You gotta hand it to Republican state Sen. Frank Antenori.
The latest scheme cooked up by the hard-charging right-winger may allow him to keep his options open in two separate elections this November, without committing to either.
Here’s how the trick works. This is dense, so stick with us.
Antenori announced earlier in the year that he was running in the special election for Congressional District 8 to replace Gabby Giffords. At the time, he said that no matter what happens, he was also “100 percent” in the race for the new Congressional District 2 in November.
But when he lost the special election primary to Republican Jesse Kelly, and Kelly started doing well in polls against his Democratic opponent Ron Barber, Antenori wasn’t quite “100 percent” anymore. He said if Kelly won the election, he wouldn’t challenge him.
He also started collecting signatures to run for reelection to the state Senate, although (thanks to redistricting) he’s now in a district that leans Democrat and cover much of central Tucson.
This scared Republican candidate Todd Clodfelter out of the state Senate race and into a run for the House of Representatives. That wasn’t good news for Republican state Rep. Ted Vogt, who was running as a single-shot candidate in the House in that district, because having an extra Republican in the race would have hurt his already long odds. (Single-shot: One candidate from a party runs in a district where two representatives are elected. In-the-know-voters from that party select only their candidate and leave their other vote blank, thus increasing their boy’s odds.)
But back to Antenori, who has a timing problem: His signatures to get on the ballot for the legislative elections are due May 30, but he won’t know who won the CD8 special election until June 12—and he can’t be registered as a candidate for two different offices at the same time.
So either he drops out of the race for state Senate, and commits to Congress once again, or vice-versa. Right?
Enter the crazy-as-a-fox plan. Antenori tells The Range: “I could jump in CD2 and watch what happens on June 12. If Jesse turns out to be the guy, then good deal, I just run as a write-in (for state Senate).”
Write-in candidates don’t need to collect signatures. With Clodfelter running for the House, Antenori will face no primary election opposition for his Senate seat and will only need about 500 voters to write in his name for it to appear on the general election ballot.
If Kelly loses the special election in June, Antenori is geared up and ready to get in the race for Congress in November.
It’s a win-freaking-win, as Antenori might say.
“This is a special circumstance,” Antenori says. “I don’t think anybody could have foreseen the impact this special election would have on other races. There’s no provision of state law dealing with this.”
Only possible stick in the spokes of Antenori’s turning wheels is if Clodfelter decides to call Antenori’s bluff and stay in the Senate race. Clodfelter doesn’t want to face Antenori in a primary, but seeing as how these two are old frenemies from the Republican district, he may not want to give Antenori a free pass either.
Antenori hasn’t officially committed to his plan of not committing, but he told the Tucson Weekly he was kicking the idea around in his head.
Former Air Force fighter pilot Martha McSally, who came in second place in the CD8 GOP primary in March (and ahead of Antenori), is also planning to run in the CD2 race this fall if Kelly does not win the June 12 special election against Barber.
Kelly has also filed to run in that race, but whether he would stay in the race after two loses in CD8 remains to be seen. The new CD2 is friendlier to Democrats than the old CD8.
This article appears in May 24-30, 2012.
Maybe it is time for the Rantenori to get a real job not paid for by taxpayers.
He supposedly has one as a project manager for Raytheon, but he never seems to work, yet he bills to some government program taxpayers pay for. (Most project managers I know work their ass off, something never quite make sense how they keep him on the payroll. wink. wink.)
Got to wonder if this guy really could make it in the real world outside the government sector.
Kind of a sneaky strategy, lying to his supposed friend Clodfelter to get him to switch from the Senate race to the house race. Makes one think that Frank has become a politician rather than a “concerned patriot.”
Reminds me of when Barber said he would be a place holder for Gabbie only and then committed to running in district 2 effectively releaving most of the other demo comp from special election and probably should he win (I think he will because Jessy’s a douche) cutting an comp from dems for district 2 election. They’re all rats. left rats right rats, rats rats rats.
“Barber said he would be a place holder for Gabbie only”
Not so. Barber entered the special election campaign without committing to run or refrain from running in CD2. Only when he found that he had the energy and enthusiasm for a longer campaign season did he decide to be a candidate for a full term in the new district.
Frankie wants to have his cake & eat it too – He’s so politically inept that he couldn’t even beat a 30 yr old w/ZERO political experience – he’s pathetic!
You all know this guy is another import, like Kelley into Arizona to run for office. They cannot get elected or the votes in their home states so all the radical move to AZ. Why would the voters of Arizona vote for guys that move to this state just to get elected to office. John McCain did it and leaving office as a multi millionaire. That is what these guys want too. Let Arizona voters get them elected and then they forget around AZ and the voters. Its about how rich they can get from the Lobbyist. Vote smart people of AZ and lets defeat the lying, agenda changing Republicans. They will tell you anything to get votes.
Antenori prevents monies moving into pima cty and Tucson from the state. He says we don’t need the Fed funds that the states gets and is suppose to pass them on to the cities. He is against like, prefers to balance the state budget instead. Don’t believe this guy who moved to AZ just to get elected to a high office. He is using the voters of AZ
Maybe… But definitely the long lost twin brother of Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer).
As his constituent, I once sent Antenori a request that he vote a specific way on a bill. The response I got back was rude, and basically stated that he would vote any way he wanted. He obviously doesn’t care about the people in his district. He has voted against the best interests of the majority most of the time. Another Teabagger, I guess. Definitely don’t know a soul who will vote for him.