Editing Bruce Babbitt (section)

===Arizona===
[[File:Billy Davis In Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt Office.jpg|left|thumb|Babbitt signing legislation in the Governor's Office in Phoenix, Arizona.]]
In the state election of November 1974, Babbitt overcame Republican incumbent N. Warner Lee to become [[Attorney General of Arizona]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 6, 1974 |title=Arizona Voting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7054260/the_gallup_independent/ |newspaper=The Gallup Independent |location=Gallup, NM |agency=AP |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=October 16, 2016 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
[[File:Bruce Babbitt (AZ).png|150px|thumb|right|Babbitt as governor.]]
He succeeded [[Wesley Bolin]] as governor when Bolin died in office on March 4, 1978. Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor; the [[Arizona Secretary of State]], if holding office by election, stands first in line in case the governor vacates his or her post. However, [[Rose Mofford]], then secretary of state, had been appointed to her post and thus was not eligible to become governor according to the Arizona state constitution. Babbitt, as attorney general, was next in the line of succession, and thus served the balance of the term to which [[Raúl Héctor Castro]] had originally been elected in 1974. Babbitt was elected for a full four-year term later in 1978, and again in [[United States gubernatorial elections, 1982|1982]]. He did not run for a third full term in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bruce Babbitt bio, photos, oral history {{!}} AZ Historymaker |url=https://www.historicalleague.org/historymakers/bruce-babbitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313152410/https://www.historicalleague.org/historymakers/bruce-babbitt |archive-date=2023-03-13 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=www.historicalleague.org}}</ref>

In 1982, Babbitt intervened in negotiations between the Cochise County sheriff and leaders of the Christ Miracle Healing Church and Center over the release of church members whom the church was hiding from facing charges for assault.  The church, which had been implicated in bomb-making, would play a central role in the [[Miracle Valley shootout]] later that year.  In 1983, Babbitt sent the Arizona National Guard to the [[1983 Arizona copper mine strike|strike]] against the [[Phelps Dodge]] mining company in [[Morenci, Arizona]].

With the retirement of Republican [[Barry Goldwater]] from the U.S. Senate in 1986, many in Arizona expected Babbitt to oppose Representative [[John McCain]] for the seat. In a surprise press conference in 1985, Babbitt instead announced he would forgo the Senate race to concentrate on a White House bid in 1988.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-09-05 |title=Arizona Governor Won't Run in '86 - The Washington Post |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/arizona-governor-wont-run-in-86/2b8d461f-60ad-43d3-95d0-301ce06abc14/ |access-date=2023-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905210854/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/arizona-governor-wont-run-in-86/2b8d461f-60ad-43d3-95d0-301ce06abc14/ |archive-date=5 September 2023 }}</ref>