Tag: arizona

John McCain is a lucky so-and-so.

I mean, John McCain picked the absolutely best election cycle to have one of his fundraisers busted for cooking meth:

A huge drug bust in Phoenix, Arizona, put one of Sen. John McCain’s former consultants behind bars.

Emily Pitha and her boyfriend were arrested after authorities discovered methamphetamines, LSD, heroin, cocaine and a large amount of cash inside their home.

Continue reading John McCain is a lucky so-and-so.

AZ-02 election results to be FINALLY certified on Tuesday.

I know that this seems to be a long time, but in fairness Republican candidate Martha McSally’s final lead of 161 votes over incumbent Democrat Ron Barber in AZ-02 was well within the parameters to justify both a machine recount and a spot check hand-recount of selected precincts in the District.  Reading between the lines… it’s widely if quietly expected that McSally won.  To the point where she’s already been assigned a position on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees in the House.  Possibly this was slightly premature: but there truly does not seem to have been any shenanigans going on in this particular district.  And a razor-thin win is still a win.

And with that, I believe that we will be done with the 2014 election cycle.  But don’t worry!  The Cook Political Report has already started up with the listings for 2016! …Because this never ends, of course. And I’m not even upset about that: politics is what we do to keep people from setting disputes with fire and the sword.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: It will, of course, be an absolute firestorm at this point if Ron Barber was declared to be the winner. I will be genuinely surprised, though, if that happens: there hasn’t been any sign up to this point that the recount was going to meaningfully alter the results, and there not really any specific way that shenanigans can occur at this point.  But the recount does have to happen, which is why fundraising for this election is still going on: and I suppose that, given the closeness of the race, somebody else might feel bad about suggesting that Barber should just concede now and get it over with.  But I’m not somebody else, so: Barber should just concede now and get it over with.

I challenge you to read this Arizona-07 story without breaking down in helpless laughter.

This Slate article by Dave Weigel starts promisingly:

 On Aug. 26, Democratic voters in Arizona will choose a successor to 7th Congressional District Rep. Ed Pastor. It’s a safe, blue seat, covering the most liberal parts of Phoenix and Glendale. And it’s heavily Hispanic. That’s what led a Republican trickster named Scott Fistler to pay $319 to legally change his name, to “Cesar Chavez,” and attempt to get on the ballot.

…and then proceeds to get even better. So, so much better.  I was howling by paragraph six. Trolling level: CRYSTALLINE PERFECTION.  That’s the best-spent $319 I’ve seen spent in a long, long time.

Via

LIBRE Initiative running $700K ad buy in Arizona.

See, this is the real reason why the Democrats hate the Koch brothers: they like to give money to people who have gotten addicted to this entire “rush of oxygen to the brain” thing. Case in point: “The LIBRE Initiative, an arm of the Koch network aimed at appealing to Hispanic voters, will begin running $700,000 in ads critical of Reps. Ron Barber (D) and Ann Kirkpatrick (D) over Obamacare…” Here’s one of the ads:

Continue reading LIBRE Initiative running $700K ad buy in Arizona.

Will Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ-09) bolt for the safety of AZ-07?

You know, when I heard a few days ago that beleaguered freshman Democrat Kyrsten Sinema was thinking from switching from her unpleasantly (to her) competitive AZ-09 seat to the much more suitable (for her) AZ-07 seat,  I was… skeptical.  Basically, the long-time Democratic incumbent in AZ-07 (Ed Pastor) is retiring after this term, and while I can understand Sinema’s presumed logic there (it’s a hardcore D+16 seat; whoever wins the Democratic primary there probably wins the election) the truth is that a lot of people in the Arizona Democratic party would rightly see the switch as a net loss.  This is a bad year for a Democrat to win an open R+1 seat, which is what the situation would be in AZ-09 if Sinema switches: if that happens, the Democrats go from having a tough fight that they might win to having a tough fight that they’d likely lose. I assumed, in other words, that basic tactical reality would inform the Congresswoman’s choices.

…Maybe not. Continue reading Will Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ-09) bolt for the safety of AZ-07?

Arizona GOP lodges FEC complaint against the pro-Ann Kirkpatrick House Majority Super PAC.

Oops.

PHOENIX – The Arizona Republican Party filed a complaint today with the Federal Elections Commission against a pro-Ann Kirkpatrick ad currently running on television in Arizona. The complaint argues that the television ad violates federal laws that prohibit coordination between candidates and Super PACs.

The complain asks the FEC to immediately begin an investigation into the ad.

The ad, which is running on Phoenix television, is paid for by House Majority PAC, a Democrat Super PAC that supports Democrat Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick. It includes footage produced and posted on the internet that had been created and paid for by the Kirkpatrick campaign. Under FEC laws, this makes the ad an illegal in-kind contribution, by the PAC, to the Kirkpatrick campaign because it uses property owned by the Kirkpatrick campaign.

Continue reading Arizona GOP lodges FEC complaint against the pro-Ann Kirkpatrick House Majority Super PAC.

Ann Kirkpatrick (D, Arizona-01) tries to run against #obamacare. :pause: Umm…

In 2010, Ann Kirkpatrick was a key vote for Obamacare.  This is a thing that happened. It, in fact, cost her the 2010 election.

Freshman Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) will vote for the healthcare reform bill that will soon hit the House floor.

Kirkpatrick’s support is a boost for President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who are trying to corral 216 votes to clear the legislation through the lower chamber.

Continue reading Ann Kirkpatrick (D, Arizona-01) tries to run against #obamacare. :pause: Umm…