The latest national campaign finance reports underscore one of the benefits of incumbency – access to money.

In seven of the eight U.S. House races across the state, the incumbents, regardless of their parties, are far ahead of their challengers in collecting campaign contributions.

In the eighth race, Republican incumbent Rick Renzi is not running for re-election. He’s scheduled to spend the campaign season in court fighting public corruption charges instead.

Consider what’s happening in the 5^th Congressional District race.

First-term Democrat Harry Mitchell has bagged more than twice as much money as any of his Republican opponents. Mitchell had collected nearly $1.4 million and had more than $1.1 million cash on hand on at the end of the first quarter on March 31, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And he doesn’t even a primary opponent to be concerned about.

Former Maricopa County treasurer David Schweikert was tops among the GOP field in the 1st District. He had collected $681,000 and had $514,000 cash on hand.

Former lobbyist Jim Ogsbury was next with $427,000 in receipts and $353,000 in cash.

Meanwhile, former state Rep. Laura Knaperek had raised $100,000 and had $44,000 in reserve.

State Rep. Mark Anderson had raised $55,000 and curiously had $70,000 cash on hand, according to both the Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission. Anderson told me Friday that those figures are somewhat in error. Actually, he had raised $93,000 and had $70,000 in reserve at the end of the quarter. The $55,000 figure was just the dough he had raised during the first quarter, he said.

The top three industry sectors pumping up Mitchell’s campaign were lawyers and lobbyists with $139,000 in combined contributions; finance, insurance and real estate with $130,000 in total collections; and labor at $122,500.

The 5^th District takes in Scottsdale, Tempe, Fountain Hills, Ahwatukee Foothills and west Mesa.

Over in the 6^th District, four-term Republican incumbent Jeff Flake is running practically unopposed. He has raised $891,000 and had $975,000 cash on hand, thanks to spill-over from his previous campaign. His top three industry sectors were finance, insurance and real estate at $149,000 combined; miscellaneous businesses at $110,000; and construction interests at $54,000.

His Democratic opponent, author Richard Grayson hasn’t filed campaign finance reports.

The 6th District takes in parts of Mesa and Chandler, plus all of Gilbert, Queen Creek, and Apache Junction.

Meanwhile, in the 3^rd District, seven-term Republican incumbent John Shadegg had collected more than $1.2 million and had $938,000 in reserve.

Democrat challenger and attorney Bob Lord had raised $833,000 and had $632,000 in cash.

And independent e-magazine publisher Annie Loyd was way back with $34,000 in collections and $7,000 in reserve.

Shadegg’s top industry sectors for contributions were finance, insurance and real estate at $136,000 combined; miscellaneous businesses at $121,000; and lawyers and lobbyists at $77,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Interestingly, two of Shadegg’s top three industry sectors also were among Mitchell’s top three. Shadegg’s a Republican; Mitchell’s a Democrat. Go figure.

Shadegg’s 3rd District covers central and northern Phoenix, plus Paradise Valley, Carefree and Cave Creek.

While over in the wide-open 1^st District, which is Renzi’s district, former state Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick led the Democratic field with $661,000 in collections and $465,0000 in cash.

Next was new candidate and former U.S. House aide Jiff Riley, with $221,000 in collections and $216,000 in cash.

He was followed by former TV reporter Mary Kim Titla with $169,000 in receipts and $48,000 in cash.

Then came attorney Howard Shanker with $138,000 collected and $34,000 in reserve.

On the GOP side, Arizona Mining Association president and former talk radio host Sydney Hay led with $268,000 in collections and $222,000 in cash.

New GOP challenger and Internet businessman Preston Korn entered the fray with $19,000 raised and $10,000 in reserve.

The 1^st District is the 10^th largest district in the country. The district take in vast areas of northern, central and eastern Arizona, including the far East Valley. It stretches from the Utah state line to Casa Grande. The cost of road-side signs alone will be staggering.

John Shadegg

Rep. John Shadegg put off an announcement concerning his political future until at least Thursday, according to his press secretary Abby Winter.

Shadegg stunned state and national political observers when he announced on Feb. 11 that he planned to retire at the end of his term in January. Days later, 145 GOP members of the House signed a letter asking him to reconsider his position and to seek re-election.

Shadegg has been reconsidering his decision ever since.

If he was so motivated, he could try to use the unprecedented show of support to leverage some sort of advantage for himself. Perhaps he could get Republicans to commit to certain political policies. Perhaps he could extract a leadership position for himself to help guide those political policies.

Consider the quotage being offered about Shadegg last week.

“In many ways, he is the conscience of conservatives in the House of Representatives,” Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, who helped draft and circulate the letter, told me.

“I would fully expect that if Mr. Shadegg goes forward with his decision to retire, Republicans will elect a capable new representative from that district, but they won’t elect John Shadegg. We need John Shadegg,” Pence said.

“There has never has been a day that I didn’t look up on that board when any vote was called. You could always count on John Shadegg casting a vote that reflects a deep commitment to limited government and conservative values,” he said.

Shadegg likely wasn’t feeling the love from his colleagues when he lost two leadership elections in recent years. Specifically, he lost to Rep. John Boehner of Ohio for the post of Republican leader, and to Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri for Republican whip.

Pence, who ran and lost a leadership election himself last year, said, “I personally know the challenge of a leadership election and the aftermath of that. And, quite frankly, leadership elections turn on a lot of different issues. They are not in any way an estimation of the esteem with which a person is held in Congress. John Shadegg may have lost his past elections for leadership, but in each case, he won the argument.”

Maybe. Republicans have talked a lot about adopting the types of fiscal discipline and reform that Shadegg advocated, but so far, their talk mostly has just been noise.

In the meantime, the hoopla Shadegg created when he announced his retirement hasn’t settled much. At least eight possible GOP candidates have emerged on the scene to fill the possible void in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional Distrist, which takes in central and northern Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Carefree and Cave Creek. At least one of the contenders, former state Rep. Steve May, said he’ll run no matter what Shadegg decides.

The other possible candidates are state Rep. Sam Crump, state Sen. Pamela Gorman, political strategist Wes Gullett, Shadegg’s chief of staff Sean Noble, state Sen. Jim Waring, state Rep. Jim Weiers, and Paradise Valley Mayor Ed Winkler. There could be others.

Stay tuned…

A report in Tuesday’s edition of Roll Call could be sobering for the Republican challengers seeking to oust Democratic U.S. Reps. Harry Mitchell’s and Gabrielle Giffords in the fall.

Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress, reported that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a huge financial advantage against the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The committees direct political expertise, and more importantly funding, toward selected races nationwide. At least they do that most years.

Roll Call writer Nathan L. Gonzales reported that through 2007, the DCCC had collections of $35.1 million, while the NRCC had $5.4 million.

Gonzales wrote, “Both committees generally give first priority and focus to incumbents, followed by open seats and then challenger races. With a number of vulnerable incumbents and more than two dozen open seats to defend, GOP challengers shouldn’t expect much more than a pat on the back from their campaign committees.”

Using that formula, Arizona’s Republican incumbents Reps. Jeff Flake and Trent Franks will get first-priority funding, though in reality, they won’t need it because they’ll only face token opposition.

The second-priority funding will go to whichever candidates emerge from the GOP primaries for the open seats currently held by outgoing Republican Reps. John Shadegg and Rick Renzi.

The third-priority funding will go to the Republican challengers for Mitchell’s and Giffords seats, which could be competitive. That is, if there’s any funding left.

John Shadegg

John Shadegg pulled one of the most surprising political acts in years when he announced that he will retire from the U.S. House in January.

OK, the simple act of Republicans retiring isn’t such a remarkable matter these days. What makes Shadegg’s retirement so surprising is that he, rather than voters, made the decision.

Despite Democratic challenger Bob Lord’s and independent Annie Loyd’s best efforts, Shadegg’s seat generally was considered relatively safe. After all, registered Republican voters outnumber registered Democratic voters 44 percent to 29 percent.

Shadegg decided that seven terms were enough.

“It is true that a lot of people at my level in the Congress don’t leave,” he told me. “They tend to stay. And they tend to stay for a long. And they tend to get kind of settled in. I don’t intend to get settled in and I don’t want to stay so long that the job become rote or routine or it’s just a mechanism to support the Shadegg family.”

He said that rather than being a member of the minority party in the House, he may be better able to advance conservative causes in the private sector. Since House ethics rules forbid him from looking around for another job while still in office, he has no idea exactly what private sector position may be in his future.

He said, “A lot of guys just stay. The decision to leave has been very, very hard, because there are a lot of nice things about the job. People call you ‘Congressman,’ and people are very nice to you, and you get to vote on very important matters, but I’m really anxious to do something, not just hold this job. I just don’t want to be a congressman; I want to change Washington. I think if you stay too long there’s a danger that you’re just a part of the process.”

Barack Obama

Campaign officials for some of the presidential candidates have been trying to persuade Arizona voters to register in time to vote in the presidential preference election on Feb. 5. The deadline is Monday.

Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign sent an e-mail Saturday to supporters in Arizona to remind them to.

The e-mail stated: “You can be part of our movement in Arizona, but you must be registered to vote as a Democrat. And Arizona’s voter registration deadline is January 7 – just a few days from now. Make your support count. Register to vote today.”

In accordance with state law, only voters registered in recognized political parties are permitted to vote in the constest that will help determine the major parties’ presidential nominee. Registered Republicans will be given Republican ballots. Registered Democrats will be given Democrat ballots. Registered independents, who comprise 28.1 percent of the state’s voter base, won’t be allowed to vote at all.

Internet magazine publisher and independent U.S. House candidate Annie Loyd said she doubts many independents will rush to change their status.

“The independents that I’ve spoken to over the last week in particular, and in the last month, I have not heard of anybody re-registering to vote in the presidential primary election,” she said. “In fact, I know of more people that have just reregistered as independents and forgone their registration as Democrat or a Republican, because they’re not drawn to any of the candidates.”

Many independents are waiting for an independent candidate or a third-party candidate to emerge on the national scene, said Loyd, who is running against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Shadegg.

She noted that several media outlets reported early this week that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed to speak at a nonpartisan conference Sunday in
Oklahoma, in possible preparation for an independent presidential bid. The conference is being staged by Unity08, a group also hopes to advance a nonpartisan ticket.

Loyd said, “What’s important is that independents don’t fee represented. They don’t feel that either party represents them.” She is seeking a seat in Arizona’s 3^rd Congressional District, which takes in central and northern Phoenix. 

John Shadegg

This week’s example of shameless political opportunism is brought to you by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, an organization that exists solely to get Democrats elected to the U.S. House. Or at least that was its mission until Tuesday. The DCCC launched a week-long radio advertising campaign in Arizona on Tuesday targeting Republican Rep. John Shadegg for opposing SCHIP legislation.

SCHIP is the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a national program intended to provide health insurance for families who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay for private insurance.

The DCCC targeted Shadegg and seven other Republicans in the fourth round of its multi-media radio, e-mail and text-message ad campaign. The radio ads say, “Did you know Congressman Shadegg gets health care at taxpayers’ expense, but Shadegg and Bush are blocking health care for 10 million uninsured children? Tell John Shadegg to put kids first.”

DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell told me that the campaign is intended coax Shadegg into flipping his position. “He’s been one of the remaining Republicans who’s been helping Bush sustain his veto. And we’ve said for several weeks now that we plan to hold Republicans accountable who vote to support George Bush’s veto over healthcare for children. And Shadegg has been one of the president’s most consistent supporters on this,” he said. Well, so much for that idea.Six hours after the DCCC issued a press release about the ad campaign Monday, Shadegg issued his own press release defending his position and trashing the DCCC.“I am thrilled that Washington, D.C., Democrats are going to waste their money attacking me in Arizona and particularly pleased that they have chosen the SCHIP issue,” Shadegg said in the release.

Bill Clinton and Jim Pederson

It’s payback time for former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Pederson. The shopping center developer and several members of his family each have donated $2,300 to the presidential campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

“They both helped me out considerably in my Senate race, so I owe them both,” Pederson told me.

Hillary Clinton hosted a fundraiser for Pederson in Washington, D.C., and former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Pederson in Arizona during his 2006 campaign against Republican incumbent Jon Kyl. Obama also appeared at a rally for Pederson and other Democrats.

Pederson said, “Gosh, I’ll never forget, on Election Day last year, I was out working one of the polling lines and one of our people came up and said, ‘Bill Clinton is on the phone with a talk-show radio host in Tucson promoting our campaign!’ I said, ‘You’re kidding. How can we tap into that?’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ Then five minutes later, he said, ‘Bill Clinton is on KTAR up here!’ Unsolicited, he went out and called up every talk show on radio in Arizona on Election Day promoting our campaign.”

He said, “And Barack coming out here and helping me out, those are the kind of favors that really mean a lot. And so, you know, I have an allegiance to both of them.”

In the world of politics, that means writing checks. Pederson also has been raising money for Reps. Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords for their 2008 re-election campaigns, but he has no plans to run for public office himself – at least this time around.

“There’s not too much happening on a statewide basis next year, but 2010 is going to be a big year. We’ll see what happens,” he said.

In 2010, Republican Sen. John McCain will be up for re-election to the Senate if he doesn’t win the presidency first. If McCain wins the White House, his Senate successor will have to stand for re-election anyway. Then depending on circumstances, Republican Rep. John Shadegg may have an interest in the Senate, which would open his House seat, if Shadegg gets past his own 2006 House re-election. And who knows who will be running for re-election in the seat now held by Republican Rep. Rick Renzi? Plus, the governor’s seat will be open in 2010.

John ShadeggArizona Democrats aren