John McCain led his Arizona Republican primary opponent J.D. Hayworth in polls taken earlier this summer, but the four-term senator is making an end-run in a new ad ahead of next week’s match-up.
In an ad titled “Vital,” McCain asks for Arizona residents’ votes in the Aug. 24 primary and says “we will get America back on course.” In the ad, the senator says he can’t think of a time in his life when there were bigger and more vital issues at stake, including rebuilding the economy and securing the country and the border.
McCain doesn’t mention Hayworth, a former member of the House of Representatives, in his ad. Polls suggest that the race is McCain’s to lose: in an average of surveys taken June 22 through July 21, McCain led his opponent by more than 29 points.
But if McCain has the primary locked up, the Democratic side is far less cut and dried. A poll conducted Aug. 9 showed that 44% of voters were still undecided among the four Democrats vying for the spot to challenge McCain in November.
Those candidates are labor organizer Randy Parraz, investigative journalist John Dougherty, former vice-mayor of Tucson Rodney Glassman and former state representative Cathy Eden.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary will have a tough race, however: the Arizona Senate contest is rated likely Republican by analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia and Congressional Quarterly calls it safe Republican.
– Robert Schroeder