John McCain is a household name here in his home state of Arizona. After all he has been the Senior U.S. Senator from Arizona since 1987, and served 4 years as an Arizona U.S. Congressman prior to that. He prevailed over Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney to become the Republican nominee for U.S. President just two years ago. And Senator McCain had run for President before in 2000.

U.S. Senator John McCain

Today at his Tucson headquarters (2945 E. Grant Road) Senator McCain said to his supporters, including CD 8 candidate Jonathan Paton and Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, that he hopes for a “great celebration” tomorrow night when he wins the Arizona primary. He thanked his supporters and volunteers, saying that many had “been with him since the beginning”, and he promised for “a time in action in the U.S. Senate” in 2011, as he had “great faith” in our country. Prior to his speech, McCain praised the work done in the Arizona state legislature and in Iraq of former State Senator Jonathan Paton, who incidentally said he met McCain for the first time in Fallujah.

The Senator appeared confident that he would win the Republican primary tomorrow against his challengers, former CD 5 Congressman J.D. Hayworth and Phoenix businessman Jim Deakin. Some say this is his toughest primary challenge in his career.

U.S. Senators have a lot of stature, since there are only 100 of them in America. Being as I used to work on Capitol Hill for fellow U.S. Senator Dan Inouye as a legislative aide on his personal staff, I know what it feels like to be close to their power & influence. And incumbent Senator McCain at age 73, does indeed wield that power & influence on the national and international scene. Incidentally he will be celebrating his 74th birthday in a week, on August 29.

Stay tuned for election results tomorrow on this race, and to find out which Democrat (John Dougherty, Dr. Cathy Eden, Dr. Rodney Glassman, or Randy Parraz) will be the newest challenger in John McCain’s long political career. And read my earlier blog on the Green and Libertarian challengers in this race (click here).