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Politics

Election Night: The Closest Race In Years?

By Michel Marizco / Senior Field Correspondent,  Jude Joffe-Block / Senior Field Correspondent,  Al Macias / Managing Editor
Published November 4, 2012 at 2:44 PM PST
This story was published more than 12 years ago.
In a race between Republican Congressman Jeff Flake and the former U.S. Surgeon General Democrat Richard Carmona could be the closest senate race the state's seen in decades.
C. G. P. Grey
In a race between Republican Congressman Jeff Flake and the former U.S. Surgeon General Democrat Richard Carmona could be the closest senate race the state's seen in decades.

Campaign Trail

In an Arizona Senate race to replace retiring Republican Jon Kyl, It’s a runoff between Republican Congressman Jeff Flake and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Democrat Richard Carmona. The extremely close race has big money pouring in from both sides. It could be Arizona's closest senate contest in more than three decades.

Yet only four years ago, Democrat Carmona would have been a huge underdog. The dead heat between the candidates could represent more than a close race, it could reflect a changing state.

Election Night

UPDATED 11:11 AM

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Latino groups registered tens of thousands of new voters in Arizona during this election cycle. Those efforts were not enough to overcome the heavy Republican turnout that elected Congressman Jeff Flake to the U.S. Senate.

The six term congressman faced former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

Carmona is of Puerto Rican descent, and some observers had expected a strong Latino voter turnout to make the race a close one.

Both candidates hurled charges at one another in a bitter contest.

In Phoenix, Tuesday night, Flake said both parties must agree to deal with the nation’s debt.

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"We have divided government so we gotta reach across the aisle," Flake said in accepting victory, " We just have to do it in a way that limits the size of government. We have to take care of this debt and deficit that we have, because that’s the biggest problem we have. That’s the paramount issue of our time."

Flake’s final victory margin won’t be known until all the votes, including provisional ballots are counted over the next several days. But it looks like his margin will be about nine percent, making it the closest race since Barry Goldwater won his last senate campaign in 1982 by a little more than one percent of the vote.

9:17 PM

AP has announced that Republican Jeff Flake has defeated Democrat Richard Carmona in a hard-fought battle for a Arizona Senate seat. He'll be replacing retiring GOP Senator Jon Kyl. Early results on the Arizona Secretary of State website has Flake with 50% of the vote and Carmona with 45%.

Some saw this race as a possible reflection of a larger pendulum swing in the state. But with the re-election of Sheriff Joe and the victory of Flake it seems Republicans maintains their strong hold in the state.

7:06 PM

A side-by-side comparison of the Arizona GOP and Democrat headquarters in Phoenix

GOP Headquarters

Jude Joffe-Block

Democrat Headquarters

Nick Blumberg

6:26 PM

Malvèrde votes, but never says for whom.

Michel Marizco

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Politics Politics, Democracy and Elections News
Michel Marizco
Senior Field Correspondent Michel Marizco (Tucson) has reported along the Southwest border for the past decade, most of that in Arizona and Sonora. Before joining the Fronteras Desk, he produced stories in the field for CNN Madrid, the BBC, 60 Minutes Australia, and the CBC. His work now focuses on transnational trafficking syndicates, immigration, federal law enforcement and those weird, wild stories that make the U.S.-Mexico border such an inherently fascinating region. He is a contributing author on Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime and an occasional writer at High Country News. In his spare time, he works with Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, assisting in the ongoing investigations of journalist killings in Mexico.
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Jude Joffe-Block
Senior Field Correspondent Jude Joffe-Block (Phoenix) caught the radio bug while assisting a radio reporter in Mexico, and has been happiest wearing headphones and pointing microphones ever since. She initiated Fronteras Desk coverage in Las Vegas as the project's first Senior Field Correspondent there. She then joined the Phoenix newsroom in July 2012. Previously, she contributed stories on immigration and criminal justice to KALW in San Francisco and multimedia content in both Spanish and English to the Associated Press in Mexico. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and Yale University, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico.
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Al Macias
Al Macias (Phoenix) is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in broadcast news reporting, production and management. He was part of the management team that launched the KNXV newsroom in 1994 and oversaw its growth from a staff of 20 to more than 60 in less than a year. He also served in multiple management roles at KPNX-TV from 1981-1994 and as an assignment editor and manager for KTVK, both in Phoenix.
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