Precinct committeemen, the party faithful who show up at legislative district meetings and encourage people to vote, occasionally get a chance to have an even more influential role in state politics.

With the AZGOP organizational meeting a week away, the battle between Chairman Robert Graham and LD23 has reached a fever pitch, with the district’s leadership sounding the alarms that the state chairman could invalidate its 119 state committeemen.

Democrats in Tempe and west Mesa nominated two state representatives and a local party leader as candidates to fill a vacant Senate seat.

Early voting in the 2014 primary begins in nine months, and candidates are already firing up their campaigns.

New lawmakers could change dynamics of Senate

Two new lawmakers arrived at the Legislature this summer to fill vacancies in the Arizona Senate, potentially altering the dynamics of a chamber that left the Capitol bitterly divided on the issue of Medicaid expansion.

A Tempe Democrat introduced a bill Jan. 29 that would put a time limit on county boards of supervisors to fill vacancies in the Legislature.

A group of moderate, GOP precinct committeemen in Legislative District 25 has filed suit over a disputed organizational election in November and allege that a faction of Russell Pearce supporters is trying to bully its way back into power.

An effort to give rural areas more control over filling vacancies in the Arizona Legislature was stymied by a House panel after lawmakers raised concerns that it would create more problems than it would solve.