After spending most of last year suggesting he was very unlikely to run for Senate, GOP Rep. David Schweikert reportedly started taking a serious look at the race last month. Now, though, he's finally arrived at a decision … maybe.Arizona Republic reporter Dan Nowicki says that Schweikert"signaled" he won't run against Sen. John McCain at a weekend meeting of the Maricopa County GOP, but the remarks he relays from Schweikert still leave some ambiguity.
The closest we come to anything definitive is Schweikert saying, "The polling was amazing, but we came to the conclusion that we're just not seeing the money to do it," but even then, his lament about financial backing is a present-tense statement—one that could be subject to change in the future. And the picture becomes even murkier when you consider that Schweikert also told Nowicki that "despite conventional wisdom, it wouldn’t be too late for him to launch a Senate campaign." That's not a direct quote, but perhaps Schweikert thinks he does still have time, if the money train arrives—and so perhaps this is some sort of public signal to the tea party establishment that he's still waiting for their assurances.
Nowicki, though, later added via Twitter that he doesn't think Schweikert was "doing any tap-dancing" and says other sources told him that Schweikert has told them that he's not running. Still, we're tremendous sticklers for hearing from the proverbial horse's mouth here at Daily Kos Elections. Politicians are squirrely folks by nature, and they're often very adept at sounding like they're saying one thing when they in fact mean the opposite. "I have no plans to run," for instance, might seem like a "no" but in fact holds the door open to a universe of possibilities. After all, plans change.
So unless and until we get a clear, direct quote from Schweikert (or the June 1 filing deadline passes without his name showing up on the ballot), we can’t rule out the possibility that he could challenge McCain. What’s more, Schweikert's comments came admist a vote by the Republicans in Maricopa (where about 60 of the state lives) to endorse "anybody but McCain" by a 61-39 margin, so there's still a hunger for a challenger. Unfortunately for them, the most prominent name aside from Schweikert belongs to ex-state Sen. Kelli Ward, a confirmed "wacko bird," to use McCain-speak.