Posted on 11/13/2018 5:48:12 AM PST by LS
As a native Arizonian---though one who has been away for 30 years until 2016---I forgot a lot of my history. People like to paint states or regions as "red" or "blue" but Arizona, like most states, has a complex and hardly linear past.
Arizona began as a "Progressive" state and was denied statehood for many years because it had "democratic" elements in its state constitution (the first to do so): Initiative, Referendum, and Recall of state officials. They also included direct election of senators and women's suffrage. The feds found this unconstitutional and delayed statehood status for this reason.
Arizonians removed the offending clauses, got statehood, then immediately put them back in.
While Arizona was a Republican state, it came from the Progressive/TR/Taft wing. Nevertheless, Arizona's first two senators were Democrats, Marcus Smith and Henry Ashurst. After being reelected in 1914, Smith lost to the first Republican senator, Ralph Cameron. He'd be the LAST Republican til Goldwater!
In 1927, Carl Hayden(D) won. He became an Arizona legend and is properly celebrated here because with Ernest McFarland (D who replaced the reelected Ashurst in 1941) the two made Arizona water their top priority.
In the 1980s I was asked to create the archives of Sen. McFarland and went over every paper the man ever wrote. He literally spent 99% of his time on Arizona water. He and Hayden engineered the Colorado River project that used federal money to line Arizona with canals that brought water from the Colorado River. Without that water, Arizona today would be little different than sparsely populated states such as New Mexico or Utah.
McFarland stepped down in 1952. That marked only the second time since 1926 a Republican served in the Arizona senate delegation. Barry Goldwater held the seat until 1965. He had stepped down to run for president in 1964, and R Paul Fannin took his seat (Hayden was still there!). Hayden finally left in 1968 when Goldwater returned, and for the first time Arizona had two R senators (Fannin the other).
It didn't last long. Fannin stepped down in 1976 and another Democrat Dennis DeConcini replaced him. Ten years later Goldwater finally retired and John McCain too his seat (DeConcini still the other senator).
In 1994 DeConcini retired and current US Senator Jon Kyl was elected, becoming Arizona's most conservative senator since Goldwater. Kyl served until 2012, when the useless slime Jeff Flakey was elected (and immediately disappointed Arizonians). Upon McTurd's death, Kyl was again asked to step in.
HAVEN'T CHECKED, BUT HEARD ON THE RADIO THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES Ds OUTNUMBER Rs IN THE COMBINED AZ CONGRSSIONAL DELEGATION.
My point is only that Arizona's past is NOT reflective of "extreme conservatism," and a long view would more appropriately suggest it has been a D-leaning state until quite recently.
The swing vote in this election is illegal brown.
Arizonans need to remember that little Jeffy Flake is a closeted, magic underwear wearing, commie lib “prog”.
I think to really grasp Arizona...a guy would have to move out and spend three years in the state. It’s just an overwhelming number of Democratic voters in southern quarter of the state around Tucson, and around the Flagstaff region.
This year scared me:
If we lose Texas we’re dead.
My heart goes out to conservatives who live in Arizona.
I have lived in a deep blue state for nearly my entire adult life, and while there is much to love about this area, the beauty, the history, etc...the politics of this state embarrass and disgust me.
To live in a state with a history of politicians like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Elizabeth Warren, Gerry Studds, Barney Frank, Martha Coakley, Ed Markey (and the Murderers Row of politicians in this state goes on and on) is a difficult thing to bear.
I see our fellow conservatives in California who could make a claim to living in the midst of political infamy as deep as mine and feel their pain, and I see Arizona going the same way.
How sad.
That said, I appreciate the historical context of your thread. Thanks for giving us that, it is good to keep in mind.
Things are never black and white or red or blue. But demographics are destiny. Not just ethnicity, but age along with economic and educational background influence political affiliation.
This isn’t the first time in years the Ds outnumber the Rs in House seats. It was that way 2009-2010 and 2013-2014. Also 1993-1994 and 1977-1982.
McSally’s House seat has flopped back and forth. Hasn’t helped that any time a conservative won the primary here, the state and National GOP pulled all funding since they assume a conservative candidate equals a certain loss. It is Democrat again after the GOP ran no ads that I know of until a couple of days before the election.
The swing vote in this election were Republicans voting for Sinema while voting Republican on the rest of the ballot. The GOP ran well in AZ except for McSally.
Abbott won for governor in Texas by double digits. Texas is still Red.
The Senate race I think can be boiled down to 2 issues.
1). Beto basically had unlimited money to spend. Beto commercials were everywhere. Got Beto postcards in the mail. Cruz was comparatively absent.
2). Cruz has this “unlikeable” quality.
When Cornyn runs for re-election, he will win in a landslide. Cornyn is much more likeable than Cruz.
Jeff Flake had a 96% rating, IIRC, from the ACU. His problem was TDS.
That all is true, however, Deconcini was not a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist. So while Arizona has a history of electing Democrats, it is the fact that Arizona would elect a far leftist to represent them that is troubling.
If Arizona elected a Zell Miller or even a guy like Joe Manchin, that would at least be more understandable.
I firmly believe the only way the Dems have won in Arizona and Nevada is that they are cheating. It has nothing to do with voting "trends" and everything to do with illegal votes.
Out of 2.1 million votes I refuse to believe there weren’t at least 40,000 illegal votes cast.
True, likeability is a HUGE factor in any race these days, in some cases, more so than the ideology.
For example, while Trump turns some voters off, his ability to be authentic and truthful to many segments of the population is what helped him defeat Hillary. Hillary also had an unlikeability factor in that she could not make a connection or relate to ordinary people.
I’m rather surprised that Arizona elected a pink tutu-wearing, Taliban-supporting leftist who maligned the people of her own state over a career Air Force officer who flew combat sorties against those same Taliban and put her own career at risk, fighting against Saudi Arabia’s strict muslim dress requirements for women.
I guess my line of thinking is too archaic and out of step with the “New America.”
I don’t believe it.
Don’t think that the media’s whitewashing of Sinema’s past and portraying her as a “moderate” Democrat did not play a large role in this. Many people still do not understand that a Democrat is really a hard leftist. There are no “moderate” Democrats at the national level any more. Those days are gone.
Combined with Kalifornia retirees and refugees moving into the state.
Ditto for Texas. Some of the same voters who support O'Rourke also voted for Gov. Abbott.
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