The Arizona Guardian
Dennis Welch
Waring, a Republican who's served in the Legislature since 2003, leads his nearest challenger by 24 points, with half of those questioned saying they would vote for him if an election were held today. Former Sen. Pamela Gorman finished behind her longtime Senate colleague with roughly 26 percent. Five other candidates, including former Rep. Sam Crump and Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker, were in the single digits.
The GOP-friendly Summit Consulting Group, Inc. conducted the poll last week in which they asked 300 likely GOP primary voters in Congressional District 3 who they would vote for. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.6 percent.
Chad Willems, who owns Summit Consulting, said he wasn't paid to perform the survey. He did say his company has plans to work for the Waring campaign in the near future.
The findings appear to reflect Waring's high name identification in the district. Since he was first elected to the Legislature eight years ago, he's earned a reputation as a dogged campaigner who routinely canvasses his legislative district.
There are about 156,000 registered Republicans in CD3, according to the Secretary of State's Office. Of those, about 50,000 live in Waring's legislative district 7. Political insiders at the Capitol say Waring's knocked on every one of those doors during his four campaigns.
Republicans living in the north Phoenix congressional district have been jumping into the race ever since Shadegg announced last month that he was retiring after 16 years in office. The poll factored in seven candidates, but there are several high-profile names rumored to still be thinking about jumping into the political fracas. They include: Betsey Bayless, a former secretary of state, former GOP gubernatorial nominee Len Munsil and Rep. Adam Driggs. On Thursday, Driggs said he's likely to run for the office, but stopped short of saying he's defiantly in the race."You're not in until you're in," he said. "But it's very likely."
Driggs, who was elected to the House in 2007, said he wants to make sure he can raise enough money to compete in a packed primary. He said he been "pleased" with the response and has lined up financial commitments.
If he does run, it would make him the fourth state lawmaker to run for the CD3 seat. The other three -- Crump, Gorman and Waring -- all resigned their offices to focus fulltime on the race. Driggs would not say whether he would quit the House if he runs for Congress.
In other news relating to the CD 3 race, Parker, the former gubernatorial candidate, announced on Thursday that he's raised $50,000 to fund his campaign. Parker quit his quest to become governor two weeks ago and said the money is a sign that his campaign is picking up momentum. About 7 percent of those questioned in the Summit Group said they would vote for Parker. He finished behind Crump, who got 8.5 percent, according to the survey.
Poll Results:
Jim Waring -- 50.0%
Pamela Gorman -- 26.8 percent
Sam Crump -- 8.5 percent
Vernon Parker -- 7.3 percent
Debra Brimhall -- 2.4 percent
Ed Winkel -- 2.4 percent
Paulina Morris -- 1.2 percent