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.
McSally = RINO ..Big Time!
I can’t agree with that at all. Dr. Ward had the intestinal fortitude to take on the AZ RINO political machine not once but twice, and she was far outmatched the first time in resources, but still held McQueeg to a subpar margin in the primary. Her entry into the Senate race the second time all but scared Flake out. I have no hesitation to back her 100% for this Senate seat.
As for McSally, the whole point was to run a RINO embarrassment out of one of the Senate seats. McSally IS the choice of the McQueeg/Flake RINO machine and will be yet another colossal embarrassment and thorn in the ass of those seeking to Drain the Swamp. If our side has to resort to running even more left-wing candidates than the execrable incumbents, what the hell, then, is the point ?
As with the equally horrid Joe Heck in NV, whom I viewed as so bad, I made a last minute endorsement of Sharron Angle to defeat him and refused to endorse him in the general (and you know how bad he had to be and indeed turned out was for me to endorse someone I viscerally opposed in the 2010 Senate primary), I would equally refuse to endorse McSally in the general election, just as I refused with Flake in 2012.
This would be as bad for me in Tennessee if I were to endorse leftist RINO La Raza Randy Boyd for Governor to succeed RINO Haslam. As I said a long time ago, I am absolutely done endorsing these types of RINOs who are as far afield from my values and beliefs as can possibly be.