Another day, another story of GOP corruption. In this case, the offender is embattled Arizona Republican Rick Renzi, now indicted:
Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.
A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.
Extortion, fraud, money laundering. That's quite a list, Congressman. Sure you didn't miss one?
The good news for Renzi, of course, is that this will not damage his chances for reelection, as he is not standing for reelection. He announced retirement plans last August, which is probably a wise decision as it will afford him plenty of time to focus on his legal defense.
His district is a swing district with a slight Republican bent at R+2.2. We can expect a barn-burner of a race here; we have three announced candidates for the race. Leading the pack is State Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who has outraised all other announced candidates for the seat, Republican and Democratic. She is joined in the primary by attorney Howard Shanker, and newscaster Mary Kim Titla (who would, I believe, be the first Native American woman to serve in Congress). The Republican candidate will likely be Sydney Hay, who lost the 2002 primary to Renzi.
The shadow of Renzi's ethical problems is likely to help us in a Democratic year. Arizona Republicans are lucky that McCain will be the presidential candidate, but this race should be very exciting nonetheless.
Meanwhile, in Arizona's 3rd District, Republican John Shadegg has decided to unretire, mere days after his initial decision to hang up his spikes. He claims that his colleagues and constituents positively begged him to stick around:
"I expected my decision would elicit little reaction here in Arizona, and less in Washington. The events of the last week have, to say the least, stunned and deeply humbled me," he said. "In the week following my announcement, thousands of people have contacted my office to encourage me to reconsider my decision. Dozens of old friends, some of whom I hadn’t spoken with in years, called my home urging me to reconsider."
Actually, I don't doubt this. With a strong Democratic contender in the race, attorney Bob Lord (who raised over $600,000 in 2007), the last thing the Republicans need here is yet another open seat. I'm sure they were pleading him to stick around.
Shadegg, of course, has his own ethical problems involving potentially illegal campaign donations.
Shadegg's district is quite a bit more Republican than Renzi's, R+6. Having McCain atop the ticket should help Arizona Republicans (who are still smarting from two Congressional losses last year) a little bit, but it remains to be seen how much. I'd expect both these races to be competitive.
I will say, though, that if we did manage to take both these seats, and hold on to Gabrielle Giffords' and Harry Mitchell's seats as well, it will leave a grand total of two Republicans out of eight Arizona representatives.
That's Republican-leaning, home-of-John-McCain Arizona, folks.