Thread: Hayworth not ready to concede to Mitchell

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 0N.html

Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth said Wednesday it was too early to draw conclusions in the race for Arizona's 5th Congressional District, even though results showed Democrat Harry Mitchell had him beat.

Mitchell received 71,077 votes, or 50.5 percent, while Hayworth got 65,122 votes, or 46.2 percent, with all precincts reporting. Libertarian Warren Severin had 4,620 votes, or about 3.3 percent.

An undetermined number of early and provisional ballots remained to be counted.


"Let's get the count done," Hayworth said Wednesday after visiting the Maricopa County elections office in downtown Phoenix. "There's tens of thousands of ballots that have yet to be counted."

Hayworth, a 12-year incumbent, said he visited the elections office to "get my hands on what's been counted and what's not been counted."

He said if the outstanding ballots do not tip in his favor, he'd "be the first to congratulate Harry."

Arizona GOP Chairman Matt Salmon told supporters Tuesday night that Democrats were celebrating too early.

"Democrats are doing cartwheels in the end zone," he said. "If you think Hayworth is going to lose this race, then you are in fantasy land."

At a Democratic rally, Mitchell, a former state senator and the former longtime mayor of Tempe, held off on declaring victory but was glowing. "I want you to know that when all the votes are counted, you will have a new congressman in this district," he told a crowd of cheering supporters.

In 12 years in office, Hayworth, a former radio news commentator and TV sports broadcaster, met with mostly feeble challenges to unseat him. He had never won by less than 48 percent of the vote and won by at least 60 percent in his last three races.

"This is one of those races where J.D. Hayworth was expected to walk right in and take this without a fight," said Fred Solop, a political science professor and pollster at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "This was considered a toss-up race just yesterday. But this was a resounding defeat, and I'm sure Hayworth is surprised."

Mitchell met every one of Hayworth's challenges during the race, biting back in campaign ads that played up Hayworth's ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and accused him of accomplishing nothing in Washington.

"Mitchell ran a very steady race," Solop said. "He was standing up to J.D. Hayworth - trading ads, going head to head and toe to toe."

Mitchell's win mirrored a national voting trend in which Democrats wrested control of the House from Republicans after years of being in the minority.

Tuesday's election also marked the first time since 1994 that Arizona's House delegation has been split with four representatives from each party. Besides the Mitchell race, Democrat Gabrielle Giffords beat out Republican Randy Graf for Arizona's 8th Congressional District seat.

"The environment shifted all across the country against the Republicans," said Bruce Merrill, a political science professor and pollster at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Oh man, I do wish J.D. could pull this out of the fire, but I am not holding my breath.

If it's within 10% I think he can contest it and possibly have a run off election.

There may be hope for a few other races.

Dixie

I thought Az. was for him....what happened?

Alot of people vote early and absentee, it is a very big city with lots of traffic. I am waiting on all votes to be counted.

Originally Posted by moosetracks

I thought Az. was for him....what happened?

He was smeared with the fact that he used Abramoff's skyboxes. Kinda' curious when compared to Bill Jefferson who drew no media attention and no democrat discussion.

I wonder if Mitchell pulled a Loretta Sanchez and got elected with illegal votes?

Originally Posted by TimBinh

I wonder if Mitchell pulled a Loretta Sanchez and got elected with illegal votes?

I was thinking the same thing.. illegal voting

Watch some tyrant in a black robe will have all the absentee ballots thrown out somehow. Not holding my breath that this race will turn around, but I can still hope.

I just heard on Sean Hannity that there are over 100,000 votes still to count. We can still win this one, and I would be pretty happy if we did. It's NOT OVER YET!!