David Schweikert

Congressional candidate Jim Ogsbury: Campaign photoSCOTTSDALE -- Jim Ogsbury knows how to walk neighborhoods. He doesn’t mess with marker caps anymore – “I got sick of fumbling with them,” he explains – now he’s got a retractable one to mark off houses on his walk sheet. He also uses it to knock on doors, joking he “must have permanent tissue damage in my knuckles” from all the doors he’s knocked. By his count, that’s now about 16,000.

Today he is taking his quest for the Republican nomination in the 5th Congressional District to a quiet Scottsdale street, rich in what Ogsbury terms “loyal Republican voters.” He plans to spend the afternoon, from 1:30 until dark, introducing himself to residents of house after house, chatting with the voters inside and putting campaign literature into their hands personally.

Congressional candidate David Schweikert: Campaign photoDavid Schweikert, candidate in the 5th Congressional District Republican primary, is taking heat from the Arizona Democratic Party over his latest Federal Election Commissions report, which the campaign filed late. While Democrats claim it's part of a "disturbing" pattern, the Schweikert campaign blamed a technical error.

"Congressional candidate David Schweikert violated commonly understood Federal Elections Commissions rules this week by failing to meet the July 15 filing deadline for the second quarter," read an Arizona Democratic Party release. "Schweikert was the only District Five candidate to break the rules, and now faces thousands of dollars in potential fines."

This week, if you are a politicial from AZ-1 and your name is not Kirkpatrick, there is a good chance you made the losers list. Find out who makes the cut in this weeks Winners & Losers.

U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Tempe) raised $337,000 during the second quarter of the year, according to his campaign manager Seth Scott. Scott told PolitickerAZ.com that Mitchell has now raised $1.71 million for his re-election, and now has a cash on hand balance of $1.37 million.

The new totals indicate that Mitchell raised almost twice as much as the most prolific fundraiser in the Republican field, David Schweikert. Schweikert, who is running to win the 5th Congressional District Republican nomination to face Mitchell in November, has not released official numbers yet, but they will be in the $160,000 to $180,000 range for the quarter. Susan Bitter Smith is one of two candidates in the 5th district Republican race who has not yet released her fundraising totals, and may put up an impressive showing. However, it would be a major coup if she outdid Schweikert in the second quarter.

David Schweikert's campaign is estimating it brought in around $183,000 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, outdoing 1Q, where he led the 5th Congressional District Republican field.

A campaign press release, which ran with the headline "DCCC Commits $1.7 Million to Protect Mitchell," stated:

"Our campaign has been ecstatic with the amount of financial support we have received thus far. To date, this campaign has brought in over $865,000 from over 1500 individuals like yourself. This however is just over half what the DCCC just committed."

The Schweikert campaign, which has not officially released its 2Q numbers, had raised $681,353 as of the end of the first quarter. The statement that the campaign has "to date brought in over $865,000" would indicate that Schweikert raised at least $183,647 between April 1 and July 1.

Former Maricopa County Attorney David Schweikert has launched his first round of television ads introducing himself to voters as a conservative Republican.  Schweikert hits the traditional Republican themes of securing our borders, cutting taxes and cutting spending. 

The Arizona Democratic Party is hitting a trio of Republican candidates over their tax policies, echoing an assault against 5th Congressional District Republican candidate David Schweikert by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last week. Schweikert is joined in the Democrats' crosshairs by 1st Congressional District Republican front-runner Sydney Hay and incumbent U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix), as the Democrats attempt to paint the three as advocating higher food prices through new taxes.

However, the Schweikert campaign is attempting to turn the attack back around on the Arizona Democrats by taking issue with their characterization of his stance, and leveling a similar charge against U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Tempe).

The Democrats argue that Hay, Schweikert and Shadegg support a national sales tax of 23 percent, which they say would have the effect of raising food prices commensurately. Hay and Schweikert have espoused support for the so-called "FairTax," which proponents claim is a more equitable alternative to the federal income tax, and Shadegg cosponsored H.R. 25, which put the FairTax theory into legislative form. 

The re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell says they've had trackers at their offices and at events, both in 2006 and this year. Seth Scott, Mitchell's campaign manager, additionally said the campaign's sentiments regarding tracking in the 5th Congressional District race have been mischaracterized, and that they are simply used to tracking, not practicioners of it.

"Congressman Mitchell has been followed around and videotaped by the other party for two years — whether in Washington or home in Arizona," Scott told PolitickerAZ.com via email. "In fact, just last week, we had someone at our office opening videotaping our supporters, our staff and the Congressman."