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PHOENIX — State Rep. Bill Konopnicki is ineligible to fill a midterm vacancy created by the death of Sen. Jake Flake, but the three-term Safford Republican said Monday he hopes to replace Flake on the primary election ballot.

Flake's death Sunday at his Snowflake home left Republican Party officials scrambling to quickly select a replacement candidate for the ballot. Meanwhile, Navajo County officials were separately moving to appoint a midterm replacement to serve the last seven months of Flake's current term.

Flake, a 72-year-old Republican, represented Legislative District 5, a sprawling rural district covering much of east-central Arizona, including all or parts of seven counties. With Democrats and Republicans about even in voter registration, the district is considered competitive.

Because Konopnicki is a Graham County resident, he is not eligible to serve out the remainder of Flake's two-year term. Under state law, the replacement must come from Navajo County, where Flake lived.

Under the same law, the Navajo County Board of Supervisors will pick the appointed replacement. The board plans today to pick a special committee to suggest three potential replacements, and board Chairman J.R. DeSpain said he hopes the board can make the appointment Friday.

The district's other representative, Democrat Jack Brown of St. Johns, is ineligible for appointment to fill the midterm vacancy because of both his party and his residency in Apache County.

Brown said Monday he had only slight interest in running a write-in candidacy in the September primary election to qualify in the general election for the Senate seat.

"I'm probably still going to be running for the House," Brown said.

Asked about the possibility of Democrats fielding a write-in candidate, party spokeswoman Emily DeRose said party officials considered it "a little premature to start mapping our election strategy there."

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen said party officials in the legislative district will meet Saturday in Globe to pick a replacement candidate.

"They would select someone, and I'm hoping that would be me," Konopnicki said.

If Konopnicki is chosen to run for the Senate, party officials then would have to pick a replacement candidate for his House seat, Pullen said.

A party activist already running for a House seat from the district said she would be interested in the midterm Senate appointment. However, Sylvia Allen of Snowflake said she didn't know if she'd want to run for the Senate instead of the House.

"I would really like to go down and finish off the things that Sen. Flake was trying to accomplish," she said.

Consideration of the midterm appointment and election nomination came as the Republican-led Legislature remained deadlocked on how to resolve the state's budget crisis. A new budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 must erase a projected $2 billion revenue shortfall.

Flake, a former House speaker, was considered a reliable vote for Senate Republican leaders, but they and their House counterparts have been unable so far to put a comprehensive budget proposal on the table in bipartisan talks with Democrats, let alone win approval of it.

Flake was well-liked by his colleagues, and his death may help motivate lawmakers "to get the work done" and give less heed to partisan considerations, a Democratic leader said.

Asked whether the temporarily thinned Republican majority changes the dynamics of the Senate's work, Sen. Jorge Garcia, D-Tucson, said: "I hate to be that cold, but the reality is, that is what it is, but at the same time I am not going to say we need to take advantage of it."