While we wait to see who won Alaska's GOP Senate primary, you may be interested in the extremely tight contests for Arizona Attorney General. On the GOP side, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne leads former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas by 394 votes. In the Democratic race, former state financial regulator Felecia Rotellini is ahead of state representative David Lujan by 1,234 votes.

The AG is the state's top legal officer charged with defending Arizona's interests in court. That's supposed to include championing Arizona's partially blocked law on illegal immigrants.  But current AG Terry Goddard (the Democratic candidate for AZ governor) isn't doing that, after Gov. Jan Brewer (running for re-election) dumped him in favor of private counsel. Goddard opposes the law but planned on upholding Arizona's honor in federal court anyway until he agreed to step aside. The issue of illegal immigration explains some of the breathless copy on the candidates' websites. Horne's site wins as The Most Eye-Popping:

From Horne: SECURE THE BORDER! FIGHT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! SUPPORT S.B. 1070! DEFEND THE 2ND AMENDMENT! PROTECT TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE! (Okay! Okay! Okay!)

From Thomas: 'When it comes to being conservative, there's no doubting Thomas.' (Oh, how precious.)

From Rotellini: 'Arizona's Next Attorney General'. (Should they stop counting ballots?)

From Lujan: 'It's All About Protecting People'. (Quaint, plus it's mandated by law.)

Oh, and there is so much more drama here.

 

The Republicans are much more sensational, and these are just the highlights. In addition to his strong support for the controversial (and temporarily blocked) immigration law, Horne is known for his support of an Arizona law to curb ethnic studies in Tucson public schools and his demand that ethnic studies classes be recorded to prove they are in compliance, or lose 10% of their funding.

Andrew Thomas is close to controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, under investigation for allegedly discriminating against Hispanics. Arpaio is revered and despised by many (remember the prisoners pink underwear?). He and Thomas are notorious for singling out political opponents, such as in this federal lawsuit against Maricopa County, alleging widespread corruption by well, just about everybody. Thomas also helped draft an indictment against Maricopa County Supervisors that he never filed.  It was missing some key information, such as evidence. The Arizona Republic muses conservative voters are alarmed:

The evidence of Thomas' willingness to abuse his police powers has been pouring out of late, including grand-jury transcripts and a "draft indictment" drawn up to criminalize every single one of his county political opponents. It is frightening fare. ... Consider this chilling declaration from (a Thomas political) mailer: 'Andrew Thomas prosecutes con artists like Tom Horne'.

Yet again, Thomas demonstrates his view that his political opponents should be behind bars. To their credit, Republican voters seem to have seen it. And many rejected it.

In comparison, Democrats Rotellini and Lujan seem quiet. Earlier this year, Democratic contestant Vince Rabago criticized Rotelleni for accepting campaign contributions from the banking industry, which she regulated (she says she's not influenced by the contribution).  Lujan was criticized for not voting on the controversial immigration law (he said he was attending to a family obligation).