Schweikert Beats Quayle in Primary in Arizona

Republican Rep. David Schweikert defeated Rep. Ben Quayle in Arizona's 6th District GOP primary Tuesday.

• With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Schweikert leads Quayle 53 percent to 47 percent. The Associated Press called the race for Schweikert.
• The freshmen have nearly identical voting records, and the campaign came down more to personality and style than to ideology. More than twice as many residents of the new district are in Quayle's current district than in Schweikert's present district, but Schweikert has been on Maricopa County ballots for  two decades as a state legislator and county treasurer. That, and an aggressive campaign that drew criticism from Quayle supporters, helped vault Schweikert past his colleague.
• The race was perhaps the nastiest of many nasty member-against-member primaries this year. Schweikert's commercials and mailers, especially one that said Quayle "goes both ways" on issues, drew condemnation from Arizona's GOP establishment, including Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain. It seemed to arrest Schweikert's momentum in the last days of the campaign, but did not prevent his victory.

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