Flake defeats Carmona in Senate race

November 7, 2012

The Republic

Dan Nowicki

Republican Jeff Flake has won election to become Arizona’s 11th U.S. senator, defeating Democrat Richard Carmona on Tuesday in a close and bitter race. Flake will be the state’s first new senator in 18 years.

Why Flake won race 

Flake, 49, a six-term congressman from Mesa, beat Carmona in what was the state’s hardest-fought and closest Senate race in 32 years. He faced a fierce competitor in Carmona, 62, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and former U.S. surgeon general from Tucson. But the race remained close, and tens of thousands of early and provisional ballots are not expected to be counted until later this week.

Marc Victor, a Libertarian candidate in the race, was in a distant third place.

In his victory speech at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Phoenix, Flake thanked his staff, volunteers and the support of Arizona senators John McCain and Jon Kyl.

He pledged to balance the budget and not to pile on debt to his new grandson.

Carmona conceded defeat to supporters in Tucson.

“We ran a tough race, but walking into tonight I knew no matter what the outcome, everyone involved in this campaign could walk away with their heads held high," Carmona said.

Tucson resident David Higuera was one of hundreds of Carmona supporters who crowed a watch party at the Marriott Tucson University Park.

"Carmona had the volunteers. Carmona had the grassroots energy," Higuera said. "I'm cautiously optimistic that he can pull this out. But if he does lose I think it has everything to do with the third-party ads and the unregulated third-party money."

The election caps a nasty campaign in which both candidates and their supporters spent millions on television attack ads vilifying the other side. The race has proven to be Arizona’s most dramatic Senate showdown since the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., narrowly avoided defeat in his fifth Senate race in 1980.

If Flake’s lead holds, he will succeed three-term Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who declined to seek re-election this year. Flake will serve in a 100-member Senate that is expected to remain under Democrats’ control.

Both candidates proved formidable on the campaign trail. Flake is a staunch fiscal conservative best known for his efforts to reform federal spending and particularly for his longtime opposition to the often-wasteful practice of earmarking. Carmona was a lifelong independent until he decided to seek Kyl’s seat as a Democrat at the urging of President Barack Obama and other senior Democrats.

Polls for weeks reflected a close race, making the contest one of Arizona’s most dramatic Senate elections in decades.

In 1980, Goldwater won his fifth and final term in an unexpectedly close race against Democratic challenger Bill Schulz.

In the 1964 race for an open Senate seat, Republican Paul Fannin, Arizona’s sitting governor, edged out Democrat Roy Elson, who was Democratic Sen. Carl Hayden’s top aide, 51 percent to 48 percent.

Kyl’s final re-election bid in 2006 against Democrat Jim Pederson, a largely self-funded retail developer, was similar to this year’s race in its ferocity and negativity, but in the end it wasn’t too close. Kyl won by about 10 percentage points.

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