There are a number of conflating factors.
In no particular order:
1) McCain spent $20 million of his 2008 campaign money (which he should have used to defeat Teh One).
2) He flooded the airwaves with ads.
3) He had the Palin endorsement.
4) JD is not an outsider -- he had served in Congress for 12 years before losing and going into talk radio.
5) JD has a reputation as a lover of pork.
6) AZ allows independents to vote in GOP primaries IIRC.
7) McCain has name recognition
8) McCain ran hard RIGHT to the campaign.
And Fox has been in the tank for McCain: right now according to the AZ Secretary of State page, 17% of ballots have been cast and McCain leads 199,060 to 99,498 with Jim Deakin pulling in 38,579. Recall that Al Franken won in MN due to a 3-way race with the third guy pulling in 14% of the vote...
NO Cheers, unfortunately.
3) He had the Palin endorsement.That reminds me:
Money is on Deakins was a stalking horse for McCain much the same as he used some in the Presidential election the same way to win the nomination.