instruction:
Given a document, generate a short title of the document. The title should convey the main idea/event/topic about which the document is being written. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
question:
Jeff Flake's retirement  creates a wide open race for Arizona's Senate seat in 2018.
Far-right outsider candidates could also jump in  the race .
WASHINGTON — With  Sen. Flake 's decision to not seek reelection in Arizona next year  the Grand Canyon State's congressional delegation was sent into a frenzy of speculation about who might throw their hat in the ring for what will be a high-profile 2018 race.
 Flake  made the announcement to retire after just one term on Tuesday  citing as a key reason the deterioration of political discourse  much of which  he  attributes to President Donald Trump.
answer:
Arizona gears up for a wide open race with Jeff Flake's retirement


question:
The Senate passed a sweeping bipartisan spending bill Friday morning  but not before the federal government shut down when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) delayed the vote past midnight to complain about the budget deficit. It was the second government shutdown in less than three weeks.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Feb. 8 spoke on the Senate floor against a bipartisan budget deal and delayed a vote on the measure. (U.S. Senate)
Then  as an expected vote approached in the Senate   Paul  began to throw up roadblocks  demanding a vote on  his  amendment that would demonstrate how the two-year budget deal breaks past pledges to rein in federal spending.
GOP leaders refused to allow  him  to offer the amendment  arguing that if  Paul  got an amendment vote  many other senators might want one  too.  Paul   in turn  refused to allow the vote to go forward  making use of Senate rules that allow individual senators to slow down proceedings that require the consent of all.
“I can’t in all good honesty  in all good faith  just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits ”  Paul  said on the Senate floor as evening pushed into night.
 Paul  objected after a visibly irritated McConnell tried to move to a vote. Then  Paul  launched into a lengthy floor speech deriding bipartisan complicity on deficit spending while the country goes “on and on and on  finding new wars to fight that make no sense.” The senator direly predicted a “day of reckoning ” possibly in the form of the collapse of the stock market.
As the hours ticked on   Paul  repeatedly refused to consent to allowing the vote to happen  as lawmakers and aides of both parties grew increasingly annoyed at  him . Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.)  leaving the floor after an unsuccessful attempt to curtail  Paul ’s standoff  called the gambit “grossly irresponsible” and said that leaders would not entertain  his  demand for a vote.
Senators of both parties were left fuming  with most of their ire directed toward  Paul .
“ He  has mastered the art of ticking off  his  colleagues ” said Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.).
“It’s a colossal waste of everybody’s time ” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). Of  Paul   Thune said  “He never gets a result.”
 Paul himself  made no apologies as  he  delivered one floor speech after another  casting  himself  as a lone defender of fiscal austerity  despite having voted in December for a tax bill that added at least $1 trillion to the debt.
answer:
Senate passes sweeping spending bill sends measure to House for crucial vote to end government shutdown


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Her opponent   City Council Member Mary Norwood   is a conservative-leaning independent who has supported both Republicans and Democrats in the past  and  she  has the support of what Republican Party infrastructure actually exists in Atlanta.  Norwood  is also white  while Lance-Bottoms is African-American. The last white candidate to win the mayorâs race in Atlanta was Sam Massell in 1969 . The state party has come out with heavy-handed attack ads deriding  Norwood  as a Republican  a signal to the cityâs voters of who they are backing. Their argument is laid out on a website called MaryTheRepublican.com   where they point out she has paid some Republican consultants as part of her campaign  that she refused to back Jon Ossof in his congressional race  and that she implied to a local Republican Party group that she is an independent because Republicans canât win in Atlanta.
But some of the polling shows that the race is a dead heat. A survey released late Friday night showed  Norwood  with a 6-point lead â and significant crossover support among African-American voters and Democrats.
Many political activists in Atlanta cite Reed as the reason some progressives are rallying to  Norwood . Reed has been the consummate neoliberal mayor  close to contractors and developers  and hostile to the cityâs activist movement on issues like affordable housing â while avoiding much of the progressive policies other big-city mayors are using to tackle income disparities. The New York Timesâs Thomas Friedman once held the Reed administration up as a model for its willingness to cut back the pensions of its public workers. As The Intercept noted in an article profiling Fortâs bid earlier this year  Atlanta has been ranked as the most unequal city in the country.
 Mary Norwood   candidate for mayor  gives volunteer Jerome Whitaker a hug for  his  support at  her  headquarters Tuesday  Nov. 7  2017  in Atlanta. Photo: Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution /AP
Tim Franzen  a longtime organizer who worked for Fortâs campaign  told The Intercept that while he plans to vote for the conservative Norwood  heâs not endorsing  her  or  her  politics. But he explained the dynamics that are leading many progressives to consider a  Norwood  vote.
âThereâs these narratives going around â one is that [this] is a Trump-Clinton situation. Itâs 100 percent not what we have here in Atlanta.  Mary Norwood  is a constituent-services politician.  She  always has been.  She âs not an ideological person â he explained.
Reedâs administration has also been the center of ethics scandals over the past few years over pay-to-play arrangements; his endorsement of and fundraising for Lance-Bottoms makes many question  her  own commitment to reform on the issue.
Some progressive Atlantans view Lance-Bottoms as a sort of third term for Reed and his ideas â a perception that is boosted by the generous financial backing airport contractors close to his administration have thrown her way. One Atlanta progressive news website that tracks votes on the city council ranks Lance-Bottoms as less progressive than  Norwood ; on issues like housing and homelessness  she has been a steady ally of Reed.
On the popular state political website GeorgiaPol.com  George Chidi â a former Bernie Sanders backer and Occupy Atlanta supporter â penned the post â A Black Voterâs Case for Mary Norwood .â  He  took the Democratic Party to task for taking the black vote in Atlanta for granted. âThe party fails to understand what Atlanta means to black people here  and everywhere in America  frankly â  he  wrote. âWe have a city that has the Gini coefficient of Caracas  nearly the widest gap in racial income in the country  and the lowest income mobility in America. In a recent symposium on racialized homelessness in Atlanta  a speaker noted that the average income of a black household in the city of Atlanta is under $30 000 a year. The average for a white household is over $80 000.â
In an interview with The Intercept  Chidi said he hopes  Norwood  would focus on corruption if she wins. âI hope she wonât be corrupt. I hope sheâll find those who are and see them punished â he said. âBy doing so  I hope sheâll maintain the cityâs international posture as a place to do business.â
And ultimately  the arguments that  Norwood  is a secret Republican fall flat in the face of her support base. Yes  she has courted Republicans as part of her campaign  but sheâs also courted Democrats and progressive independents â her list of endorsers proves that  as does the poll cited above that shows over 42 percent of Democrats in the city are backing her bid. Her stances on social issues in particular â supporting abortion rights and marriage equality â place her far out of step with Georgiaâs traditionally socially conservative Republican Party.
Franklin  the former mayor  alluded to Reedâs ethical issues and explained her rationale for endorsing a white candidate. âFor me  race was not the first issue â she said in her speech endorsing  Norwood . âCharacter  transparency  and integrity are the first issues for me.â (Norwood has come out for campaign donation limits on city vendors.)
Franzen shared Jonesâs torn feelings about  Norwood   whose politics are significantly more conservative than his. But in the end  he couldnât bring himself to vote for a continuation of the Reed regime.
âEveryday Atlantans are feeling the squeeze like they havenât felt in decades. So Iâm not passionate about  Mary Norwood   but I and other people who work on municipal issues have no other choice but to work against Keisha â Franzen reluctantly concluded.
answer:

Georgiaâs Biggest Democratic Bastion May Hand Democratic Candidate for Mayor a Big Defeat