Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Sitton To Announce Congressional Campaign Plans Tomorrow

Posted By on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:17 PM

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?

Tags: , , , , , ,