A Pall is Cast over McSally Senate Bid by Election Result in Pennsylvania

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A blue wave is cresting in American politics.
A blue wave is cresting in American politics.

There is definitely a blue wave cresting in American politics. When it hits Arizona, it will spell doom for the Martha McSally campaign for US Senate.

As of last December, Democrats won a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, won the governorship in New Jersey, took full control of the Washington state government, and swept elective offices statewide in Virginia. Now voters in Pennsylvania elected a Democratic Congressmen in a deep-red district.

Even though the Democrats had less in campaign funds, were outspent by out-of-state PACs and ran in districts carried by the president, they are still finding a way to win.

Congresswoman Martha McSally snuggles up to President Donald Trump.
Congresswoman Martha McSally snuggles up to President Donald Trump.

Trump is poison. Even in conservative districts, Trump is unpopular. Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania won a stunning upset against a Republican who was chiefly a stand-in for Trump and who endorsed Trump’s tawdry agenda. Trump energizes Democrats, and his two appearances drove independents to vote for the Democrat.

McSally, a nondescript Republican, votes in line with Trump 97.1%. She defended Trump from criticism by Sen. Jeff Flake. McSally has sent out photos of herself with the president and with first daughter Ivanka Trump. McSally appeared on Fox News to sing the president’s praises. Her announcement video features Trump saying, “Martha McSally, she’s the real deal.”

We can only hope that Trump brings his poisonous presence to Arizona repeatedly to campaign for McSally. Trump carried Arizona by only 4 points.

Money isn’t everything. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Lamb raised $3.9 million and spent $3 million. His opponent raised only $900,000 but was supported by conservative PACs that spent $14 million on the Republican.

What mattered more was Lamb’s campaign for universal health care, against Trump’s tax cut, for expanded background checks, for stronger unions, against cuts to Social Security, for a woman’s right to choose and for medical marijuana.

So far McSally has raised  $3,769,793 and has $1,816,667 cash on hand. The Koch brothers and right-wing PACs will kick in millions more. But all that dirty money won’t be enough.

The thing that will hang McSally is her vote against the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The more the GOP attacks the ACA, the more popular it becomes. In Pennsylvania, exit polls showed the health care was a top priority for voters. The election was a referendum on Trump’s attacks and sabotage of the ACA. Voters supported the Democrat’s pro-healthcare views and voted against the Republican anti-healthcare agenda.

McSally often refuses to say where she stands on issues and avoids appearing at town halls. However, research shows that McSally is:

  • Against a woman’s right to choose.
  • Has an “A” rating from the NRA and took $77,063 from the gun lobby.
  • Anti-gay marriage.
  • Anti-immigration reform.
  • Anti-renewable energy, solar, wind and thermal energy.

Her views are repellent where six-in-ten U.S. adults (59%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 37% who say it should be illegal all or most of the time.

McSally’s positions are anathema to an electorate that favors gun safety laws. 88% of Americans support universal background checks and 68% support a ban on assault weapons.

Based on polling in 2017, a majority of Americans (62%) support same-sex marriage, while 32% oppose it.

According to a CBS News poll, almost 9 in 10 respondents — 87 percent — said they believe that the so-called Dreamers should be allowed to remain in the U.S.

65% of Americans give priority to developing alternative energy sources, compared with 27% who would emphasize expanded production of fossil fuel sources.

Martha McSally is the wrong candidate for the US Senate in Arizona, and when voters get the change to rebuke Trump in November, she will go down in flames.

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32 thoughts on “A Pall is Cast over McSally Senate Bid by Election Result in Pennsylvania”

      • Jerry Brown and California. The go to bogie man for the GOP.

        Why can’t she ever say anything meaningful about what she’ll do for Arizonans?

        And why are AZ GOP voters so easily manipulated?

        • I think she’s losing her grip. She thinks she can grab on to Trump’s ass and ride it into the Senate. She doesn’t even care that she’s talking nonsense or lying. She’s depending exclusively on Trump voters to elect her.

          It’s a gamble. But she figures she’s got two shots.

          • Someone should tell McSally that California has outperformed Arizona and every Red State for that matter, since the Bush Recession, and has a budget in better shape as well.

            Welcoming people no matter where they come from or who they love seems to be one of the lessons in economic success that Arizona has yet to learn.

            But GOP voters rely on feelings not facts.

  2. Unfortunately, Synema would only be a marginal improvement over McSally, should the Blue Wave actually hit Arizona.

    • I don’t know much about Kyrsten Sinema except that she started as a progressive and gradually became a “centrist”. But that gives her an opportunity to develop her brand for a statewide electorate. And I strongly recommend that if she wants to win, she needs to get on it.

      • Krysten Sinema is no centrist, she is on the extreme right of the Democratic Party. She mainly aims to please her patron, Chuck Schumer, and his Wall Street patrons.

        Now that the banking bill (that’s been touted as being beneficial for community banks but whose benefits go to the “too big to fail” financial institutions while tossing community banks a crumb) has cleared the Senate with the help of 16 Blue Dog/New Dems, I’m confident Sinema will have no qualms about voting for it.

        We don’t just need more Democrats in office, we desperately need better ones.

        • “We don’t just need more Democrats in office, we desperately need better ones.”

          Truth.

        • Oh, for crying out loud, look at this. I tried this a couple of times and this is what I get for Kyrsten Sinema’s senate campaign’s official website:

          http://kyrstensinema.com/

          There ain’t nothin’ there! Just a request for donations.

          • Apparently the DSCC is following the DCCC’s lead of promoting “mystery meat” candidates. Despite the fact that most of those candidates lose their races.

        • Sinema received the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit of Enterprise Award.

          The US Chamber of Commerce is a far right wing organization.

          She was also named BIO Legislator of the Year by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

          The Biotechnology Innovation Organization is a lobbying group for big pharma.

          She’s my rep now but I’ve never voted for her because of her willingness to side with Too Big To Fail banks. I will if there’s a chance she’ll beat an R’, but I’ll do it the same way I voted for HRC, growling loud enough to scare my dogs into hiding.

          • That’s the way I feel about it. No support from me if she’s the candidate but will hold my nose & fill in the bubble for her if she’s the candidate.

          • My fear is that there has to be some serious enthusiasm behind a Democratic candidate for that person to win a statewide election.

            When I look at a front runner’s campaign website in the middle of March and see absolutely nothing there, well, that is cause for concern.

            Good grief, the Democrats who lined up to oust Confederate Todd from a legislative district seat have great websites.

            This tells me that Sinema isn’t ready to commit to whatever her campaign is supposed to be about. And her campaign better be about something other than “Trump is a monster” (which didn’t work for Hillary Clinton).

            Sinema has got work to do, and she needs to get started.

          • Damn. Lost my train of thought.

            Sinema, of course, hasn’t said Trump is a monster. She votes with him 56.1 % of the time as of today on 538. So, that wouldn’t work for her, she seems to kind of like him.

            I don’t get much out of her video except the story of her sad, impoverished childhood and her wanting to help others get their shot at the American Dream.

            Gee, that’s nice. However, people have been in the streets since Trump’s inauguration and their issues are far more specific than, “give us our shot at the American Dream”. These folks are going to be listening and they want their issues addressed.

            I also checked out what she does on social media and IMO it’s not befitting a front runner. Lots of improvement needed.

            No excuse for skeletal websites, lackluster videos and a weak social media presence. Candidates need to excel in these areas.

            No one has done this stuff better than Bernie Sanders in 2016. Whether they like him or not, they should study his model.

  3. Oh, Gawd, this was so hard but I trolled McSally on Twitter.

    Martha McSally Verified account
    @RepMcSally
    8m8 minutes ago

    San Diego & AZ show that #WallsWork. Sadly, those barriers push illegal activity to the desert in MY district. This afternoon I am chairing a @HouseHomeland hearing on @CBP’s request for $33.25B to secure the border. Join!
    ➡️https://goo.gl/pfwxHL

    @RepMcSally
    45m45 minutes ago

    Let’s be clear: Putin is a thug. These sanctions are
    entirely necessary. The Obama Administration did nothing, giving Russia time to
    revert to their Cold War tactics. I applaud the Trump Administration for this
    strong stance to check these interferences here & now.
    @RepMcSally
    18h18 hours ago

    No child should be worried about safety at school. That’s why I’m working to #StopSchoolViolence. In addition to cosponsoring legislation the House passed to create a multi-layered security system w/ training, tech & equipment, I requested $150M to fund it

    @RepMcSally
    20h20 hours ago

    The classroom should be a safe place to focus on learning, not a combat zone. We need a multi-layered system to #StopSchoolViolence, and that’s what this program provides: training, coordination, technology and equipment ➡️

    @RepMcSally
    Mar 14

    HAPPENING NOW: I’m on @FoxNews on @HappeningNow
    talking with @JonScottFNC about the President’s visit to the wall prototypes in San Diego yesterday and why we need wall as part of a multifaceted border security strategy. Tune in! #WallsWork

    • The NRA must have told McSally it was okay for her to co-sponsor this…

      “The STOP School Violence Act has four prongs. First, it funds training for law enforcement officers, school personnel, and students to respond and prevent violence, including active shooter training. Second, it provides technology and equipment like mobile apps and a hot-line for anonymous reporting in addition to locks and metal detectors. Third, it creates a school threat assessment and crisis intervention teams for expedited responses. Finally, it supports better coordination with local law enforcement.”

      https://mcsally.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/us-rep-mcsally-takes-action-stop-school-violence

    • One thing that I hope the Democrats have noticed is that McSally is becoming a permanent fixture on Fox News.

      I don’t watch Fox News but from what I see on Twitter she is mostly blathering her support for whatever Trump is into at the moment.

      Martha is not a standout in the House and she is not generally one to get national or even statewide recognition.

      But Fox News likes her and what this is about is getting name recognition for a relatively obscure and minor politician while she develops her “I’m With Trump” brand.

      Her duplicity is kind of amazing. Check out how she calls Putin a thug, blames Obama for Putin’s thuggery, and praises Trump for dealing with it as though she is unaware that the nation is watching an investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russian connections.

      And that stuff about her working to stop school violence without mentioning guns is just too damn much. Don’t get me started.

      However, her being on Fox News is actually a good strategy (for her not us). And the Democratic front runner should be doing the same on MSNBC, perhaps CNN.

    • Notice that @0:59 Martha owns her “let’s get this f**king thing done” statement in reference to the ACA repeal and replace vote, trying to preemptively turn it into something positive. As in, “Hell yeah I curse like a drunk sailor, but that’s me. I’m a fighter and I don’t forget I ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to bow down to Sharia Law. I won’t wear a hijab and I am not afraid of liberals.”

      Did I miss anything? Oh, yeah, the part where she declares herself to be an extension of Donald Trump.

      • If AZ & national Democrats don’t exploit “lets’ get this…thing done remark they would be guilty of the worst kind of political malpractice.

        Such as: When Martha McSally was conspiring with her fellow Republicans to wreck Obamacare and make healthcare unaffordable for thousands of her constituents, she summed up her attitude as “Let’s get this…thing done.

        Congress needs someone who has a record of standing up for his/her constituents and will fight like Hell to ensure they all get the healthcare they need.

  5. I hope this is true.

    Here’s my McSally impression, based on every time I hear her talk.

    “Military, I’m for military, defense, military, did I mention I was in the military? I had a uniform and everything. I post my picture in uniform so you’ll know I was in the military”.

    Meanwhile, she says nothing about anything that I care about as an Arizonan.

    • Well, McSally had no political experience at all when she ran for her House seat and she relied heavily on her military career to flesh out her resume. That does tend to work with conservative voters.

      Now that she’s been in the House for a number of years you would expect that she would be hawking less of her military background and more of her political experience.

      But Martha has a very thin resume.

      However, don’t be fooled by her lack of any significant accomplishments in Congress. She may not stand out among her peers, but somewhere along the line she must have taken a course in managing perceptions because that is what she seems to be engaged in most of the time. And that accounts for the switch-er-oo from Moderate Martha running in a swing congressional district to the Hard Ass Stand by Trump Martha running in the entire purplish red state of Arizona.

      Her handlers clearly believe that Arizona will go red again and the way into the Senate is through Trump. She will hawk tax reform and defend her vote to repeal the ACA by saying it was bad for Arizona (which she has already done).

      Mr. Bodine is right that there will be a lot of special interest money behind her. She can be depended on to vote as she is told and never in any significant way oppose those who bought her seat.

      Also, Martha figures she’s got two shots at a senate seat in Arizona. Make no mistake, she plans to occupy one of them and she is tenacious. And I strongly suspect that the senate seat is really just another stepping stone. Her lack of qualifications doesn’t worry her. I think she’s gearing up for Trump 2020 and believes he’s going to be around for awhile. Long enough to reward her loyalty.

      • I, the great Tomstradamus, predict that Martha McSally will NOT get Liza’s vote!

        So it is spoken, so it shall be written, so shall it be.

        • Ha ha. She has a better chance of winning the Powerball lottery than getting my vote. I will vote for the lesser of two evils but if that’s her then I think we’re doomed.

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