Sean Noble

According to a report in AZ Central, Sean Noble, the longtime Chief of Staff for John Shadegg, is heading out on his own. Noble was the chief startagist for Shadegg's re-election and also for Proposition 102.

An easy argument could be made that the two best run campaigns and the two best campaign managers this cycle were both in the same congressional district running against each other. Democratic challenger Bob Lord with his campaign manager Andrew Eldredge-Martin have run a close to flawless campaign. If there was a better managed and run campaign in the state this year it may have been John Shadegg and his manager Sean Noble.

After another poll showed the major party candidates tied in the 3rd Congressional District, Sean Noble, campaign manager for U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix), told PolitickerAZ.com the poll conducted on behalf of DailyKos, which showed Shadegg leading challenger Lord by nine points, is "more in line with the polling we've seen."

Noble pointed to a poll by PollingGnome.com, a blog site which bills itself as "Arizona's newest pollster and observer of political trends," taken during or after the DailyKos poll, that shows Shadegg leading Lord by 10 points, 48 to 38, with Libertarian candidate Michael Shoen attracting less than one percent of the vote and 13 percent undecided.

In both the 3rd and 8th Congressional Districts, challengers and incumbents have begun the process of negotiating when and how debates will occur between them. Sen. Pres. Tim Bee (R-Tucson) is in talks with his opponent, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Tucson) about the possibilities, as are U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix) and his challenger, Bob Lord. 

On July 30, 3rd district Democratic contender Bob Lord's campaign sent a letter to the campaign of U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix) requesting a series of three debates during September and October, each to focus on "a related set of issues facing our nation," suh as "national security, foreign policy, and veterans issues," etc. Andrew Eldredge-Martin, Lord's campaign manager and the one who sent off the letter, stipulated that his organization wanted the debates prior to the start of early voting on Oct. 2. The Lord campaign officially announced the invitation Thursday.

Shadegg has responded with a counter-offer: "six televised debates with each covering the broad range of issues important to the voters of Congressional District 3." Shadegg campaign manager Sean Noble said in his letter to the Lord camapign, "We agree there should be some debates prior to early voting, but in fairness to all of the voters in the District, there should be others after early voting starts." Noble proposed the first debate be on KAET's Horizon program. So far the Lord campaign has not responded back.

With the first quarter coming to a close, John Shadegg’s political office is focused on raising money.

Chief-of-Staff Sean Noble says is the re-election campaign trying to “replenish the funds” after the slow-down in fundraising after Shadegg’s initial announcement that he was retiring last month.

“We want to be back up and maintain a cash balance,” Noble said.  read more »

The biggest Arizona political story of the year to date continues. John Shadegg is expected to make a final decision over the next few days on if he will seek re-election or go into retirement as he stated last week.  read more »

Aides to Republican U.S. Rep. John Shadegg today said the seven-term Congressman would make a decision on whether to reenter the race for his District 3 seat in the next week.

Rep. John Shadegg's Chief of Staff Sean Noble has told PolitickerAZ.com that his boss was "bowled over" by the letter of support 130 of his fellow Republicans in the House wrote him, urging him to reconsider dropping out of the re-election hunt.

"It was very persuasive," Noble commented. "You can't get 130 members of the House to do anything."

With Republican John Shadegg announcing that he will not be running for reelection in CD3, the Cook Political Report is planning Thursday afternoon to shift its categorization of the race from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican,” Cook House Editor David Wasserman says.  read more »