Shooter files paperwork for Senate run
‘The people never got to have their say,’ says ex-Yuma lawmaker who was expelled in Feb.
PHOENIX — Insisting his constituents still want his services, ousted state Rep. Don Shooter filed the paperwork Wednesday to get back in the Legislature, this time as a senator.
“I think I was a pretty decent legislator,” the Yuma Republican told Capitol Media Services after submitting more than 810 signatures to qualify for the August primary. He needs just 474 of those to be valid to get his name on the ballot.
And there’s something else.
It was the House that voted 56-3 to oust him on Feb. 1 after concluding he had sexually harassed fellow legislators, lobbyists, staffers and others.
“The people never got to have their say,” he said. Running for Senate, said Shooter, provides that public input. It won’t be a shoo-in. Republican Sine Kerr of Buckeye, appointed earlier this year to replace Steve Montenegro when he made an unsuccessful bid for Congress, wants to hang on to the seat. And there’s a third Republican in the race, Brent Backus of Waddell.
Whoever survives the GOP primary will face off against Democrat Michelle Harris of Buckeye.
Shooter, who previously served six years in the Senate before being elected to the House two years ago, said he wants to focus on legislative priorities like water law and proper funding of public education.
But he acknowledged that his ouster — and the
$1.3 million claim he already has filed against the state that he was railroaded from office and libeled as a precursor to a lawsuit — could mean he is busy answering questions during the campaign, not about the issues but about what led to his being expelled.
“I didn’t say I didn’t have a challenge,” he said.
If nothing else, Shooter said he is learning to rein in his tendency to make what he contends were just wisecracks and jokes — the comments that got him into hot water in the first place — especially in unfamiliar situations.
“The main thing that I’ve learned is just to know your audience,” he said. “Don’t say stuff in front of people that don’t appreciate it.”
An allegation against Shooter was that he made “unwelcome sexualized comments” to Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, including about her breasts.
A special investigator hired by the House also said there is evidence that Shooter acted inappropriately with women. There also was evidence that Shooter told Mi-Ah Parish, a Korean-American woman and then publisher of the Arizona Republic, that the one thing he has not done on his bucket list was “those Asian twins in Mexico.”
Yuma County Republican Party Chairman Russ Jones said Wednesday he had been aware that a group of Shooter’s supporters had been circulating petitions, building on those gathered before the sex harassment scandal broke in November.
“I believe there’s no legal impairment for him to run for office, and so he has the right to do so. But I have not sensed or heard much if any support except for the group that he’s referring to,” Jones said. He personally has been supporting Kerr for the Senate seat, he added.
He pointed out that Shooter’s opponents will have five days to challenge the validity of his signatures in court, at which point the Yuma County Recorder’s Office will have to verify at least a portion of the signers as qualified District 13 Republican voters.
But if Shooter does make it onto the ballot, Jones said he did not think it would be an embarrassing situation for Republicans, either statewide or locally. “Whether he was a Democrat, Republican, independent, Green, whatever, he’s responsible for his own actions, and answerable for those.
“And we’re not going to take credit for the work, whether it’s Tim Dunn or Sine Kerr, for the work that they’ve done in terms of representing our district in the state Legislature so far,” he said.
Rep. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, was appointed in February by the Yuma County Board of Supervisors to fill Shooter’s vacant House seat. He is now running for election to one of the district’s two House seats, along with incumbent Rep. Darin Mitchell, R-Goodyear, and two more Republicans, Joanne Osborne of Goodyear and Terry Trey of Litchfield Park.
One Democrat has also filed to run for the predominantly GOP district’s House seats, Tom Tzitzura of Litchfield Park.
District 13 includes eastern Yuma, the Foothills, Wellton, Martinez Lake and other communities in the north and east part of Yuma County. South county areas including San Luis and Somerton, as well as part of Yuma, fall into District 4.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, incumbent Sen. Lisa Otondo, D-Yuma, was the only candidate listed for her office on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website. House incumbents Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, and Geraldine “Gerae” Peten, D-Goodyear, have filed to run for re-election.
Green Party member Sara Mae Williams of Sells has also qualified as a candidate for the District 4 House seats.