Inside Arizona Politics: With Quayle hurting, Moak takes frontrunner position in District 3

PHOENIX - With the Aug. 24 primary about a week away, businessman Steve Moak has parlayed Ben Quayle’s fall from grace into frontrunner status in the crowded Republican field for the GOP nomination in Congressional District 3.

Moak recently put about $300,000 of his own money into his campaign for District 3, which covers north Phoenix and Paradise Valley, and he’s expected to continue the aggressive TV advertising campaign that helped lead his surge in the polls.

Quayle, the one-time frontrunner, saw his lead evaporate in the past couple weeks, largely due to misleading campaign mailers and his connections to thedirty.com , a racy, sex-themed website that was started originally to poke fun at Scottsdale nightlife.

The owner of the site announced last week that Quayle helped start dirtyscottsdale.com, a precursor to thedirty.com, and was a frequent contributor under the pseudonym “Brock Landers,” a fictional porn star the movie Boogie Nights.

Quayle denied the allegations and initially said his only connection to website was that he recommended an intellectual property attorney to the site’s owner. Later, however, Quayle said he posted commentary on the site to drive traffic to it, though he wouldn’t say what the comments were or under what name they were posted. He said the original version of the website to which he contributed was far different than the site it is now.

Quayle’s connections to the website have put Moak in the lead position in District 3, and according to some polling, former state Sen. Jim Waring isn’t far behind. Waring is famous for his campaign door-knocking and has met thousands of voters on the campaign trail, but he’s only raised about a quarter-million dollars, and that may not be enough to match Moak and Quayle’s spending.

Possibly the biggest surprise in the congressional races is in District 8, which covers parts of Tucson and southeastern Arizona, former state Sen. Jonathan Paton was expected to have an easy road to the Republican nomination, but U.S. Marines veteran Jesse Kelly has run a very competitive race and isn’t too far behind him in fundraising. Paton has raised about $719,000 compared to Kelly’s $568,000

Former Maricopa County Treasurer David Schweikert is essentially declaring victory in the District 5 GOP primary, and said he is cutting his advertising budget for the final two weeks of the campaign because he is so confident in victory that he wants to save his money for the general election match-up with incumbent Democratic Rep. Harry Mitchell. His main opponents, businessman Jim Ward and former Scottsdale City Councilwoman Susan Bitter Smith, say the race is still up for grabs.

Flagstaff dentist Paul Gosar is carrying a strong fundraising lead into the final stretch of the Republican primary in northern Arizona’s First Congressional District. But mining lobbyist Sydney Hay, the 2008 GOP nominee, reported $111,000 cash on hand in her last campaign finance report, compared to only $41,000 for Gosar. Eight candidates are vying for the GOP nomination in District 1, including former state Senate president Rusty Bowers, attorney Bradley Beauchamp and Show Low Dr. Steve Mehta.

The races that were expected to be the two biggest of the primary - the Republican primaries for governor and U.S. Senate, have waned in the lead-up to the election. Gov. Jan Brewer is essentially unopposed for the nomination, and faces only Matt Jette, who is relatively unknown.

Conservative former Rep. J.D. Hayworth still hopes to unseat Sen. John McCain, but most polling show the race is effectively over. McCain has spent nearly $20 million during the past six months of aggressively attacking Hayworth’s credibility and conservative credentials.

In the Democratic primary for Senate, former Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman still has a significant fundraising advantage over his three opponents, and has been viewed as the frontrunner since the campaign began.