Governor Runoff in Arizona Is Viewed as Too Close to Call

Arizona’s runoff race for governor was too close to call Tuesday, with the candidates running almost neck and neck most of the night.

Fife Symington, a Republican, was leading Democratic challenger Terry Goddard by two percentage points, with 67% of the precincts reporting.

After trailing Goddard by a few percentage points all evening, Symington pulled ahead and led him 299,207 to 290,380 in the voting, a 51%-49% lead.

Goddard, the former mayor of Phoenix, said the race was “very, very tight and could go either way.”

Tuesday’s election was almost a repeat of the general election in November in which Symington beat Goddard by more than 4,000 votes but failed to get 50% of the vote, plus one, as required by law.

Symington, a developer who was the underdog going into the general election, earned 49.7% of the vote and Goddard 49.2% of nearly 1.1 million ballots cast.

A law passed by Arizona voters in 1988 required contenders for the top five offices in the state to earn 50% of the vote, plus one, before being elected.

The new governor will assume office in a week.

He takes over at a tumultuous time in Arizona history, one marked by a serious budget crisis and a political corruption scandal that has rocked the capital and the state.

Seven legislators and 11 others were indicted earlier this month on bribery and conspiracy charges stemming from a police sting operation that involved a bogus push to bring casino gambling into Arizona.

In light of the scandal, both candidates pledged support for campaign reform laws designed to impose ethical standards and restore trust in state government.

Polls conducted since the November election show that Arizonans are having second thoughts about the 50%-plus-one law, which was added to the state Constitution after Evan Mecham became governor with only 40% of the vote in 1986. Mecham, a Republican, was impeached, convicted and removed from office in 1988.

Rose Mofford, the Democratic secretary of state who took over as governor after Mecham left the post, postponed her planned retirement and remained as the state’s chief executive pending election of her successor.