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Arizona's 7th Congressional District elections, 2012
2014 →
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November 6, 2012 |
August 28, 2012 |
Ed Pastor  |
Raul Grijalva |
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The 7th Congressional District of Arizona held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012.
Ed Pastor was re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Pastor, who had previously served as 4th District Representative, decided to switch to the 7th District in 2012 because of redistricting.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: Arizona's primary system is considered semi-closed. Unaffiliated voters may choose which party's primary they will vote in, but voters registered with a party can only vote in that party's primary.[2]
Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by July 30. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9.[3]
- See also: Arizona elections, 2012
Incumbent: Heading into the election the incumbent was Raul Grijalva (D), who was first elected in 2002. Due to 2010 redistricting, Grijalva ran for, and won, re-election in the 3rd District in 2012.
This was the first election using district maps based on data from the 2010 Census. The 7th District was one of five primarily urban districts centered around Phoenix, Arizona.[4]
Candidates
General election candidates
August 28, 2012, primary results
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Election results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Ed Pastor Incumbent |
81.7% | 104,489 | |
| Libertarian | Joe Cobb | 18.3% | 23,338 | |
| Total Votes | 127,827 | |||
| Source: Arizona Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election" | ||||
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in Arizona
The 3rd District was re-drawn after the 2010 Census. The new district is composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[7][8]
- 4 percent from the 2nd Congressional District
- 4 percent from the 3rd Congressional District
- 91 percent from the 4th Congressional District
- 1 percent from the 7th Congressional District
Registration statistics
As of October 22, 2012, District 7 had the following partisan registration breakdown according to the Arizona Secretary of State:
| Arizona Congressional District 7[9] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congressional District | District Total | Democrats | Republicans | Other & Unaffiliated | Advantage | Party Advantage | Change in Advantage from 2010 |
| District 7 | 212,278 | 92,936 | 37,696 | 81,646 | Democratic | 146.54% | 59.71% |
| "Party advantage" is the percentage gap between the two major parties in registered voters. "Change in advantage" is the spread in difference of party advantage between 2010 and 2012 based on the congressional district number only. | |||||||
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Arizona's 7th District became more Republican because of redistricting.[10]
- 2012: 62D / 38R
- 2010: 63D / 37R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measures each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Arizona's 7th Congressional District has a PVI of D+12, which is the 90th most Democratic district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 65-35 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, John Kerry (D) won the district 61-39 percent over George W. Bush (R).[11]
Campaign contributions
Candidates for Congress were required to file up to seven main reports with the Federal Election Commission during the 2012 elections season. Below are candidate reports.
Ed Pastor
| Ed Pastor (2012) Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| April Quarterly[12] | April 13, 2012 | $1,486,769.07 | $79,925.36 | $(124,992.18) | $1,441,702.25 | ||||
| July Quarterly[13] | July 13, 2012 | $1,441,702.25 | $168,420.29 | $(149,004.73) | $1,461,117.81 | ||||
| Pre-Primary[14] | August 16, 2012 | $1,461,117.81 | $41,266.42 | $(113,160.89) | $1,389,223.34 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $289,612.07 | $(387,157.8) | ||||||||
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
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| Find detailed information on ballot access requirements in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. |
2010
On November 2, 2010, Raul Grijalva won re-election to the United States House. He defeated Ruth McClung, Harley Meyer and George Keane in the general election.[15]
| U.S. House, Arizona District 7 General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Raul Grijalva Incumbent |
50.2% | 79,935 | |
| Republican | Ruth McClung | 44.2% | 70,385 | |
| Independent | Harley Meyer | 2.8% | 4,506 | |
| Libertarian | George Keane | 2.7% | 4,318 | |
| Total Votes | 159,144 | |||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ ABC News, "2012 General Election Results," accessed November 6, 2012
- ↑ Fair Vote, "Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and 'Top Two,'" accessed January 2, 2014
- ↑ Arizona Secretary of State, "Important Dates," accessed June 29, 2012
- ↑ Arizona Redistricting, "Map" accessed July 7, 2012
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Primary candidate list
- ↑ azsos.gov "2012 Primary election full listing" accessed July 11, 2012
- ↑ Moonshadow Mobile's CensusViewer, "Arizona's congressional districts 2001-2011 comparison"
- ↑ Labels & Lists, "VoterMapping software voter counts"
- ↑ Arizona Secretary of State, "State of Arizona Registration Report," April 23, 2012
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in Arizona," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Ed Pastor April Quarterly," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Ed Pastor July Quarterly," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Ed Pastor Pre-Primary," accessed August 23, 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
