By Nick Phillips, Camryn Sanchez and Jakob Thorington || Arizona Capitol Times
As vote counting continued through the end of this week, the fate of the governor’s race was up in the air, but the numbers indicated that whether Republican Kari Lake or Democrat Katie Hobbs come out on top, the final result will be close.
Closer, probably, than any Arizona gubernatorial election in two decades.
Gov. Doug Ducey won the office in 2014 by a 12% margin and won his 2018 re-election campaign by a 14-point spread. To find a governor’s race that was decided by less than 10 points, you must go back to 2002, when Democrat Janet Napolitano beat Republican Matt Salmon, 46.2% to 45.2%, with a vote margin of less than 12,000. Independent Richard Mahoney received 6.9% of the vote.
The tight governor’s race seems to confirm a trend that’s emerged in recent years: Arizona is becoming a purple state. But will that impact how the state’s next top executive governs?
It depends, said longtime GOP consultant Chuck Coughlin.
“It would matter I believe, to a Hobbs administration because it would naturally acknowledge the split, and she has to deal with what unquestionably will be a Republican Legislature,” he said.
“I do not think it will appear … significant to a Lake administration,” Coughlin continued, “because I think they’re going to feel like, ‘Oh, I got a Republican Legislature, I’m going to have my way.’”
