Many of the conservative blogs have been intently covering the LD11 fight for Republican district chair between former Gov. Fife Symington (presumably representing the McCain wing of the Party) and incumbent chair Rob Haney, who seems to get his support from the more conservative factions of the party.
According to www.espressopundit.com, www.hotazitgets.com, www.sonoranalliance.com, and others, Haney smoked Symington pretty well, giving McCain a sharp poke in the eye (though I would assume Symington's felony history probably didn't help his chances).
The next major battle will be for State Republican Party chair, where two-time failed Phoenix mayoral candidate and current Republican National Committeeman Randy Pullen has been eyeing the post for awhile. Surfacing recently is Lisa James, wife of Bush ultra-insider Gordon James and representing the McCain establishment. Len Munsil may also be a candidate.
Pullen has made his mark recently spearheading a couple of anti-immigrant measures, including Prop 200 which passed overwhelmingly in 2004, and then trying to get a proposition before Phoenix voters that would explicitly put police in the immigration enforcement business. The measure got bounced from the November ballot because of petition problems but could reappear sometime in 2007.
If Pullen doesn't get the GOP chair position, look for him to throw his hat in the ring for mayor again (where he will be mightily thumped again). One of the problems with his anti-immigrant platform is most of that constituency hails from outside Phoenix proper. City Hall sources say one of the reasons his signatures came up short is he couldn't get enough Phoenix volunteers to collect the 15,000 signatures he needed and waited till the last minute to get signature gatherers from the East Valley to help out.
www.hotazitgets.com reports that the LD11 McCain slate for state committee that presumably would support James for state chair lost big time. So the next question is, will Munsil or Pullen be the beneficiary?
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