ARIZONA
      Nov. 6, 2012 U.S. Senate

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Jeff Flake (R) 
1,104,457 49.23%
Richard Carmona (D) 1,036,542
 46.20%
Marc Victor (L) 102,109
 		4.55%
write-ins (2) 314

2,243,422
Registration: 3,124,712.  Ballots cast: 2,323,579.
Plurality:  67,915 votes (3.03 percentage points)
 AZ Secretary of State



Notes: This was an open seat as Sen. Jon Kyl (R) was retiring.  Six-term U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake (R) held the seat in the Republican column, defeating former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D) and Attorney Marc Victor (L).

Kyl, the Senate Minority Whip, was first elected to the Senate in 1994 after serving four terms in the House; he announced on Feb. 10, 2011 that he would not seek re-election.  Flake was first elected to Congress in 2000.  Carmona served as Surgeon General during the George W. Bush administration from Aug. 2002-July 2006.  An Independent, he had been recruited by Republicans to run for governor and Congress.

In the Aug. 28 primaries, Flake comfortably defeated real estate businessman Will Cardon and several others with 69% of the vote; Carmona was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

All three candidates debated on "Arizona Horizon" from KAET-TV (Arizona PBS) studios at ASU in Phoenix on Oct. 10 (>).  Flake and Carmona debated at the studios of Arizona Public Media in Tucson on Oct. 15 (>).  Finally, the two major party candidates debated rural issues at Arizona Western College in Yuma on Oct. 25 (>).

Carmona ran ahead of President Obama in Arizona, losing by 67,915 votes (3.03 percentage points), compared to the 208,422 vote (9.06 percentage points) margin between Obama and Romney.  Marc Victor, the Libertarian candidate, achieved a strong 4.55% showing.

According to Open Secrets (>), the Flake campaign spent $9.6 million, the Carmona campaign $6.4 million and the Victor campaign $8,334.  Additionally there was significant outside spending.  Eight groups spent more than $1 million on the race: on the Republican side NRSC ($5.1m), Club for Growth Action ($2.4m), American Commitment ($1.4m), Freedomworks for America ($1.3m) and Now or Never PAC ($1.0m) and on the Democratic side DSCC ($4.0m), Majority PAC ($2.1m) and AFSCME ($1.2m).

 
Campaign Managers:
Jeff Flake:  Sarah Morgan
Vice president of rural affairs at Associated General Contractors-AZ chapter, Oct. 2007-April 2011.  Office administrator to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, 2002-07.  Deputy campaign manager on Jon Kyl for U.S. Senate, June 2005,-Dec. 2006. Graduate of Iowa State University.  Born and raised in Missouri.

Rich Carmona:  Alexis Tameron
Chief of staff (Apr. 2009-Jan. 2011) and district director (Jan. 2007-Mar. 2009) to U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell (AZ).  Worked on Mitchell's 2006 campaign, an upset over incumbent J.D. Hayworth (R).  B.S. in political science from Arizona State University.  Born and raised in Superior, AZ.


See also:
Ted Robbins.  "Race for Arizona's Open Seat Gets Personal."  NPR, Oct. 19, 2012.

Mike Sager.  "The Fate of Arizona Is on This Man."  Esquire, Oct. 17, 2012.


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