Posted on 02/05/2018 5:48:35 AM PST by Kaslin
Arizona’s Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake has announced he’s not running for reelection, so several candidates have jumped into the open race to replace him. There are currently three frontrunners. GOP Rep. Martha McSally, a combat pilot who served in the U.S. Air Force, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward. Ward made a name for herself launching an unsuccessful conservative challenge to Sen. John McCain in 2016.
McSally is the darling of the GOP establishment. She was elected to Congress in 2014, representing a swing district seat formerly held by Gabrielle Giffords. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recruited McSally last year as one of several moderates to run for the Senate. “We are going to be supporting people who can actually win,” he said in his year-end news conference critical of conservative candidates. “But we have got some great candidates out there and you're familiar with them, Martha McSally …” His Senate Leadership Fund super PAC intends to spend considerable money supporting her run.
McSally is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of moderate Republicans in Congress. McCain is also a member. Her voting record is less conservative than both Flake and McCain. The Heritage Foundation rated her 61 percent this session. They rated Flake 88 percent and McCain 66 percent. The American Conservative Union gives her a lifetime rating of 66 percent. Flake has a lifetime rating of 93 percent and McCain has 81 percent. FreedomWorks gave her a lifetime score of 60 percent. It rated Flake 93 percent and McCain 69 percent. Mark Levin’s Conservative Review gives all three of them an F.
McSally did not endorse President Trump in the 2016 presidential election. She supports DACA. In 2015, she voted against an amendment to a spending bill that would have ended DACA. In 2017, she sent a letter along with nine other members of Congress to Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to find a legislative solution to DACA.
Three leading conservative organizations oppose her; the Club for Growth, the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks.
Conservatives have complained about McCain’s moderate record for years. Recently, they’ve been highly critical of Flake too. Why would they elect someone who will be even more frustrating? McSally would be better off serving Arizona in the House, being in a difficult swing district for the GOP to maintain ahold of.
McSally is a strong fundraiser so will be a formidable candidate. Polls show she has a reasonable chance at winning the Republican nomination since Arpaio and Ward are splitting the conservative vote. After Arpaio joined the race, Ward dropped to 19 percent in the latest poll. Arpaio came in at 22 percent and McSally at nearly 31 percent.
If Trump makes an endorsement, it will make a significant difference. There is a small chance Trump might endorse McSally. He backed Luther Strange over the more conservative Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race, believing Strange was more electable in the general election. The winner of Arizona’s Senate primary will face a formidable challenger in the general. Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is a relentless campaigner who has positioned herself as a moderate in recent years. There is a concern that Ward is not well-known enough to defeat Sinema. However, at least one poll shows Ward defeating Sinema in the general. Arpaio has been attacked so much through the legal system that there is concern baggage will hurt him in the general.
But Arizona is still a fairly red state. The GOP controls both houses of the state legislature, all 11 statewide offices, both U.S. Senate seats and four of the eight U.S. House seats. This past year, Guns & Ammo ranked it the No. 1 state in the country for Second Amendment-friendly laws. Americans United for Life ranked the state No. 1 for pro-life laws.
People are tired of lukewarm GOP Senators McCain and Flake. It will come out during the general that Sinema once received the Vladimir I. Lenin award from the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers for being the most far left member of the state legislature. A real conservative can defeat her. It’s not necessary to settle for a Republican to the left of McCain and Flake.
McSally is McTurd II, and Joe is willingly splitting the conservative vote to nominate her.
Dunno, DJ, I think she’ll lose. There are just too many AZ Republicans who won’t put another McTurd in.
Sinema is a Socialist in a Moderate’s cloak. Her Congressional district was gerrymandered to allow her to establish herself in the House. Her closely Moderate votes in the House will be nonexistent if she gains this Senate seat. We DO NOT WANT TO LOSE THIS SEAT. If McCain passes before the 2018 election, I sure hope that Ducey appoints Ward. And McSally can then run for Flake’s seat. I am not sure that Ward can win statewide (partly because she hasn’t held any political office yet), with the influx of all those illegal Democrats into Arizona. Ward could establish herself with an appointment and then could win in a special election. Just my two cents..........
I do not trust McSally at all and will be supporting Ward.
Looks like another disaster in the making. Arpaio should get out.
Much as I like Joe Arpaio, if he were nominated he may turn out to be another Roy Moore who gives us a Democrat for a Senate seat that's otherwise a GOP shoe-in - Arpaio is in his mid/late 80's for one thing, and his reputation for "controversy" may drive spineless GOP establishmentarian voters to support the Democrat in the general election.
That leaves Kelli Ward. I can't say that I've followed her politics or career very closely. Where does Ward stand on immigration - is she a supporter of amnesty in the McCain/GOP establishment mode, or does she support Trump's program of restricting immigration quotas and ending chain immigration + immigration lotteries?
Joe ...needs the campaign money to retire debts he ran up defending himself against the slime...
If that’s the case he should set up a legal defense fund. I might donate to that but never to his campaign. He couldn’t get elected sheriff in his home county and he thinks he’ll be elected US Senator? He’s demented.
mcsally seems to be on Fox Business a lot. She seems to be their go to “immigration expert.”
Go Dr Ward!
He has set up a legal defense fund. It has fallen way short.
Here, lemme help you. Dr Ward is from the northwest part of the state-the most conservative area, most likely in the USA. Sally is from the Valley of the Sun. So Joe wants to take the conservative vote away from that area from Ward to get Sally nominated.
Then, he can retire the rest of his debt by funneling money into the retirement of that debt-which he can by back ways.
BTW, what is going to happen here is that if Sally gets in, she will strong arm the northwest area of the state to give up much of its water rights-from the CO river, to the Phoenix area.
No matter what state you are from, its the same. The population centers retain power through the vote to rule over the rural areas.
East Tucson (the more conservative side) plus SE Arizona - including liberal Bisbee but a lot of conservative towns as well. Trump was and is unpopular, but it is not a hard district for a conservative to win. West Tucson and the U of A are out of district.
So Mitch will disenfranchise AZ the way he’s done to Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina. And we don’t have enough money to stop him.
I highly doubt that...
Oh really? How many democrats ran in your part of the country for county positions? Here, in Mohave county, most positions are non opposed by the democRAT party.
The state and the county I live in...is probably the most Republican voting state in the Union.
So...I've no interest in a "mines, bigger than yours" talk....
And you can't prove it...and neither can I.
Does that work for you?
Just take a look at the election results from the last election chum.
There is only one other county in all of AZ that has no democrat county positions. That is Yavapai.
Let me help you....it looked lijke this....
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=olsxL6hy&id=5A5195495A7F46B2F3B8CCF3EF0FBA89E98BD563&thid=OIP.olsxL6hyM_4_NILjWj45ngHaE0&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.martyduren.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2012%2f11%2f2012-election-map.jpg&exph=365&expw=561&q=2012+Presidential+Election+Map+by+County&simid=608023923579290646&selectedIndex=5&ajaxhist=0
Okay...so you saw that...and what did your state look like in 2016?
Here...let me help you out,,,,,,,,it looked like this.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=t1f0uaHF&id=FBB0C46347414B3DAE6DF70850BEC8BA7C4D5445&thid=OIP.t1f0uaHFWk7euEbnDM_DFAHaFe&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2forig04.deviantart.net%2f7dda%2ff%2f2016%2f318%2fe%2f0%2f2016_presidential_election_map__county__by_louisthefox-daoezzd.png&exph=3104&expw=4200&q=2016+Election+Map+by+County&simid=608018477545426703&selectedIndex=6&ajaxhist=0
I live in Oklahoma...take a long look.
Put that in your chum bucket ...
Personally I hope you have a nice evening....
Like all states. We have this thing called MEXICANS and CALIPORNICATERS.
And I aint talking about the whole state. My claim is that Mohave county is most likely the most conservative in the country. We tell the socialists to go across the river to Clark County NV to do their damage.
Oklahoma isnt going to escape the flood of Calipornicaters either. Though you most likely already have the wetbacks...maybe more than we have.
Your links dont work.
You know why Texas is still there? I hear that one every time I go to ramrod the woods crew up in Flag. Got a Texan and a guy from Oklahoma working on that crew.
I'm from SoCal...and I ain't a calipornicater...Ha!!
You know....I'd of not said anything...but you called me chum. Ha!!
I'm going to leave it at that.........
Whats got us scratching our heads around here is the number of Texans coming out here.
More Texas cars running around than California.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.