Year: 2018

Arizona Daily Star endorses Republicans Shelley Kais & Chris Ackerley, Democrat Rep. Daniel Hernandez Jr. for LD 2

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In today’s online Arizona Daily Star, the Editorial Board there has endorsed Shelley Kais (R) for State Senator in LD 2, over 3 term incumbent Senator Andrea Dalessandro (D).  They also endorsed incumbent Daniel Hernandez Jr. (D) and former Rep. Chris Ackerley (R), over incumbent  Rep. Rosanna Gabaldon (D). Ackerley held a position in the … Read more

A desperate Martha McSally accuses Kyrsten Sinema of ‘treason’

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The one and only senate debate between Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema did not fail to disappoint on substance.  McSally, in particular, was pre-programmed and stuck to canned responses to attack her opponent. If you have seen her false and misleading TV ads, you pretty much know what Martha McSally had to say. She stuck to the script.

But Militaristic Martha could not contain herself and towards the end of the debate sprung an obviously pre-planned new attack on Kyrsten Sinema, accusing her of “treason.” No, really. She went there. Arizona race gets ugly as Martha McSally accuses Kyrsten Sinema of ‘treason’ over 2003 Taliban comments:

In the closely watched Senate race in Arizona, “treason” was the accusation leveled Monday by Republican Rep. Martha McSally against her Democratic opponent, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

In the sole debate of the campaign, McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and combat pilot, asked Sinema to apologize for a 15-year-old radio interview about American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, suggesting that her comments were tantamount to levying war against the United States. Sinema responded by accusing the Republican of playing dirty.

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In Monday’s Arizona Senate Debate, it was a Tale of Two Temperaments: Poised versus Unhinged

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Arizona Voters were able to see for the first time and only time this election season the two party nominees vying to succeed Senator Jeff Flake in the November elections. People watching were treated to two candidates, Representative Kyrsten Sinema, and Representative Martha McSally who both displayed contrasting visions and temperaments to the viewing public. Democratic … Read more

Elizabeth Warren gets the best of the racist-in-chief, who reneges on his bet (Update)

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You may recall that that back in July “Dear Leader” Donald Trump at one of his Nuremberg-style campaign rallies in Great Falls, Montana Offered $1 Million For “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren To Take DNA Test To Prove Indian Ancestry. Here’s the video evidence (Trump has repeated this racist shtick with equal vigor as his racist Obama “birther” conspiracy theory).

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Steve Benen has the latest. DNA test results allow Elizabeth Warren to turn the tables on Trump:

It was just a few months ago when Donald Trump presented a new idea about how he’ll attack Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose Native American ancestry has long been a point of preoccupation for the president. Imagining a 2020 debate, Trump told an audience of supporters about his future plan.

“I’m going to get one of those little [DNA testing] kits and in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims she’s of Indian heritage…,” Trump said. “And we will say, ‘I will give you a million dollars, paid for by Trump, to your favorite charity, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian.’ And we’ll see what she does. I have a feeling she will say no, but we will hold it for the debates.”

The president may need to track down his checkbook. The Boston Globe  reported overnight:

Senator Elizabeth Warren has released a DNA test that provides “strong evidence” she had a Native American in her family tree dating back 6 to 10 generations, an unprecedented move by one of the top possible contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.

Warren, whose claims to Native American blood have been mocked by President Trump and other Republicans, provided the test results to the Globe on Sunday in an effort to defuse questions about her ancestry that have persisted for years. She planned an elaborate rollout Monday of the results as she aimed for widespread attention.

As the Globe  reported, the analysis was conducted by Stanford University’s Carlos Bustamante, a renowned scholar and expert in the field, who concluded that the results “strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor.”

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Steve Gaynor raises red flags in Secretary of State race

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There has not been much good reporting on Steve Gaynor, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State who ousted Secretary of State Michele Reagan in the Arizona GOP primary, but what little I have seen reported raises red flags about this guy seeing his role as the chief elections officer in Arizona as classic GOP voter suppression in the tradition of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, both of whom are running for governor in November.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Michelle Reagan settled a lawsuit over Arizona’s bifurcated dual voter registration system for those who use the federal voter registration form.

Gaynor focused his criticism on the aspect of the settlement that requires the state to register voters for federal elections even if they use the state form. He said Michelle Reagan should not have settled and fought the issue all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

I covered this at length in an earlier post. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach had his ass handed to him in federal court over this same issue. So much for this litigation criticism.  Michelle Reagan is terrible, but Steve Gaynor fancies himself the next Kris Kobach. (Kansas and Arizona were the only two states who maintained this practice).

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