The power vacuum U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick will leave behind as she runs for the U.S. Senate is drawing many familiar faces into the contest for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District – including well-known politicians who live outside the district’s boundaries.

Overall voter turnout in Arizona’s primary election barely surpassed 27 percent, but in a few voting precincts in northern Arizona, turnout was much higher — impossibly high, in fact.

Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin will be the Republican nominee to take on U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, as Republican Gary Kiehne, who was trailing Tobin by 324 votes with thousands of ballots left to count, conceded the race this afternoon.

Rancher Gary Kiehne has taken the lead over House Speaker Andy Tobin in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District’s GOP primary, climbing from behind to now 400 votes ahead.

Congressional pre-primary campaign finance reports filed in the past week offer a final look into the fundraising prowess of primary election candidates in three hot congressional races.

When Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin entered the race for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, the Republican establishment breathed a collective sigh of relief. They finally had a strong candidate who could take on one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress, Ann Kirkpatrick, in November.

For a dose of fear and loathing on the campaign trail, check your mailbox.

As early ballots started arriving by mail this week for the primary election, voters’ mailboxes are also filling up with another kind of election material — political attack ads.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s fundraising for the past three months dwarfed that of the three Republicans vying for the chance to run against her in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.

Two congressional candidates seen as frontrunners to snag the Republican nomination in districts with vulnerable Democratic incumbents are being criticized for giving the media and constituents the silent treatment.

The three Republican candidates for Congress from District 1 each insisted Monday night he is more conservative than the other – and the only one who can oust Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick.