The general election race in the 1st Congressional District is already getting rancorous, mere hours after the contestants were finalized.

Wednesday, Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democratic nominee in the 1st district, said she anticipated a "tough" and "heated" fight between she and GOP nominee Sydney Hay.

"We're not taking anything for granted," Kirkpatrick told PolitickerAZ.com.

She also said that her campaign was not going to quail in the face of harsh criticism already coming from the Hay camp. 

Tuesday night, as it became clear that Hay, a mining industry lobbyist, would defeat her closest GOP rival in the primary, Sandra Livingstone, Hay sent out her inaugural statement as her party's congressional nominee, slamming Kirkpatrick, who easily won the Democratic primary earlier in the evening.

“The voters of the First District of Arizona want someone who will shake up Washington," said Hay in the statement. "My track record of accomplishment bringing meaningful conservative change cannot be matched by Ann Kirkpatrick, whose legislative accomplishments are next to nil.” 

“More important,” Hay went on, “are the issues that matter to the citizens of this District: the economy and jobs; energy independence; and border security. Ann Kirkpatrick is wrong on all of them.” 

The Arizona Democratic Party took the lead in countering the attack Wednesday, with a release put out by party spokeswoman Emily DeRose. 

"Hay's extremist views are out-of-touch with the district and her long career as a lobbyist is marked with work on behalf of some of the worst American and foreign corporate polluters in Arizona," said the release, which quoted DeRose as saying:

"It's not surprising that Republicans have been skittish about Hay. She is a mining lobbyist who works in Phoenix, lives in Scottsdale, and is far outside of the mainstream on everything from privatizing Social Security to raising taxes on gas."

Hay was admittedly low on the Republicans' list of candidates to run for the seat. After failing to recruit a number of former and current GOP legislators in the 1st district, the party put its weight behind her candidacy, only to watch as Sandra Livingstone, a former State Department official, entered right at the filing deadline and nearly succeeded in upsetting Hay in the primary. 

Yet the Democrats have some reason for concern as well. After pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race, Kirkpatrick, a former state representative, failed to get over 50 percent in the district, while Mary Kim Titla, who had far fewer financial resources and scant endorsements, earned a third of the votes in a four-way match-up.