Ex-lawmaker Noel Campbell drops bid for Arizona Senate

Former Arizona lawmaker Noel Campbell dropped his bid for the state Senate seat in his Yavapai County district Monday, following unspecified “attacks and smears” on his family.

Campbell, an 80-year-old retired Navy pilot and owner of the Chapel Inn in Prescott, entered the race last year despite a documented domestic violence incident with his wife in December 2020. He never faced charges after she declined to cooperate with the investigation.

The move leaves two candidates remaining for the Republican senate primary in the new Legislative District 1, which covers Prescott and most of Yavapai County: former lawmaker and Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who acted a spokesman and liaison last year for the Senate’s partisan audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County; and real estate broker Steve Zipperman, who worked as a volunteer for the audit.

Senate President Karen Fann, the district’s incumbent and the person who authorized the audit, decided last year not to run for reelection.

Campbell served in the Legislature from 2014 until 2021.

He did not deny his wife’s allegations in an interview with The Arizona Republic last month. Campbell said he had apologized to her and he “was wrong.”

Now, a different kind of campaign was “forced upon us,” he wrote in a farewell letter Monday. That campaign was one in which “less ethical people” have lashed out at them in order to win, he wrote

Voters still have one “good and decent choice available,” he wrote without specifying who he meant.

“I need to think about those closest to me, the stress they are under,” he said, adding that he would keep his wife “first” in his life.

Campbell didn’t return phone messages Monday.

Other candidates in race respond

Bennett said he was “saddened” to hear of Campbell’s withdrawal, and the attacks Campbell spoke of were “sad.”

“Noel is an exceptional man and public servant,” Bennett said, adding that he wished Campbell and his wife “my most sincere prayers and support.”

Zipperman said he was sorry to hear of Campbell’s difficulties. Asked if he knew anything about “smears” targeting Campbell, Zipperman said that Campbell was smearing him with “false accusations,” and he had to take action to stop it and clear his name.

“Coincidentally, three days later he withdrew,” Zipperman said, declining to give details.

The GOP primary winner will run against Democrat Mike Fogel in the general election, but Republicans have a heavy registration advantage in the newly created district.