While Repub­li­can party insid­ers are par­ty­ing in Tampa, Repub­li­can vot­ers are head­ing to the polls in Ari­zona to choose a cou­ple impor­tant nominees.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 6

Two fresh­man Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Ben Quayle (R-​​Phoenix) and David Schweik­ert (R-​​Fountain Hills), face off today in the newly-​​drawn Dis­trict 6, which is com­prised mostly of ter­ri­tory from the for­mer Dis­trict 3. Redis­trict­ing put them both in the same ter­ri­tory, as Schweik­ert lives in a por­tion of the for­mer Dis­trict 5 that has been sub­sumed into the new Dis­trict 6.

This has been the nas­ti­est bat­tle in Ari­zona this year, with Quayle being viewed as the estab­lish­ment can­di­date (in no small part because his father was George H. W. Bush’s Vice Pres­i­dent), while Schweik­ert has more sup­port from the hard-​​liners. Truth be told, though, the dif­fer­ences between the two are suf­fi­ciently sub­tle that there’s a bit of Twee­dle­dum and Twee­dledee in this pri­mary. Both promise to repeal Oba­macare, oppose tax increases, and voted almost iden­ti­cally over the past two years. Each has fre­quently accused the other of lying, and each has spent $1.5 attack­ing the other.

The new Dis­trict 6 is pretty well bal­anced between mod­er­ate and far-​​right con­stituents as well. The num­ber of Democ­rats, how­ever, is espe­cially small, so for all intents and pur­poses this elec­tion will deter­mine who is going to Wash­ing­ton in January.

Sen­ate

I’ve men­tioned this race numer­ous times in the Sen­ate Watch series. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jeff Flake (R-​​Mesa) (iron­i­cally enough rep­re­sent­ing the old Dis­trict 6) is squar­ing off against real estate mogul Wil Cardon.

Until recently, Car­don looked like a real con­tender. His stance on abor­tion lines up with the Repub­li­can Party plat­form (though not so much, appar­ently, with Repub­li­can vot­ers). He was ris­ing in the polls, and, like many “busi­ness out­siders” that have been pop­ping up this elec­tion sea­son, has been get­ting a great deal of sup­port from the Tea Party. But in the past week or so, he has been over­whelmed by Flake’s adver­tis­ing. It appears, going into today’s elec­tion, that Car­don has flaked out and dis­ap­peared from the land­scape alto­gether. That bodes well for the Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Mesa.

A Flake vic­tory today increases the like­li­hood that this Sen­ate seat, vacated by Sen­a­tor Jon Kyl, will remain in Repub­li­cans’ hands. A Car­don vic­tory improves the chances for the Demo­c­ra­tic nom­i­nee, George W. Bush administration’s Sur­geon Gen­eral, Richard Carmona.

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