Republican Doug Ducey won his party’s nomination for governor last week with dark money from out of state, $3 million of his own cash, and a full Tea Party platform— support for unborn children and corporate persons but not so much for the rest of us.
With backers like Cathi Herrod, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Ducey looked like the Koch Brothers’ Mini-me last week. Ducey’s regressive social policies and “tooth fairy” economic ideas make him one of the most dangerous Tea Party candidates in a long time. He is a cookie-cutter copy of Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Kansas’ Sam Browback, or New Jersey’s Chris Christie. (Check out these Kansas and NJ budget stories linked here; Brownback and Christie destroyed their states’ budgets with the same Tea Party proposals Ducey is peddling in Arizona.)
The dire scenario in which Ducey becomes Arizona governor (shudder) prompted me to write the Top 10 Reasons Why Doug Ducey Is Too Extreme for Arizona Voters and start a Twitter campaign (@Bad4AZ) to educate people about Ducey’s platform and why he and other Tea Party candidates are #Bad4AZ. (Check it out Twitter here and website here. Fellow Tweeters, help me out.)
Now Ducey appears to be backing away from the Tea Party. Was it something I said?
Details from AZ Central…
Doug Ducey, for example, easily secured the GOP nomination for governor by touting the support of national “tea party” leaders Sarah Palin and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as well as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The GOP embraced Ducey’s more-conservative, anti-Obama, anti-Common Core, anti-government and anti-immigration message…
The strategy served GOP candidates during the primary, political observers say, but during the general election they’ll need to moderate their message to attract more centrist Republicans and independents.
Democrats, many of whom didn’t have primary opponents pushing them toward more liberal positions, say this gives them an edge.
DJ Quinlan, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, predicts Democrats can capitalize on the “civil war within the Republican Party” as well as GOP rifts over Medicaid expansion, Common Core and right-to-refuse-service measures like Senate Bill 1062.
While Republican candidates closely aligned themselves with nationally known “extreme conservatives,” Quinlan says Democratic candidates have broad crossover appeal that will play well with disaffected Republicans…
Democrats have seized on Republican candidates’ associations with controversial figures in their party.
Some candidates, for example, turned out to a Mohave County picnic with anti-government Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. And on Sept. 4, the GOP is hosting a rally with Palin and conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, who has pleaded guilty to using straw donors to make illegal contributions to a Republican Senate candidate in 2012. A GOP announcement said Ducey would attend, but late last week Ducey’s campaign said the candidate would not make an appearance…
Ducey may try to moderate his Tea Party message to trick low information voters into voting against their own self interests, but we here at Blog for Arizona are determined to educate as many people as possible. Vote with your eyes open, people. Ducey is dangerous and definitely Bad4AZ.
Seriously help me educate Arizonans at @Bad4AZ and @Good4AZ.
If independent expenditure committees can paint ducey as a rino it might throw some votes to the libertarian candidate and a contribution to the libertarian candidate will have far more impact on votes then any other kind of spending! Does anyone know if ducey has a whitman problem with undocumented workers or hs franchises?
It is interesting that you don’t think your candidate has a chance of winning. That isn’t very optimistic of you…
Any, and I repeat it, ANY Republican will be better than any “good” Democrat, if there are any left. Don’t compare the money that goes into a Republican election with that of Democrats’, as their money is as tainted as an Easter colored egg. The Democrat’s hypocrisy is so transparent, it makes me ill.
Your take on Ducey works because it wraps hard facts in a satirical tone worthy of Jon Stewart. Character assassination of GOP candidates…not so much.
There was no need for dem ads running up to the primaries given that ever democrat candidate ran unopposed…
The ads will start flying now until the polls shift the money when a clear loser emerges.
I disagree just a bit with your comment that says we care too much…All one has to do is read the last line of the Declaration of Independence to know from whence my care was birthed.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence (God), we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
FYI…Another way of saying the phrase “dark Money” is…”Unite States Supreme court approved; Your constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech” even though you don’t like it…that is exactly what it is…
Another way of saying “Koch Brothers’ Mini-me” is “George Soros”…see how this works?
The vote in November is not for a candidate…it is a vote against Obama and more directly Obamacare…even if you don’t like that fact…it’s true.
Another way to say “disaffected Republicans” is “Conservatives”…get it?
And lastly another way to say “low information” is “Ideologicall perverted progressive sycophants”
Thank you for reading this, Jerry
Very nicely said!
Most voters are low information voters and they are quite confortable being that way. They tend to vote along Party lines. Political zealots (such as we who post here) tend to make the average voter uncomfortable because we care too much.
About the only way to get the average voters attention is through TV and radio ads, and I haven’t seen or heard any Democrat ads yet. The Republicans are making hay while the sun is shining and the Democrats who care deeply are getting together and telling each other how superior and clever they are. That is no way to win an election.
TV ads are great for people who watch network TV, but millions of people are bailing from corporate TV every year. That is why social media is so powerful.
All the money in the world didn’t help Eric Cantor or Meg Whitman (former eBay CEO who spent $160 mil and lost to Jerry Brown.)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/meg-whitman-loses-california-governor-race-160-million-tab-jerry-brown-wins-3rd-time-article-1.450512
I agree with you that social media is powerful and if the Party’s don’t use it then they are being foolish. But you shouldn’t underestimate TV and Radio. They still reach millions and it is very cost effective. Not as cost effective as social media, but still a bargain compared to most other forms of political advertising. And it isn’t just network TV that carries the ads anymore, the non-network channels also carry the ads.
I was not surprised when Whitman lost to Jerry Brown in California. Jerry Brown IS California. He had name recognition and represented the correct state of mind for most Californians. Whitman represented corporate America which is an anathema to most Californians. She could have spent twice as much and she still wouldn’t have won.