Year: 2018

The Arizona Republic inexplicably endorses Mark Brnovich for Attorney General

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Some of the nastiest campaign ads running on television have been those airing against Democratic candidate January Contreras for Attorney General. Arizona’s attorney general race has drawn national attention. Here’s why:

January Contreras

Spending on attorney-general races nationally could top $100 million this year, according to the Washington Post, with the Republican Attorney General Association investing heavily in defending its incumbents.

“The Democratic Attorney General Association is involved, too, but DAGA just does not have as much money,” said Bernie Nash, co-chair of Cozen O’Connor’s State Attorneys General practice.

The firm analyzes attorney-general races and has rated Arizona’s contest as “Leans Republican.”

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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has taken heat for involving Arizona in divisive national fights, such as the 20-state effort to repeal part of the Affordable Care Act. Here is the Complaint (.pdf). January Contreras argues that what Brnovich calls an issue of constitutionality is a dangerous move that would hurt vulnerable Arizonans with pre-existing health conditions.

Keep in mind that the Attorney General cannot join this lawsuit without the tacit approval of the Governor. So both Governor Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich have signed off on the Texas lawsuit that seeks to hold the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, which would invalidate all of its patient  protections including those prohibiting discrimination against persons with preexisting conditions. Polling suggests that this is the top political issue for voters in this election. They are both on the wrong side of this issue.

January Contreras “said that ‘on Day One,’ she would remove Arizona from that lawsuit and join a concurrent one [by Democratic Attorneys General] that aims to keep protections for people with pre-existing conditions in place.”

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The Arizona Republic endorses Katie Hobbs for Secretary of State

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Any rational person looking at their choices for Secretary of State would make this choice, but when has anyone accused Arizonans of being rational?

Too many Arizona voters are low information voters who vote out of GOP tribalism for anyone with an “R” behind his or her name. This is how we have wound up with the long-running GOP culture of corruption in Arizona with bad politicians doing bad things because they are given a pass to get away with it by an indifferent electorate. This is what Republican candidate Steve Gaynor is banking on. He has indicated that he would do things, if elected, that would land the state in court, again.

The Arizona Republic today endorses Democratic state Senator Katie Hobbs for Secretary of State. She is by far the most qualified candidate for Secretary of State, and will do the job professionally and responsibly. Why the unknown is so scary in Arizona’s secretary of state race:

The most competitive race for statewide office now looks to be the one for Arizona secretary of state.

Millions of dollars are being spent, much of which was once earmarked for the gubernatorial race. And that doesn’t include the more than $1.5 million Republican Steve Gaynor spent of his own money to trounce incumbent Michele Reagan in the primary.

The extra cash has elevated, and perhaps oversized, an office that’s charged largely with carrying out elections.

But why are the stakes so high now?

What if one becomes governor?

Part of it has to do with Arizona’s line of succession. Three times in the past three decades, the secretary of state has ascended to governor — the most recent in 2009 when Jan Brewer succeeded Janet Napolitano after Napolitano was tapped to become the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs is a former leader at the Sojourner Center, a large non-profit serving abused women, who as a state lawmaker was a consistent voice for women and children services. As Senate minority leader, Hobbs was a steady hand who found occasional bipartisanship on issues such as Medicaid expansion and unclogging the backlog of untested sexual-assault kits.

Republican Steve Gaynor, meanwhile, is a cipher. He is a businessman who until late last year participated in politics largely as a Republican donor. In a meeting with The Republic‘s editorial board, he gave few specifics on what he would do to reform the office and displayed little passion for it — he said he was recruited by a handful of  Republicans who were unhappy with Michele Reagan.

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Newsweek cover story: Here’s How Russia May Have Already Hacked the 2018 Midterm Elections

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The cover story of Newsweek this week is a lengthy investigative report by David Freedman into Here’s How Russia May Have Already Hacked the 2018 Midterm Elections. Here are the opening graphs using Bucks County, Pennsylvania as an example:

It’s not easy to get in to see Diane Ellis-Marseglia, one of three commissioners who run Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Security is tight at the Government Administration Building on 55 East Court Street in Doylestown, a three-story brick structure with no windows, where she has an office. It also happens to be where officials retreat on election night to tally the votes recorded on the county’s 900 or so voting machines. Guards at the door X-ray bags and scan each visitor with a wand.

Unfortunately, Russian hackers won’t need to come calling on Election Day. Cyberexperts warn that they could use more sophisticated means of changing the outcomes of close races or sowing confusion in an effort to throw the U.S. elections into disrepute. The 2018 midterms offer a compelling target: a patchwork of 3,000 or so county governments that administer elections, often on a shoestring budget, many of them with outdated electronic voting machines vulnerable to manipulation. With Democrats on track to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate, the ­political stakes are high.

Russian hackers were notoriously active in the 2016 election. Although President Donald Trump disputes it, evidence suggests that they were responsible for breaking into the Democratic National Committee’s computers, according to U.S. intelligence reports. They ran a disinformation campaign on Facebook and Twitter. They also attacked voter registration databases in 21 states, election management systems in 39 states and at least one election software vendor—and that’s only what the government’s intelligence services know about.

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Unhinged Martha McSally doubles down on accusing Kyrsten Sinema of ‘treason’

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It appears that Martha McSally is fully invested in her “closing argument” smear that her opponent Krysten Sinema is guilty of “treason.” Martha is completely unhinged.

The Arizona Republic reports:

Meeting for the first time since Monday’s fiery Senate debate, Republican Martha McSally doubled down on her assertion that her Democratic rival, Kyrsten Sinema, supported “treason” in a remark made 15 years ago.

McSally, a retired combat pilot, appeared on the verge of tears at one point – such an actress – as she noted that Sinema had remarked in 2003 that it was “fine” if the radio host asking a hypothetical question wanted to join the Taliban.

What Sinema Actually Said

As part of her effort to publicize a February 2003 antiwar protest in Patriots Square Park in Phoenix, Sinema appeared on the radio show of a local libertarian activist. The host, Ernest Hancock, laid out a rambling hypothetical situation — difficult to follow at times — and concluded by asking Sinema if she would be okay with him joining the Taliban.

“If I want to go fight in the Taliban army, I go over there and I’m fighting for the Taliban. I’m saying that’s a personal decision,” host Ernest Hancock said.

“Fine, I don’t care if you want to do that, go ahead,” Sinema replied, before adding: “What we’re talking about here are two different things. When you say, ‘We owe something to the world,’ my definition of owing something to the world does not involve war and destruction.”

She then added that she wanted to get back to discussing her antiwar position.

If you listen to the audio of the interview, it is even less than you might imagine. This is Sinema effectively saying “Yeah, whatever Dude, do whatever you want. Can we get back to talking about what I want to talk about?” No reasonable person could take away that Sinema was advocating for the Taliban.

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