McCain taps Ducey, Brewer vets for 2016 race

U.S. Sen. John McCain's 2016 re-election team is taking shape, one year before the state's Aug. 30 primary election.

McCain, R-Ariz., is facing primary and general-election fights in his bid for a sixth six-year term. While McCain is expected to continue to rely on the counsel of his long-time advisers Rick Davis, Carla Eudy, Charlie Black and Mark Salter, he also is tapping a younger generation of political operatives, his campaign told The Arizona Republic.

Ryan O'Daniel will serve as McCain's campaign manager. O'Daniel was a senior adviser on Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's 2014 campaign and more recently has been a policy adviser at the Phoenix law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Stephen Shadegg is McCain's political director and deputy campaign manager. Shadegg is the son of former eight-term U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and the grandson of Stephen C. Shadegg, a top aide, strategist and confidant to the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz.

Lorna Romero, a veteran of former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's administration, is the campaign's communications director. Romero was Brewer's director of legislative affairs. Before that, she was the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry's director of government relations. More recently, Romero has been with the Phoenix-based consulting firm Veridus.

Blaze Baggs, who has worked as an advance staff member for Ducey, is McCain's field director. Baggs also was a field representative for Ducey's gubernatorial campaign, a role in which he focused on getting out the vote.

McCain, who turned 79 on Saturday, also will open a campaign office in central Phoenix on Tuesday. "For the next fourteen months, our team will build a grassroots campaign united around my message and record of building a stronger, safer, and more prosperous Arizona and America," he said in a written statement released to The Republic.

McCain's GOP primary challengers include state Sen. Kelli Ward of Lake Havasu City and lesser-known Republicans Alex Meluskey of Scottsdale and Clair Van Steenwyk of Sun City West. National conservative groups have tried to persuade U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., to get into the Senate race, but he is not expected to do so.

U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., of Flagstaff, so far is unopposed in her bid for the Democratic Party's Senate nomination.

In other developments:

-- Fans of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination can pick up pro-Sanders buttons, bumper stickers and signs, as well as pursue volunteer opportunities, at a new "We Want Bernie" office inside 9 The Gallery, 1229 Grand Ave., Phoenix. The office is part of the national "We Want Bernie" campaign run by the organization Progressive Democrats of America.

The idea is to stir up excitement for Sanders, the left-leaning Vermont independent, in places such as Phoenix while his campaign concentrates on the crucial early nominating states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Arizona's presidential preference election, or primary, is March 22.

"It will be up to us grassroots organizers to pave the way in Arizona and those other states where the Bernie Sanders campaign is not now operating," Sanders booster Yolanda Bejarano said in a written statement announcing the Phoenix office's opening.

-- U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has named Chandler Morse as his new chief of staff. Morse, who replaces Flake's former chief of staff Steve Voeller, has worked for Flake's House and Senate offices since May 2005, serving in several positions before rising to deputy chief of staff. He was known as Flake's top adviser on the senator's signature issues of immigration reform and dismantling the Cuba travel ban.

In another Flake staff change, press secretary Jason Samuels has been promoted to communications director. He succeeds Bronwyn Lance Chester, who left to work for U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., at the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Samuels joined Flake's House staff in January 2010 and had been his Senate press secretary since January 2014.

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki and on his official Facebook page.