential candidates opt to tend to their legislative duties while laying the groundwork for a campaign≠
Serving the twin masters of campaigning and legislating is a recipe for failure, one of the prospective candidates says.
“I think history tells us that if you try to do two jobs like that, you’re going to fail at both,” Sen. Tom O’Halleran, R-1, said. “You’re going to lose on both sides of the equation.
“To run a successful campaign, you need to resign.”
And that, O’Halleran says, is exactly what he will do if he ultimately decides to enter the race to replace embattled Republican Rep. Rick Renzi in the 1st Congressional District.
History favors those who resign
The historical record O’Halleran references shows his assumption is a fair one — that candidates who split their time between the Capitol and the campaign trail are fighting losing battles. Since 1982, there have been 22 legislators who ran for either the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. Of the 20 who opted to serve in the Legislature and run campaigns at the same time, only two — Karan English in 1992 and Matt Salmon in 1994 — ultimately were victorious.
However, the only two lawmakers in that time to resign from the Legislature to run for Congress were successful, with last year seeing both Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell win their races after giving up their Senate seats.
And for lawmakers looking to challenge incumbent congressmen, the track record is even worse. In fact, it’s nonexistent. The nine legislators who concurrently ran a campaign and finished their final legislative session all lost.
Yet, despite history and a state ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists during the legislative session, three of the five potential 2008 Congressional candidates — the only three weighing challenges to incumbents — say they will likely serve out their current term if they decide to enter their respective races.
One of those three, Rep. Mark Anderson, has formed an exploratory committee to challenge Democrat Harry Mitchell in the 5th Congressional District. Anderson says will probably remain in the Legislature, where he chairs the House Education Committee, the District 18 Republican says there is still a responsibility to the voters who put him into office.
“It’s not ideal,” he said of the idea of campaigning around the legislative schedule. “The better way of doing it would be to resign and run full time, if you didn’t feel like you need to be there during session…
What about constituents≠
“I feel somewhat obligated to be there during session because the voters chose me to do that,” Anderson said.
His District 18 seatmate, Rep. Russell Pearce, is eyeing a campaign against four-term incumbent Republican Jeff Flake in the 6th Congressional District. Pearce concedes his decision to stay in office if he does challenge Flake will have a negative impact on both the campaign and his legislative responsibilities, but he also says the voters want him at the state Capitol.
Pearce, the architect of several immigration measures approved by voters in recent years and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, also says his dedication to lessening the impact of illegal immigration on Arizona taxpayers makes it difficult to leave the Legislature.
“There’s still issues here that are hard to let go of,” he said.
With only 24 hours in the day, and much of it during the legislative session — which runs from January to the end of April typically, though the last two sessions ended in late June — taken up by committee hearings, floor action and stakeholder meetings, free time for lawmakers is limited.
Adding campaign activities to that — district meetings, house parties, fund raising phone calls — necessarily means some tightly scheduled days. That, in turn, would mean taking on a little less responsibility at the Capitol, Pearce says.
“It’ll be hard to come down here and not do what you’re supposed to do,” he said.
But Anderson, who has served in both the House and Senate, says it’s possible to perform both jobs effectively and relegate most campaign activities to evenings and weekends, when the Legislature typically doesn’t work.
“Having been here for 13 years, I’m able, I think, to organize my time and prioritize,” he said.
Like O’Halleran, Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-5, is contemplating a run for Renzi’s seat. Also like his one-time House colleague, Konopnicki says he would probably resign from the Legislature.
“The biggest advantage I see would be concentration and focus on what you’re doing,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges for Konopnicki and O’Halleran is the sheer size of the 1st Congressional District. At roughly 59,000 square miles, the expansive district wraps from Page, along the Arizona-Utah border, down to Florence in Pinal County, taking in Flagstaff and the bulk of the state’s eastern border along the way.
But Anderson and Pearce, both from Mesa, are exploring campaigns in districts near to the Capitol. And the 6th District, in which Pearce may run, is one of the state’s smaller districts.
“The good news,” he said, “it is a fairly small geographical district. It doesn’t take a whole day to go from one meeting to another.”
But one situation for which recent Arizona history provides no apples-to-apples precedent is that of Senate President Tim Bee, who has formed an exploratory committee to challenge Democrat Gabrielle Giffords in southern Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.
Never before has a sitting Senate president or House speaker run for Congress, let alone in a predominately rural district against an incumbent.
Bee can set sights squarely on Giffords, for now
A spokeswoman for Bee’s exploratory committee says the senator “considered all of his options,” but feels “it is in the best interests of his constituents” if he remains at the Legislature to serve as southern Arizona’s first Senate president in more than 30 years.
One thing in Bee’s favor, besides the press coverage that comes along with leading a legislative chamber, is the lack of other Republicans in the race. An uncontested primary campaign would mean Bee, should he officially enter the race, could focus all of his energies on Giffords.
It would also give him two more months of fund raising than Pearce and Anderson are likely to have before their political fates are in the hands of voters, as the Mesa Republicans would both face primary election opponents.
Fund raising time becomes crucial for lawmakers who remain in office, as state law prohibits them from receiving campaign contribu
tions from or arranged by lobbyists while the Legislature is in session.
Anderson, who says it will cost an “astronomical” amount of money to run against Mitchell, says the ban on lobbyist money would hurt, but not cripple, his campaign.
“There’s a lot of other people out there besides lobbyists to raise money from,” he said.
In 2006, Mitchell spent $1.9 million on his campaign; then-incumbent J.D. Hayworth spent slightly more than $3 million.
Likewise, Pearce would be unable to solicit donations through lobbyists during the legislative session. His potential opponent, Flake, reported more than $581,000 in his campaign chest in his most recent Federal Election Commission filing. But Pearce says he knows he won’t outspend Flake.
“If I ran, I think I could beat Jeff spending one-to-four or one-to-three what he does,” Pearce said.
Seemingly speaking for himself and the other lawmakers considering splitting time between service at the Capitol and on the campaign trail, Pearce says deciding not to resign isn’t without its pitfalls, but neither is it a decision made on a whim.
“If we run, I know the handicaps,” Pearce said.