Pro-choice Greene quits GOP race for governor

The lone pro-choice candidate among leading Republican gubernatorial candidates has pulled out of the race.

John Greene, a former state Senate president, said Monday he has been unable to get the backing of moderates from his own party to gather the necessary 4,200 donations of $5 each to qualify for public funding.

Greene said some appear to believe that incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano cannot be beaten; others actually are supporting her bid for a second term.

And Greene said he has no support among “the far right” of his party.

Greene’s decision leaves the party without a prominent voice not only for abortion rights but also for equal rights for gays. That factor disappointed Greene.

“The Republican Party, at least in Arizona, is at an alltime low in terms of reaching out to people and trying to unify the party and recognizing there are Republicans who believe that individual freedom means allowing people to live their lives without government involvement,” he said.

Pollster Earl de Berge of the Behavior Research Center said Greene’s assessment of his chances — and of politics in 2006 in Arizona — probably is accurate.

“The moderate dollars in the (Republican) Party are going on the Democrat (side) and the right wing isn’t supporting a moderate,” he said.

But de Berge said his own surveys show that, at least at this point, there isn’t much enthusiasm among Republicans for any of the candidates: Close to two-thirds of those asked said they have no favorite among contenders.

De Berge said, though, that Greene’s withdrawal likely makes the GOP primary a two-person race between Len Munsil and Don Goldwater. He said other announced GOP candidates have yet to show any strength at all.

Greene said that, at least at this point, he is not supporting any of the other announced candidates. But Greene said he does not intend to abandon the GOP.

He likened party politics in Arizona to a “pendulum,” taking swings back and forth between more moderate and conservative elements.

As proof, he said that 20 years ago the party fell under the control of “certain groups” who managed to get Evan Mecham nominated for governor and eventually elected. That polarized more moderate Republicans and forced them to go public to regain control of the party.

One of those moderates was businessman Fife Symington, who became the Republican nominee for governor in 1990. He succeeded Rose Mofford, who was secretary of state but became governor after Mecham was impeached and removed from office.

Greene said the current drift toward the right left him “a person without a country” in terms of the GOP as the moderates he was counting on think Napolitano will win and “don’t want to ruffle her feathers.”

“I’ve had Republican business lobbyists say they couldn’t help me because they’re supporting her,” Greene said.

Greene said unless moderates take back control of the party he would expect that party members who share his belief would choose to abandon the party and reregister as independents.

Greene’s withdrawal is the second of the race. State Rep. Ted Carpenter, R-Phoenix, pulled the plug on his own short-lived campaign earlier this month.