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John Verkamp is a veteran and former Republican state senator who ran for the United States Senate in Arizona as a Democrat. He is descended from the Verkamp family who have operated a store at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park since 1906. John Verkamp was a Republican state senator representing the Flagstaff, Arizona area. He was last elected to that seat in 2000. In 2002, following redistricting in which Flagstaff was removed from its former district, which had included Sedona, Arizona and Kingman, Arizona, and placed in a new district containing the heavily Democratic Navajo Nation, John Verkamp decided against running for re-election. His former State Senate seat has been held by a Democrat ever since. An opponent of the Iraq War and supporter of single-payer health care, Verkamp recently left the Republican Party over those issues and announced his decision to run as a Democrat for U.S. Senate. Verkamp was a late entry in the race and he did not gather enough petition signatures to qualify for the September 12 primary election ballot. His opponent in the primary would have been Jim Pederson, who was defeated by incumbent Jon Kyl in November.
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VETPAC
