Arizona's Legislative Elections: Five Districts to Watch

By Matthew Hendley Tue., Nov. 6 2012 at 12:50 PM

Categories: Election 2012

Continued from page 1

LD-26

Republican state Senator Jerry Lewis, the man who punched Russell Pearce square in the jaw (at the ballot box, of course) in Pearce's recall election, is already vulnerable. Lewis is running against Democratic Representative Ed Ableser in the east Valley district, and it's been a little slimy. On the House side, everyone's a newbie. Republicans Raymond Speakman and Mary Lou Taylor are running against Dems Juan Mendez and Andrew Sherwood.

LD-27

Aside from supporters of the two Republican candidates running in this south Phoenix district, we doubt anyone's ever said this race would be close, but Dan and Sarah Coleman are our dark horse picks for the day in terms of making things interesting. After speaking with Dan Coleman a couple weeks ago, and despite him being kind of a country fella, it's hard to think of any other Republican who could possibly be more passionate about -- or in-tune with -- the area. Although he's running against two incumbent Democrats -- Representatives Ruben Gallego and Catherine Miranda -- the controversy involving Miranda would certainly appear to help Coleman, if the "R" next to his name doesn't instantly scare away the Dems. Sarah Coleman, Dan's wife, has an even tougher challenge -- she's going against state Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, who's already been elected three times in the heavily Democratic area.

Honorable mention

In any district where there are candidates from each of the big two parties in the Senate, and two from each party in the House, it's a general sign that those districts might be competitive. In addition to several of those mentioned above, that list includes: LD-6, LD-8, LD-11, LD-14, LD-17, and LD-21