Congressional District AZ-01

AZ-01 Congressional District

Geographically, Arizona’s First Congressional District is larger than the state’s other seven districts combined.  The district is the tenth largest in the country and encompasses the majority of the state to the north and west of the Phoenix/Tempe metropolitan area. It is a difficult place to campaign as the largest media market in the district is Flagstaff, a city of about 60,000, and the district is roughly the size of Georgia. 

The First District is extremely rural and one of the poorest districts in the country. Voters have been hit especially hard by high gas prices because long commutes are common in this spread out region.  Energy plans have been at the forefront of this election thus far. 

The voter registration for the district breaks down as 40.7% Democrat, 34.0% Republican, 24.4% Other, and less than 1% total for the Green and Libertarian parties.  While the overall numbers for all parties rose the last two years, the percentage shares are almost identical to what they were on Election Day 2006.  Ethnically the district has a large number of minority groups with Native Americans accounting for 25% of voters. 

The district has had only one Democratic representative since the mid-1950’s, Sam Coppersmith, who defeated three term Republican John Rhodes III in one of the biggest shocks of the 1992 election.  He then ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 but lost to another representative in Jon Kyl.  This district was also held by U.S. Senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) before he was elected to replace Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) in the Senate in the mid-1980s.   

Arizona’s First District has been held by Republican Rick Renzi since 2002, but Renzi announced in February that he would not seek an additional term after being indicted on 35 counts related to a land-swap deal that included an FBI raid of his family business.   

Ann Kirkpatrick, an attorney and state representative, defeated three other Democrats in the September 2nd Primary Election.  She will face Sydney Hay, president of the State Mining Association, who defeated four others in the Republican Primary.  Libertarian Thane Eichenauer could play kingmaker for Kirkpatrick because a Libertarian candidate has pulled about 5% of the vote in each of the last three elections in this district. 

Kirkpatrick had the clear fundraising edge in the Democratic Primary spending three times that of her closest Democrat rival, Titla, through the August 13th report date with the Federal Election Commission.  She also leads her Republican challenger Hay by greater than 2-to-1 margins in cash on hand. 

Kirkpatrick has also seen strong support from outside organizations including the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who made her a part of their Red to Blue Program.  With her strong fundraising numbers and powerful endorsements, Kirkpatrick looks like she could be the next Democrat Representative of Arizona’s First Congressional District.