My long-time friend, Javan Mesnard, announced that he’ll be running for the Arizona House of Representatives next year. The Arizona Guardian covered the story this afternoon, and I’ve successfully copied and pasted it below. Congratulations and best of luck, Javan!
Senate staffer jumps into House race
Thursday, 10 December 2009
By Dennis Welch
The Arizona Guardian
A longtime policy advisor to Republicans in the Senate says he’s running for an open seat in the House next year.
Javan Daniel Mesnard, 29, said he intends to open a committee on Friday and start campaigning in Dist. 21, which includes a large part of Chandler.
Mesnard, a Republican, has worked at the Senate for the past eight years, serving as an advisor to numerous committees dealing with issues ranging from education to transportation.
His last day is today. Mesnard says he’s considered running for a while because he wants to be the one making the final decisions.
“There’s a lot you can do as a staffer,” he said. “But you’re still working for someone else.”
He says he’ll have an official website up within the next couple of days and plans on running under the name of J.D. Mesnard.
“That has nothing to do with J.D. Hayworth although it doesn’t hurt,” he said.
Mesnard has already picked up two prominent endorsements from lawmakers in his legislative district, Reps. Steve Yarbrough and Warde Nichols, who are both Republicans.
“I think he’s a fabulous candidate,” said Yarbrough, who is thinking about running for the Senate next year. “He’s smart and talented and I really hope he makes it through.”
Two other Republicans have filed to run for the seat, Jeff Vance and Venessa Whitener. If everything works out as planned, Mesnard says he will be running as a team along with Yarbrough and Vance.
Nichols is prohibited from running for re-election because state law limits the number of consecutive terms a lawmaker can serve in the same office.
The district is solidly in Republican hands as Republicans currently hold both seats in the House as well as the seat in the Senate. The GOP also enjoys a big registration advantage, out numbering Democrats by roughly 20,000 in the East Valley district.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are about 58,500 registered Republicans, 38,700 registered Democrats and 43,203 voters not affiliated with the two major parties.