Arizona's Stormy Senate Race: Why the National GOP Is Watching

[pampango]

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/17/arizonas-stormy-senate-race-why-the-national-gop-is-watching/

On three wedge issues -- immigration, gays in the military, and Cuba – Flake defies the conventional conservative line. He supports immigration reform, voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and supports ending the Cuba trade embargo and travel ban.

Arizona aleady has been a player at the national presidential level, and Flake's candidacy may be the GOP's first electoral test of conservative solidarity after its triumph in the midterm elections last year. Fractures are already in evidence in the U.S. House, where newcomers elected in large part with tea party support are breaking ranks with establishment leaders. It wasn't a surprise that once Flake, 48, a fiscal conservative, announced his decision to run for the seat of retiring conservative Sen. Jon Kyl, the Senate minority whip, the extreme right wing that has dominated Arizona politics lately didn't waste time denouncing him for bucking key items in their political agenda.

Flake can certainly expect heavy primary opposition from candidates to his right, including the anti-immigrant Maricopa County (Phoenix) Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), who gave Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, a run for his money last year. Hayworth's popularity with Arizona's hardline conservatives ended up pushing McCain toward tougher views on immigration, gays in the military and other issues on which McCain, once celebrated as a maverick Republican, had taken moderate stands in the past.

Flake sponsored the failed Strive Act in 2006 and 2007, a bill that included opening a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. This is sacrilege in Arizona, which sees itself as the last frontier against illegal immigration and is now proposing further legislation that would require hospitals to require immigrants seeking medical attention to present documentation on their status. Asked on Tuesday if he would still defend his views on immigration, he told Mother Jones magazine, "I've always felt that nearly half of those who are here illegally didn't sneak across the border. They came here and overstayed." He emphasized that border security would have to come first.