Arizona Treasurer Wins GOP Primary for Governor

PHOENIX - A six-way race to become Arizona's Republican nominee for governor will be decided Tuesday, as voters cast ballots in a primary election that also features a hard-fought contest between the state's embattled attorney general and his well-financed Republican challenger.

Of the nine congressional seats up for grabs, two seats held by Democrats are seen by the Republicans as possible takeover targets. The state's delegation currently has five Democrats and four Republicans.

In the governor's race, Doug Ducey, 50, the state's treasurer and former chief executive of Cold Stone Creamery, the ice cream parlor chain, is broadly regarded as the front-runner among the Republicans. He has amassed a diverse group of supporters, including Tea Party members, Chamber of Commerce leaders and the retired pitcher Randy Johnson, a local legend for his role in the Arizona Diamondbacks' only World Series victory, in 2001. Mr. Ducey has argued that his business experience has readied him to lead the state.

His closest rival is Scott Smith, 58, a developer and former mayor of Mesa. Mr. Smith is seen as the most moderate of the Republican candidates; he has focused his campaign less on border security, a prime theme for his opponents, and more on the economy, which is still suffering from the aftereffects of the recession. Gov. Jan Brewer has lent him her endorsement and financial support, in part because he backs her decision to expand Medicaid coverage, a move opposed by most Republicans in the state.

Christine Jones, 46, a former executive at the Internet services company GoDaddy, is considered a distant threat, despite spending $5.5 million on her campaign, considerably more than her opponents.

The Democrats chose to unite behind a sole candidate, Fred DuVal, a former member of the state's Board of Regents who served as deputy director of intergovernmental affairs under President Bill Clinton. In his first television ad, introduced on Tuesday, Grant Woods, a former Republican attorney general in Arizona who was co-chairman of Ms. Brewer's campaign in 2010, describes Mr. DuVal as 'a problem solver who brings Republicans and Democrats together.'

Other key races in Arizona include the fight by Mark Brnovich, a former prosecutor, to defeat the incumbent attorney general, Tom Horne, for the Republican nomination. Mr. Horne, the driving force behind the push to require proof of citizenship for people registering to vote in Arizona, has been besieged by allegations of campaign finance violations over the use of his office and workers to run his campaign.

For Mr. Brnovich, another of Ms. Brewer's endorsement picks, the greatest obstacle is the broad name recognition that Mr. Horne enjoys.

Of the nine congressional races, two are seen as crucial to challenging the balance of power in the state's delegation. One of the Democratic seats, the First Congressional District, based in Northern Arizona, is held by Ann Kirkpatrick, who lost the post in 2010, only to regain it in a narrow victory in 2012.

Vying for the Republican nomination is Andy Tobin, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, whose campaign has struggled to fend off challenges from a conservative state legislator, Adam Kwasman, and Gary Kiehne, a rancher, despite the money and support Mr. Tobin has received from national organizations, like the United States Chamber of Commerce.

In the Second Congressional District, based in Tucson, a retired Air Force colonel, Martha McSally, is favored to win the Republican primary, setting the stage for a rematch of 2012, when she narrowly lost to Ron Barber, a Democrat. Mr. Barber was an aide to former Representative Gabrielle Giffords when she was wounded during a mass shooting at a political event in 2011.

State election officials presume a 25 percent turnout, based on the rates in previous primaries in nonpresidential election years. It is the makeup of those voters that matters, though: Independents, a politically centrist slice of the electorate who have become the largest voting bloc in the state, requested a record number of early ballots this year, most of them for the Republican primary, where the ideological differences among candidates are more pronounced. Almost half of those ballots had been mailed back by the deadline last Friday.

Mr. Smith, one of the Republican candidates for governor, and Mr. DuVal, the sole Democrat on the race, have worked hard to mobilize independents, whom they regard as decisive forces - in the primaries and also in the general election.

By the time the polls close on Tuesday, election officials estimate that participation among independents could reach 15 percent, up from 7 percent in 2012. Chip Scutari, co-founder of a bipartisan public relations firm in Phoenix, said, 'We're sort of watching that moment when the light bulb goes off and they realize that if they vote, they can make a difference.'

Separately, in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott and his chief opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, both face primary opponents whom they are expected to defeat handily. Mr. Crist, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, faces the tougher challenge, against Nan Rich, a former state senator who calls herself the 'real Democrat' in the race.

With little statewide name recognition, Ms. Rich has not gained much traction in her efforts to sideline Mr. Crist. But political analysts are keeping an eye on Democratic turnout to see how much enthusiasm Mr. Crist, a moderate, has engendered among Democrats, who once viewed him as a political rival.

Governor Scott, who has already spent tens of millions of dollars in his re-election campaign, faces nominal opposition on Tuesday; the two Republicans running against him are virtual unknowns. His campaign spending has paid off: Recent polls suggest that Mr. Scott has caught up with Mr. Crist. The anticipated race between the two men is expected to be the most expensive in the country.