Doug Ducey Looked for Opportunities

Doug Ducey Republican Candidate for Arizona Governor 2014

Excerpt from Capital Times

Doug Ducey

His introduction to politics came in 2008 during U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign. Some of Ducey’s friends at Hensley Beverage Company, the liquor distributor founded by McCain’s father-in-law, asked Ducey to get involved in the race.“I didn’t really know what that meant. I found in hindsight that it meant raise money,” he said.Ducey raised money for McCain and served on his Arizona leadership team. It wasn’t long before Ducey started thinking about running for office himself.

Friends started urging him to run in 2010, Ducey said. Some encouraged him to run for retiring Congressman John Shadegg’s seat, Ducey said, but he didn’t want to move to Washington while leaving his family behind in Arizona. He said others urged him to run for governor, but that was too big a job for someone with no experience.

“I’m not a legislator. I knew that about my personality. I’m an executive,” he said.

The ideal opportunity presented itself when then-state Treasurer Dean Martin decided to challenge Gov. Jan Brewer in the Republican primary.

“Had Dean Martin not made the decision to challenge Governor Brewer and the Treasurer’s Office not opened up, I may have not gotten involved in state politics,” he said.

As a businessperson with a background in finance, Ducey said the Treasurer’s Office seemed a perfect fit for him. It didn’t take him long to jump into the treasurer’s race after Martin announced his gubernatorial campaign.

“I think I’ve been throughout my career a measured risk-taker. A lot of times people will say entrepreneurs are gamblers. And I would take issue with that. I think it’s more being a measured risk-taker of seeing an opportunity and thinking, ‘Can you maximize it’?” he said.

The Treasurer’s Office is a low-profile position, Ducey said, but it was a way to get involved. It was a way to see if he could make a difference. And it was tremendous learning experience that has taught him about policy, the state budget, consensus building and working with stakeholders, he said.

“I’m so much wiser today than I was four years ago. And I think oftentimes the fatal conceit of a businessperson is to think because they ran something over here they can automatically come and run something over there,” Ducey said.

Doug Ducey
Age: 50
Education: Arizona State University, B.S., 1986
Wife: Angela
Children: Jack, 17; Joe, 15; Sam, 11

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