Defending Common Core will likely drive business federations to stand with the teachers union behind Democratic schools chief candidate David Garcia in the Nov. 4 general election.

Gov. Jan Brewer called the amount of personal finances and "dark money'' spent on races this year "astounding.''

Despite his self-inflicted blunders, incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal is blaming his loss in the Republican primary to Diane Douglas on Common Core, the state’s learning standards.

For all the promises of the survival of Republican lawmakers who voted for Medicaid expansion, the few remaining in the Senate could find their ranks diminished at the conclusion of the primary election.