Scandal-tarred Republican Rep. David Schweikert got our attention back in July after the news broke that he’d spent more money than he’d raised on the lawyers as he dealt with multiple ethics investigations, but his campaign argued there was no problem. Chris Baker, who works as a consultant for the Arizona congressman, said, "It's a one-off situation. It's not going to continue," and he quickly repeated, "We're quite confident this is a one-off situation.”
Well, Schweikert’s third quarter fundraising report is now available and despite his team’s confidence, this was anything but a one-off situation. As the Arizona Republic’s Ronald Hansen notes, Schweikert, who is still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, raised just $136,000 for the quarter while he spent another $105,000 on legal fees. Unsurprisingly, Schweikert’s high burn rate continued, and he went from having $170,000 in the bank in June to just $144,000 on Sept. 30, which Hansen says gives him the smallest war chest in Arizona’s nine-member House delegation.
Baker once again responded to the bad news, and this time, he didn’t try to argue that this wouldn’t continue. Instead, Baker said, “Congressman Schweikert has always run well-funded campaigns and will again in 2020,” and, “He has easily defeated every Democrat challenger by double digits and we expect 2020 to be no different.”
While Schweikert has indeed consistently won re-election by double digits, 2020 is already shaping up to be a very different year, and it’s not just because of the ethics investigation that’s dogging him. Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, which includes Scottsdale and North Phoenix, moved from 60-39 Romney to 52-42 Trump, and even more alarming for Schweikert, Republican Martha McSally carried it by only a modest 51-47 margin in last year’s Senate race.
Democrats haven’t seriously targeted this seat in years, but that’s also changing. Physician Hiral Tipirneni, who ran last year in the neighboring 8th District, has been campaigning here since April, and she’s been a strong fundraiser. Tipirneni brought in $333,000 during the third quarter, and she ended September with $603,000 in the bank.
Tipirneni has considerably more money available than both Schweikert or either of her two opponents in the August Democratic primary. Anita Malik, who lost to Schweikert 55-45 last year, raised $39,000 for the quarter and had $41,000 to spend. Businesswoman Stephanie Rimmer raised only $12,000 during this time and had $87,000 in the bank.
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