"The AZ Insider" with Kathy Shayna Shocket: Get the inside scoop on Arizona's social scene and celebrity news.

This week: I'll take you behind the scenes of a Steve Moak fundraiser...

The heated race for the congressional seat in Arizona’s District 3 just keeps getting steamier. With 11 candidates vying for the seat, the social calendar has been buzzing with people who are hosting private fundraisers in their homes or businesses. (Pictured above is Max Eller, a volunteer with Steve Moak’s campaign; Debbie Moak and Carol Clemmensen.)     

The busy summer political social calendar is even more noticeable in Paradise Valley, where the residential streets are typically empty during the summer months.   

The last few months, with so many people in PV hosting political fundraisers, there’s lots more activity and plenty of cars lining the streets. (Not to mention the dozens of dozens of signs on the lawns and street corners. And let’s not forget the fundraising parties for the candidates running in other heated races including those vying for positions in the Senate, for Treasurer and for Governor of course.)

Larry and Carol Clemmensen’s, for example, opened their Paradise Valley home in El Maro to support CD-3 Republican candidate Steve Moak.

I snapped this picture of Stephanie and Adam Goodman, president of Goodman’s Interior Structures. If you look between the Goodmans, just over their shoulder, you can see Steve Moak. He’s deep in conversation. Pictured below are Larry and Carol, who hosted the affair in their gorgeous sprawling home.

Steve, one of the 10 Republican candidates for CD-3, and his wife Debbie, spoke about Steve’s political platform and said they are “fed up” with the politicians in Washington. “We are fed up because there is no accountability,” they proclaimed.

On the guest list at the Clemmensen’s home was someone who has been in many, many races during his lifetime. That’s because it was Nick Firestone, the race car driver.

Pictured below is a great photo of Nick from the Indy 500 in 1999.

Nick competed in 42 Indy Lights races from 1993-1996.  (And oh yes, the he’s an heir to the Firestone Tire company and related to Andrew Firestone, the former reality star of “The Bachelor” TV series. By the way, Andrew didn’t marry the women he was engaged to from the TV show. He later met and married model/actress Ivana Bozilovic and they recently became parents.)

Steve’s supporters also gathered at El Chorro. Here’s a picture I took of Steve with Art Cunningham of Fountainhead Equity Partners.

And Steve’s campaign just got very racy. That’s because the avid cyclist also recently threw a “cycling for Moak” fundraiser through Paradise Valley.

Kathy Shayna Shocket is a Phoenix based writer. If you have a good item for The AZ Insider, you can email her at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .