Republican Gov. Doug Ducey joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his wife Cindy McCain at their Arizona home earlier this week, a move that comes just ahead of the projected date for Ducey’s appointment of a successor to fill the senator’s seat if it becomes available, a new report says.
McCain was diagnosed last summer with a form a brain cancer known as glioblastoma and has been receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He has remained in Arizona since December.
If McCain resigns from the Senate on Wednesday, a special election would be held that would line up with the 2018 midterms. But after Wednesday, the person Ducey would appoint to fill the seat would keep the office until the 2020 elections.
Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesperson for Ducey, told The Hill that Ducey and McCain met on Tuesday. However, he lambasted the Beltway’s “obsession with this when there is no issue.”
“John McCain is our senior senator. He and the governor work on a variety of issues together. Like others, the governor wanted to spend time with Senator McCain and it was a great visit,” Scarpinato said in an email to The Hill.
“To anyone who uses this as an opportunity to speculate or fan the rumor mill: Washington DC’s obsession with this when there is no issue to be discussed is disgraceful,” he added. “John McCain is our senator until 2022, and the governor is looking forward to him returning to the U.S. Senate.”
