Gov. Ducey eyeing ’20 Senate bid? I doubt it

Once again, talk is ramping up that Gov Doug. Ducey is eyeing a spot in the U.S. Senate.

With Kirk Adams announcing last week that he’s stepping down as his chief of staff, speculation is once again circulating that Ducey will appoint him as a placeholder in the Senate should Jon Kyl resign, clearing Ducey’s path to run for the job in 2020.

Even my esteemed colleague Elvia Diaz has bought into the idea.

“Call me crazy, but his (Adams’) departure sure looks like a perfectly orchestrated move by Team Ducey so the governor himself can go after the Senate seat in 2020,” she wrote. Don’t believe it.

For four reasons.

Number one, if Kirk Adams gets the spot, he won’t be looking to waddle in as a lame duck. This is a legislator who rose to become speaker of the Arizona House, a guy who ran for Congress and then, when he lost, ran a “dark money” group funded by the Koch brothers.

Having just stepped aside as Ducey’s chief of staff, Adams likely will be able to write his own high-six-figure ticket in the private sector.

Why would a 45-year-old, in the prime of his political life, want to be relegated to the job of mere placeholder?

If Adams gets the appointment, look for him to play for keeps.

Number two, Arizona has seen only 11 people serve in the Senate since becoming a state. (Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema will be the 12th.)

Why would Ducey waste such a plum on a placeholder when he has the opportunity to potentially decide who will be Arizona’s next senator for decades to come?

I look for him to give the job to Martha McSally, who won this year’s GOP primary but lost a close race to Sinema. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is lobbying Ducey to give the job to McSally. I’m guessing Donald Trump would applaud that as well.

Besides, having a senator and the Senate majority leader owe you? That’s a nice set of chips to hold in your back pocket.

Number three, Ducey certainly covets a national platform, but likely not as one of 100.

Oh, that doesn’t mean he planned to stick around. We haven’t had a governor finish two full terms since Bruce Babbitt, circa 1986.

Governors elected to serve two terms in Arizona always seem to bolt for greener pastures ... or are chased out of office via impeachment or criminal conviction.

But in Ducey’s case, he’s more accustomed to the role of executive than freshman senator. I’d have guessed that he was eyeing a spot in Trump’s second-term Cabinet or somewhere high up in his administration — not in

the Senate.

Which brings me to number four: Whatever hopes Ducey had of moving on up were likely dashed on Nov. 6, when Katie Hobbs was elected secretary of state. The idea that Ducey, a Republican, would turn the Governor’s Office’s over to Hobbs, a Democrat, is laughable.

Republican hearts are stopping even the thought of such a thing.

“He’d never give up the seat to a Democrat,” said a chuckling Chuck at Coughlin, a longtime Republican political consultant.

There is, however, precedent. In January 2009, midway through her second term, then-Gov. Janet Napolitano abandoned ship to become then-President Barack Obama’s secretary of Homeland Security.

Napolitano left a recession-savaged state — and the Democratic Party — reeling, turning over the job to thenSecretary of State Jan Brewer.

Democrats wouldn’t win statewide office for a decade. another