GOP Sen. John McCain didn’t give political pundits much time to contemplate his future following his unsuccessful presidential bid last year. On November 17, barely two weeks after the election, McCain announced he would seek re-election to a fifth term in the Senate.
McCain has always had relatively easy Senate races. He moved to the Senate from the House in 1986, winning an open seat with 60 percent. In 1992, the Year of the Woman, McCain faced Claire Sargent, who was underfunded but managed to take 32 percent to McCain’s 56 percent. Former GOP Gov. Evan Mecham ran as an independent and took 11 percent. McCain’s 1998 race proved to be a cakewalk as he trounced Democrat Ed Ranger, 69 percent to 27 percent. The incumbent’s biggest margin of victory came in 2004 when he got 77 percent of the vote to 21 percent for eighth grade math teacher Stuart Starky. Former President Bush carried Arizona that year with 55 percent of the vote.
McCain has spent nearly all of the last four years on the national stage, running for
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