Monday, June 12, 2006

CD 8 Giffords Sets Petition Record

One of the classic rituals of every campaign is the delivery of nominating petitions to the Arizona Secretary of State. It’s a photo op and the chance to celebrate with your supporters. You hope for a little press coverage, which it’s unlikely you’ll get, and move on to the next stage of your campaign.

Giffords has turned in a record 7015 signatures, about three times the number of the next nearest candidate. Signatures were collected from every county in the Congressional District…Pima, Santa Cruz, Pinal, and Cochise. That she covered the District is not a fact that political junkies will find unusual, although the number of signatures certainly is.

What is worth noting, however, is the fact that signatures were collected from every one of the 345 precincts in the district. The campaign is surely going to argue that this is evidence of the breadth and depth of Gifford’s support. According to a campaign spokesman about 20% of those signatures were from high voting propensity Democratic voters, who they now hope to recruit to the campaign.

Whatever is made of these figures by her opponents it is hardly open to debate is that they are evidence of an extremely well organized, efficient, and far-reaching field organization. This is certain to be noted by players on the national scene who want to focus their support on those campaigns that promise the greatest success in re-capturing a House majority in Congress.

3 comments:

Art Jacobson said...

A correction is called for. A Giffords
press release gives a slightly lower
petition signature count:

"6,952 signatures sets the record for the largest amount turned in for a Congressional campaign in the CD-8 race this year. The amount represents over 20% of the votes cast in the last Democratic congressional primary in CD-8, and also more than triples the number turned in by her nearest competitor for the Democratic nomination."

x4mr said...

Now I am laughing, anonymous.

Imagine my surprise that folks are griping about these signatures.

What stood out to me was that her campaign went to every single precinct.........

Art Jacobson said...

Sirocco...

I believe the latest signature counts.

I imagine that the earliest anyone could start collecting signatures would be whenever the petition forms were ready. Setting that aside, Latas threw his hat in the ring before anyone else... his campaign's proud boast.

Don't know when he turned petitions in but the number of signatures was apparently nothing to boast about. Nothing on his web site, anyway.

Patty quit collecting a month before she had to, a fact I commented on earlier, thus winning a pointless race.

Emmersom... Everyone has a legal right to challenge signatures so the other campaigns may do that. It's probably a time waster, though.

One thing is certain, you won't challenge since you would then have to identify yourself.

To all commenters...thanks for writing.

'gards,
Art