Republican Dave Sitton has announced that he’s holding a press conference tomorrow to let us know whether he’ll be getting into the Congressional District 8 race to finish out Gabrielle Giffords’ term and/or the race for the new Congressional District 2 later this year.
Sitton, who is well known for marketing efforts around town (Golden Eagle, the UA Cancer Center, the billboard industry) as well as his sports broadcasting experience, has been exploring a run for several months.
If he gets into the race, Sitton can count on support from Republicans, particularly in the business community, who aren’t excited about the other GOP candidates, Jesse Kelly (who is expected to announce his plans to run on Friday) and state Sen. Frank Antenori.
All three candidates will have to file nominating petitions by Feb. 27 for the April 17 GOP primary, which will be followed by a June 12 special general election.
Antenori, who announced his plans to run last week, will likely be courting the same Tea Party base as Kelly, who captured the support of that portion of the party to win a GOP primary over Jonathan Paton with 48 percent of the vote in 2010 (only to go on to narrowly lose to Giffords later that year). Will those two end up splitting the conservative base and and give Sitton a path to victory?
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.
He’s in.
Apparently Lute Olson is somehow involved, too, at a big fund raiser for Sitton. There’s a 500 a head party planned and for the princely sum of 2500, the two dudes will pose for a photo with you. Bet Jim Click is part of this cabal as well. Stay tuned.
Not exactly Gabrielle Giffords quality, any of them.
I had the opportunity to be coached and mentored by Sitton while studying at Arizona. While I haven’t lived in Tucson for 25 years, there are very, very few people who might better and more inclusively represent the community’s interests in Washington DC. Anyone open-minded enough to hear Sitton out on the issues is likely to find his generosity, balance, diplomacy, intelligence and tolerance to be a welcome change from the rancor of partisan politics.