Will, I have no idea what motivated Arizonans to vote for McCain, other than the fact that JD was simply more flawed than him.
As I pointed out, long ago on other threads, JD, after 6 terms as Congressman couldn’t beat his Dem opponent in 2006, in a reliably conservative district (and don’t give me that jazz that redistricting changed the dynamics...it was still 57% GOP) and my question then was, “if he can’t win in his own district, how can he win statewide?”
Answer: he can’t and didn’t.
As to the “stances on the issues” you best answer that yourself.
No, that would have been best answered by the voters of Arizona. But it seems to have been the last thing on their minds. Unless they favor practically open borders, amnesty for 20 million or more, chain immigration for tens of millions more, and a repeal of DA/DT, and cap and trade, closing Gitmo, and on and on, unless they favor those things, then they have no clue why the voted as they did.
Those are just some of the things the voted for, whether they know it or not.