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I was dubious about how poorly you and SJBanker rated Flake but he proved you right.

I’d compare him to Joe Suckbooger, who’s voting record was pretty good. Look at him to go full retard once out of office. Other comparable, Larry Pressler. He was never one of the most conservative guys but I never expected a full retard to be inside him, waiting to come out.

It’s interesting to see people drift once they are out of office, I’d never have suspected Kucinch would support Trump.

Sasse might be the next Flake. He may be a conservative but he appears to have a liberal’s temperament. He likes the tongue bathes liberals (who would never vote for him in a million years) give him when he tweets about how Trump sucks.

I wouldn’t be pleased with McSally (to Flake’s left but with a better temperament it would seem) but I’m still not sold on Ward, she must demonstrate that she can win the GE, we can’t risk another seat on another questionable candidate just cause we like the taste of her red meat. I’d love a third option, former State Party Chairman Robert Graham seems like the only potential candidate still thinking about it.

If McPain crokes before DeWit is confirmed to the NASA thing, I suspect he’d rather be a Senator (who wouldn’t?) For some reason he just seems to really want out of his current job so badly that he was willing to take whatever the administration offered.

And appointing Ward to the vacancy might actually be a very smart play because

1)She’d then be the incumbent
2)Whoever the rats run for the vacancy will be less formidable than the dyke Sinema.
3)No nasty primary for the Flake Seat

Auh2, what do you think? I feel like perhaps you said the same thing.

I’m not sold on Kelli Ward. We need to win the AZ Senate election if we’re going to keep a Senate majority not just after 2018, but after 2022 and 2024 (elections in which the map isn’t as favorable to the GOP). We dodged a bullet with Flake bowing out, but we need someone who can beat the “moderate” bisexual Democrat Sinema. Running a cross between Sharron Angle and Danny Tarkanian, who couldn’t even beat McCain among a GOP primary electorate that preferred someone new, is risky at best, and certainly suboptimal. It takes skill to win contested, competitive elections, and I don’t think that Ward has demonstrated perrinent skills to win a statewide federal race in AZ. That she claims to be a 100% conservative (which I have no reason to doubt is true) will be of no solace to us if she loses to Sinema. We need a Senator from AZ voting in the Capitol, not a losing candidate sulking in Phoenix.

So would McSally be a stronger GE candidate against Sinema? The evidence points in that direction. In 2012, McSally nearly defeated Democrat incumbent Ron Barber, who had been wounded by the same shooter who almost killed Gabrielle Giffords, but had the election stolen fom her; in 2014, she finished the job, knocking off Barber and surviving the obligatory recount. McSally was reelected with 57% in 2016 despite Hillary beating Trump by 50% to 45% in the Tuscon-based district. She clearly has won over voters who have soured on the GOP of late, and those skills should translate well to a statewide election.

McSally also would have a fairly conservative voting record in the Senate—not like Cruz or Lee, but more like Toomey or Rubio. In the House, McSally has voted for the 20-week abortion ban, repeal of Obamacare and almost all other conservative measures; she would have even more leeway to compile a conservative voting record in the Senate, as AZ as a whole is more conservative than her district. And if there’s one thing that the past few years have shown us is that McSally will vote for President Trump’s judicial nominee and Sinema would vote against them.

And what would I do if I were Gov. Ducey and had to fill a vacancy for John McCain’s seat in the next few months? I would name Congressman Paul Gosar of AZ-04 to the Senate. Gosar is a solid conservative who has represented all of northern AZ in the House, since he was elected in 2010 (over incumbent Democrat Ann Kiloatrick) in the old AZ-01 in NE AZ, and in 2012 was redistricted into the AZ-04, which is in NW AZ and goes into the Phoenix suburbs. Not only would Gosar be a formidable candidate as a Senate incumbent in a 2018 special election, his appointment would allow Kelli Ward (who represented a large part of AZ-04 in the state senate) to coast into the very conservative AZ-04 in the special election held in the summer. We then would have Gosar and McSally as Senate candidates in 2018, and Ward can hone her skills and prove her conservative bona fides in the House from a safe GOP district. Win-win-win for us, in my book.

Oh, and in McSally’s AZ-02, Lea Márquez Peterson has announced a run and could give us a Hispanic conservative Republican congresswoman in an in reasingly Hispanic district. https://mobile.twitter.com/LeaPeterson That would be strong GOP ballot in AZ in 2018 and beyond.