Ellen Simon

The Arizona 1st congressional district election, 2006 was an election for the United States House of Representatives. The two main candidates were two-term Republican incumbent Rick Renzi and Democratic civil rights attorney Ellen Simon. Renzi defeated Simon by a 52% to 44% margin.

Arizona has an open-primary. There were seven candidates who ran in the September 12, 2006 primary, five of them Democratic, Libertarian David Schlosser, and Republican Rick Renzi. Renzi collected 37,644 votes and Schlosser 606. Among the five Democrats, Simon won a decisive victory.

At one point, Renzi appeared to have an easy race for his third term when Democrat Jack Jackson Jr., a Native American former state representative, dropped his challenge. Democrats then drafted civil rights attorney Ellen Simon, who won the Democratic primary. Despite entering the race in May, Simon had been able to raise $821,595 as of August 23. However, she still trailed Renzi significantly in cash on hand as Renzi held on to a slight lead in the polls.

In mid-August CQPolitics changed their rating of this race from Safe Republican to Leans Republican. The most recent Cook Political Report rating was: Leans Republican.

Nevertheless, Renzi was able to hold on to his lead, and won by eight percentage points.

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