Tucson attorney John Munger has given up his pursuit of the governor's office.

The statement from Munger:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to leave in place the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s so-called Clean Elections law presents an insurmountable obstacle to my campaign for Governor. As I have previously stated publicly and in legal filings, these dollar-for-dollar taxpayer matching funds create an unequal playing field by discouraging financial contributions to traditionally-funded candidates.

“Given the virtual impossibility of raising the necessary funds to compete against taxpayer-funded campaigns under this scenario, I have no choice but to officially withdraw from the race for Governor. I am eternally grateful to the many people who did pledge their financial support, embraced my ideas, and worked tirelessly for my campaign. At the present time, I am not endorsing another candidate in this race.

“It is regrettable that in these difficult economic times when the State cannot pay for teachers and other critical needs, candidates are using taxpayer funds to finance re-election campaigns. I am hopeful that ultimately, the High Court will move to dismantle Arizona’s Clean Elections law, allowing for a system with a truly level playing field for all candidates.

Both local Jason’s Deli locations closed their doors Sunday, according to a spokesman for the restaurant chain.

“It’s sad. There were 85 employees and a lot of loyal customers,” said Dan Helsman, a company spokesman. “We had been working with (the franchisee) for a while to avoid closure.”

Helsman said the local franchisee, Delwest, Inc., had run into irreparable financial problems with several organizations, including the Internal Revenue Service.

The restaurant—which opened its first Tucson store more than 20 years ago—had locations at 5420 E. Broadway Blvd. and 4545 N. Oracle Road.

• Hank Stephenson

Arizona Sen. John McCain is facing a serious primary challenger: Republican J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman and radio talk-show host who calls himself the “consistent conservative.”

When he formally kicked off his campaign in February, the bombastic Hayworth cast himself as the champion of the insurgent Tea Party revolution, calling the campaign “a classic political confrontation: John McCain and the Washington establishment on one side, and we the people on the other.”

Hayworth has dinged McCain on everything from being soft on border security to opposing drilling in the Arctic. He’s even complained that “just like the liberals, John opposes waterboarding captured terrorists like the Christmas bomber.”

Hayworth’s attacks have forced McCain to move to the right on nearly every issue in an effort to reinvents himself; earlier this year, he went so far as to declare: “I never considered myself a maverick.”

McCain has hit back by ridiculing Hayworth as a birther and hammering him as a pork-barrel spender. Most recently, his campaign released an ad mocking Hayworth for

Investigative reporter John Dougherty, one of four Democrats running for U.S. Senate this year, will be at Hotel Congress from 7 to 9 p.m. this Thursday, June 3.

Here's the release from Dougherty's campaign:

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate John Dougherty takes his campaign to unseat John McCain to Tucson Thursday to rally Southern Arizona supporters at the Hotel Congress in Tucson.

"We don't have time for the politics of fear," said Dougherty, who promises to initiate fact-based solutions to America's problems, from environmental collapse to immigration reform to paying for two wars overseas.

As one of America's premier investigative journalists, Dougherty has served the public by exposing corruption and holding Arizona's most powerful politicians and government agencies accountable for more than 25 years.

His investigations and articles have played a major role in shaping Arizona's political history. At the Dayton Daily News in 1989, he uncovered the Keating Five scandal, prompting a congressional investigation that nearly ended Sen. McCain's career during his first Senate term. In 2004, Dougherty reported on the bootlegging roots of McCain's wife's family liquor business.

His reporting on Arizona Governor Fife Symington in the early 1990s foreshadowed Symington's conviction and resignation from office in 1997. Dougherty's series on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio exposed his corruption years before the ongoing federal grand jury investigation. And his reporting on polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs described a litany of criminal abuses