Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has done a bad job for his state in confronting the pandemic and the chickens are starting to come home to roost. Ducey chose to listen to Trump instead of the medical professionals and Arizona is headed for a tough Wave II. Yesterday there were 396 new cases reported, bringing the total caseload to 14,566 (704 deaths).
The Arizona Senate race is going to be one of the hottest of 2020, but it isn't one that DWT, let alone Blue America, has been active in. Like the Arizona Senate race last cycle, there's just no good choice, just two bad ones. Last time, the theory was that Arizona Democrats needed a Republican-like candidate to win a red seat. And that was confirmed when wretched Blue Dog Kyrsten Sinema, then the single worst Democrat in the House, won the open red state seat. Today, Sinema is the single worst Democrat in the Senate, with a voting record to the right of Joe Manchin's.
One of the funniest moments in the election debate this cycle-- at least for me-- came when Arizona congresswoman, Martha McSally, a garden variety Trump rubber-stamp who had voted to repeal protections for pre-existing conditions several times, was cornered by a reporter asking her to square her consistent record against healthcare with her promise now-- as she runs for U.S. Senate-- to protect people with pre-existing conditions from the greed of insurance companies.
But he did-- in the Arizona Senate race. Polling consistently shows that quasi-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema would beat any of the Republican Senate candidates. As you see from the graphic below, the only Republican who even gets close to Sinema in a head-to-head match-up is the one mainstream candidate, Martha McSally. McSally is also the choice of the NRSC and the DC and Phoenix establishments.
Martha McSally is widely considered a sane, mainstream Republican, especially in comparison with her two rivals for the Republican Senate nomination to replace Jeff Flake. Of course, compared to those two-- Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio-- even Sarah Palin and Nero would be considered sane people... by some. But don't be fooled; Martha McSally is a Trump enabling rubber-stamp. Just look at her record, 97.8, on the Trump affinity tracker.
Tony Cárdenas had no problem winning his heavily Democratic San Fernado Valley reelection bid, despite credible accusations that he he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl and threatened to fire her father if she squealed. Last month an L.A. Superior Court judge ruled that there is "a reasonable and meritorious basis" for the suit to go forward but Pelosi quashed it in Congress.
Erin Cole, the DCCC choice to run against western New York state Trumpist, Chris Collins, withdrew from the race Monday. The DCCC flavor of the cycle is women army veterans, which Cole was, so Ben Ray Lujan and his DC crew of imbeciles probably need a hug this week.
Former CNN Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi, now an MSNBC anchor, is not an idiot... but... On his morning show yesterday the Hairless Prophet of Doom introduced a question to Jared Bernstein, once a professor at Columbia and then Vice President Biden's Chief Economic Adviser, by claiming that Trump's plan to eliminate the estate tax would help the middle class. Before Bernstein got to whatever Velshi's question was, he addressed the GOP talking point Velshi had just slipped onto the air so matter-of-factly. The estate tax only impacts .02% of the richest Americans.
This morning I mentioned in passing that candidates have been clamoring for visits to their districts from candidates with brands that voters admire-- Bernie, first and foremost, but also Elizabeth Warren in a major way and a small number of House members who have be
Arizona's second congressional district (the white parts of Tucson, the eastern half of Pima County and all of Cochise County) is one of the swingiest in the country. In 2008, McCain beat Obama 50-49% (3,000 votes), in 2012 Romney beat Obama 49.9-48.4% and last year Hillary beat Señor Trumpanzee 49.6% to 44.7%.
