The 2006 Arizona 8th congressional district election was an election for the United States House of Representatives for the open seat of incumbent Republican Jim Kolbe, who was not running for re-election. The primary was held on September 12, 2006, and the two major party winners were Republican Randy Graf, a former state Representative who challenged Kolbe for the GOP nomination in 2004, and former State Senator Gabby Giffords. Libertarian Dave Nolan, who was uncontested in the primary, was also in the November 7, 2006 general election. Graf was considered too conservative for the district: Kolbe withheld his endorsement, and towards the end of the election the National GOP pulled their support. By election time, most non-partisan analyses considered this race the most likely district to switch hands, which it did, as Giffords won a decisive victory, 54% to 42%.
Primary
Candidates
Frank Antenori (Republican), U.S. Army veteran
Gabby Giffords (Democratic), former state senator
Randy Graf (Republican), former state representative
Mike Hellon (Republican), former chair of the Arizona Republican Party
Steve Huffman (Republican), state representative
Michael T. Jenkins (Republican), automobile repair shop owner
William Daniel Johnson (Democratic), white nationalist activist
Jeffrey Lynn Latas (Democratic), U.S. Air Force veteran
David F. Nolan (Libertarian), co-founder of the Libertarian Party
Patty Weiss (Democratic), television anchor
Alex Rodriguez (Democratic), member of the Tucson Unified School District board
Francine Shacter (Democratic), former Democratic precinct chairwoman
Republican campaign
Incumbent Republican Jim Kolbe announced on November 23, 2005, that he would not seek re-election in 2006. The district, located in Southeastern Arizona and based in the suburbs of Tucson, was Republican-leaning, but competitive: George W. Bush had won the district with 53% of the vote in 2004 (although only 50% in 2000). Kolbe had barely won the seat in 1984, but had usually skated to reelection since then. Even after coming out as gay in 1996, he remained very popular in the district, taking 61% of the vote in 2004. Although Kolbe was generally thought to be all but unbeatable in the district, it was widely believed that it would be very competitive once he retired.
Randy Graf, the primary winner, left a leadership position in the state House in 2004 to challenge Kolbe in the Republican primary. Graf had won 40 percent of the vote and had campaigned almost full-time since. A supporter of the Minuteman Project, Graf campaigned on a pledge to ensure that illegal immigrants had no path to citizenship and that the border would be further secured. Graf previously sponsored a bill (which did not pass) to allow patrons carry guns into bars and restaurants.
The GOP establishment, however, considered Graf as too conservative for a district that leaned Republican but gave President Bush only 53 percent of the votes in 2004, and tried to rally voters around moderate state representative Steve Huffman. However, another more moderate candidate, former Arizona Republican Party chairman Mike Hellon, also gained significant support, which split anti-Graf support and prevented Huffman from consolidating the moderate lane.
Huffman got a boost when the national GOP took the rare step of endorsing and supporting Huffman, putting $250,000 into the race. The other GOP candidates criticized the move as unfair. The national Democratic party spent nearly $200,000, much of it on advertisements critical of Huffman in an effort to help Graf's candidacy, believing Graf would be the weaker candidate in the general election.
Huffman's campaign was injured when, according to CQPolitics: "there were allegations that his (Huffman's) campaign treasurer, local real estate broker William Arnold, had stalked Hellon’s ex-wife, state Sen. Toni Hellon". Arnold quit as treasurer after Hellon obtained a restraining order against him, and Huffman’s campaign said it had no involvement in Arnold’s actions." The scandal expanded when it was revealed that unauthorised photos of Toni Hellon had been posted to a website owned by the same individual who had designed Huffman's campaign website. As a result of the incident, the Tucson Weekly withdrew its support for Huffman.