It's Kirkpatrick v. Hay

Congressional candidate Ann Kirkpatrick may be calling her victory in the Democratic primary a "landslide," but rival Mary Kim Titla's campaign spokesman thinks that's a bit of an exaggeration.

A 14-point lead, Randy Camacho said in a telephone interview Wednesday, does not a landslide make, "especially when you consider they had to spend a million dollars to beat us."

The former state legislator and the online magazine publisher squared off against each other and two men in the race to represent the Democratic Party in vying for Rick Renzi's District 1 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. They led the pack with 47.3 and 32.5 percent of the vote, respectively.

Flagstaff attorney Howard Shanker garnered 14.3 percent of the vote, with mental health advocate Jeffrey Brown of Munds Park trailing at 5.9 percent.

Barring a win by Independent Brent Maupin or Libertarian Thane Eichenauer, 2009 will be the first year a woman represents District 1.

On the GOP side, mining industry lobbyist Sydney Hay of Munds Park edged out Prescott attorney Sandra Livingstone, 38.8 percent to 34.4 percent.

As with the Democrats, the two women handily outperformed male rivals Barry Hall (6 percent) and Tom Hansen (17.3 percent).

Preston Korn withdrew from the race in July and endorsed Livingstone, but it was too late for his name to be removed from the ballot and he picked up 3.5 percent of the vote - enough to swing the outcome for Livingstone, assuming she had picked up all his supporters.

In Navajo and Apache counties, which together include most of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Kirkpatrick's lead was far narrower - she got 39 percent of the vote.

This was perhaps because many Navajos voted for Titla, San Carlos Apache, who was breathing down her neck with 37 percent of the vote, and Shanker, the attorney who represented the Navajo Nation in the San Francisco Peaks case.

Shanker pulled in 16 percent of the Democratic vote in those two counties.

Had the Republican race been left up to Apache County, Hansen would have trounced both women with his 477 votes compared to 269 for Hay and 322 for Livingstone. Navajo County voted with the rest of the district.

In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Kirkpatrick credited an array of endorsements for her primary victory, including those of Gov. Janet Napolitano and former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah.

"Tonight, we are one step closer to bringing real change to Washington and it feels great," Kirkpatrick said.

Even before the primary, Hay ran attack ads against Kirkpatrick on local TV. And she came out of the primary swinging, accusing Kirkpatrick of trying to buy the election.

"Do the math," she said in a statement issued Tuesday night. "The more money Ann Kirkpatrick spends to get her message out to the voters, the less it resonates. We've been outspent by a huge margin and our message is getting through."

If District 1 voters expect two women to run a gentle race, they might be disappointed.

Meanwhile, Camacho says, don't count out Titla. Arizona politics has not seen the last of her.

"I still feel in my heart of hearts that she will be the one to make history" as the first Native woman in Congress, he said.

For primary election results broken down by county, go to www.azsos.gov/election/2008/Primary/2008_Primary_results_query.htm