Arizona's 8th Congressional District elections, 2012
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November 6, 2012 |
August 28, 2012 |
Trent Franks |
Ron Barber |
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The 8th Congressional District of Arizona held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Trent Franks (District 2 incumbent) was re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
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Primary: Arizona's primary system is considered semi-closed. Unaffiliated voters may choose which party's primary they will vote in, but voters registered with a party can only vote in that party's primary.[2]
Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by July 30. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9.[3]
- See also: Arizona elections, 2012
Incumbent: Heading into the election the incumbent was Ron Barber (D), who won a special election to fill the vacancy left by Gabrielle Giffords in June 2012.[4]
This was the first election which used new district maps based on 2010 Census data. The 8th District is one of five primarily urban districts centered around Phoenix, Arizona.[5]
Candidates
General election candidates
August 28, 2012, primary results
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Americans Elect candidate |
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Trent Franks Incumbent |
63.3% | 172,809 | |
| Democratic | Gene Scharer | 35.1% | 95,635 | |
| Americans Elect | Stephen Dolgos | 1.6% | 4,347 | |
| Total Votes | 272,791 | |||
| Source: Arizona Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election" | ||||
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in Arizona
The 3rd District was re-drawn after the 2010 Census. The new district is composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[7][8]
- 88 percent from the 2nd Congressional District
- 11 percent from the 3rd Congressional District
Registration statistics
As of October 22, 2012, District 8 had the following partisan registration breakdown according to the Arizona Secretary of State:
| Arizona Congressional District 8[9] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congressional District | District Total | Democrats | Republicans | Other & Unaffiliated | Advantage | Party Advantage | Change in Advantage from 2010 |
| District 8 | 391,675 | 97,681 | 162,805 | 131,189 | Republican | 66.67% | 53.16% |
| "Party advantage" is the percentage gap between the two major parties in registered voters. "Change in advantage" is the spread in difference of party advantage between 2010 and 2012 based on the congressional district number only. | |||||||
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Arizona's 8th District saw no change in partisanship because of redistricting.[10]
- 2012: 35D / 65R
- 2010: 35D / 65R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measures each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Arizona's 8th Congressional District has a PVI of R+13, which is the 74th most Republican district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by John McCain (R), 61-39 percent over Barack Obama (D). In 2004, George W. Bush (R) won the district 62-38 percent over John Kerry (D).[11]
Campaign contributions
Candidates for Congress were required to file up to seven main reports with the Federal Election Commission during the 2012 elections season. Below are candidate reports.
Trent Franks
| Trent Franks (2012) Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| April Quarterly[12] | April 13, 2012 | $11,694.81 | $70,728.83 | $(26,211.52) | $56,212.12 | ||||
| July Quarterly[13] | July 14, 2012 | $56,212.12 | $74,220.72 | $(63,964.88) | $66,467.96 | ||||
| Pre-Primary[14] | August 15, 2012 | $66,467.96 | $7,636 | $(51,705.03) | $22,398.93 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $152,585.55 | $(141,881.43) | ||||||||
Tony Passalacqua
| Tony Passalacqua (2012) Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| July Quarterly[15] | July 11, 2012 | $0 | $2,465 | $(1,333.32) | $1,131.68 | ||||
| Pre-Primary[16] | August 10, 2012 | $1,131.68 | $1,125 | $(2,193.05) | $63.63 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $3,590 | $(3,526.37) | ||||||||
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
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| Find detailed information on ballot access requirements in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. |
2012
The 8th Congressional District of Arizona held a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives on June 12, 2012. The election was to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D). The general election was held on June 12, 2012, following a primary on April 17th. Ron Barber (D) won the general election to replace Giffords.[17]
2010
On November 2, 2010, Gabrielle Giffords won re-election to the United States House. She defeated Jesse Kelly and Steven Stoltz in the general election.[18]
| U.S. House, Arizona District 8 General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Gabrielle Giffords Incumbent |
48.8% | 138,280 | |
| Republican | Jesse Kelly | 47.3% | 134,124 | |
| Libertarian | Steven Stoltz | 3.9% | 11,174 | |
| Total Votes | 283,578 | |||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ ABC News, "2012 General Election Results," accessed November 6, 2012
- ↑ Fair Vote, "Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and 'Top Two,'" accessed January 2, 2014
- ↑ Arizona Secretary of State, "Important Dates," accessed June 29, 2012
- ↑ Washington Post, "Giffords’ resignation from Congress opens up race, triggers messy elections amid redistricting," January 22, 2012
- ↑ Arizona Redistricting, "Map" accessed July 7, 2012
- ↑ "Franks bows out of Senate race," AzCapitolTimes.com, April 1, 2011
- ↑ Moonshadow Mobile's CensusViewer, "Arizona's congressional districts 2001-2011 comparison"
- ↑ Labels & Lists, "VoterMapping software voter counts"
- ↑ Arizona Secretary of State, "State of Arizona Registration Report," April 23, 2012
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in Arizona," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Trent Franks April Quarterly," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Trent Franks July Quarterly," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Trent Franks Pre-Primary," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Tony Passalacqua July Quarterly," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Tony Passalacqua Pre-Primary," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Washington Post, "Ariz. governor sets dates for primary, general special elections to pick Giffords replacement," January 27, 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
