The House race in Arizona for a seat left open by retiring moderate GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe (news, bio, voting record) also has drawn national money and interest. Eleven major-party candidates for the seat that stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border were entered in the party primaries.

National GOP leaders angered Republican candidates when they jumped into the race to support state Rep. Steve Huffman, a moderate who in a recent poll was trailing a former state lawmaker, Randy Graf.

Party officials have expressed concerns Graf may be too conservative to win the seat in November.

Yahoo! News

I know very well what it is like to have the national party interfere with local elections. See Toomey vs. Specter, 2004. Like they did in Pennsylvania two years ago, they are trying to do what they can to scare voters into thinking they need a moderate (which is code word for Democrat Lite) in order to win the seat rather than select a truly principled Republican. I can almost understand that logic in Rhode Island, but in a fairly right wing state like Arizona it’s just bunk.

Good luck to Randy Graf today. Tom Tancredo is behind him and that is all I need to know.

Today is a big day for the Republican Party. In a little over four hours the polls in Rhode Island will close and we will see whether principle or power prevail. It’s been no secret that Senator Dole has poured well over a million dollars into Chafee’s survival. From her perspective, keeping the seat in Rhode Island keeps the Republicans in power, but to what consequence? In four years of complete GOP control we have not seen tax code reform, Social Security private accounts, responsible spending, and limited government and that is because the Republicans continue to harbor individuals like Lincoln Chafee and others who do n0t believe in these things. It makes you wonder why Chafee is even a Republican considering he seems to disagree on just about every principle the party was built on. How is he any different than a Democrat?

I’m just as aware as the next guy that the probability of Laffey keeping the seat in the most Democrat state in the country is slim, but that is not really what this primary is about. This is about sending a message to D.C. that we don’t all get out there and bust our butts to keep Republicans in the majority so that they can stumble over their own feet by defending those who thwart the very agenda we put them in there for.

Good luck tonight, Steve!