A Preview Of Coming Attractions In Arizona’s August Primary

Colorado held its primary election on Tuesday and MAGA/QAnon election denier candidates lost their Republican primary.

The Daily Beast reports, Indicted Election Denier Tina Peters Loses Her Own Election—and Denies She Lost:

Tina Peters, the [election denier] Colorado county clerk who flogged election conspiracy theories and was then indicted for allegedly breaching [the security of] her own voting machines, lost her primary bid to become the secretary of state.

And then she did exactly what you would expect: She denied she lost, cried fraud, and vowed to keep fighting.

How many GQP primary races will we see this occur in Arizona, ground zero for the fraudulent Stop The Steal movement?

Does anyone seriously believe that in the “Clash of The MAGA/QAnon Election Denier Titans” between Wendy Rogers and Kelly Townsend in LD 7 we are not going to see claims of election fraud and post-election frivolous litigation? I am certain that both are lawyered up and already preparing for it.

Does anyone seriously believe that we are not going to see the same thing occur in the clusterfuck GQP primary for Secretary of State, especially if MAGA/QAnon insurrectionist Stop The Steal founder and Oath Keeper domestic terrorist Rep. Mark Finchem loses?

This insanity is going to occur up and down the Republican primary ballot.

“It’s not over,” Peters reportedly told supporters at her watch party, while she was 15 percentage points behind the actual winner [a crushing defeat], Pam Anderson [no, NOT that Pam Aderson, but] a former Jefferson County clerk.

“I’m sorry we had faith in the system once again.”

Peters’ loss will be a blow to a cast of her fellow election deniers, including prominent backer Mike Lindell, who are clinging to the baseless notion that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Now they have a new cause.

“Biggest fraud!!! We caught them!!!” Lindell, the MyPillow mogul, frantically texted The Daily Beast late on Tuesday night, referring to the Peters race. “We caught them in their fraud!!! Prison for Dominion!”

“How the votes came in (in real time). This is impossible!!!!!” he continued.

More like prison for Mike Lindell. What the hell is taking the DOJ so long to indict this insurrectionist assclown for bringing a military Coup Plot to the Trump White House? Trump ally Mike Lindell of My Pillow pushes martial law at White House: “My Pillow founder and Trump supporter Mike Lindell was photographed entering the West Wing of the White House on Friday, carrying notes which seemed to advocate the imposition of martial law.” “[A] Washington Post photographer caught images of Lindell in which parts of notes he carried were visible. Among visible text were the words “Insurrection Act now as a result of the assault on the”, “martial law if necessary” and “Move Kash Patel to CIA Acting”.

@MyPillowUSA CEO Michael Lindell shows off his notes before going into the West Wing at the White House on Friday, Jan 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. pic.twitter.com/AY6AyJNSyE

— Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) January 15, 2021

The trouncing comes three months after Peters was indicted by a grand jury on 10 misdemeanor and felony charges stemming from her role in the breaching [the security] of election machines in Mesa following the 2020 election.

She and a deputy are accused of plotting to turn off security cameras and letting an unauthorized person access those machines—information from which was published by conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins [“Q” of QAnon fame, running for Congress in Arizona’s CD 2.]

The indictment capped a turbulent 10-month stretch that saw Peters get arrested for obstructing police officers who were serving a search warrant for her iPad, make an appearance at a far-right event where a speaker advocated “hangings” for those who commit election fraud, and frequently join Lindell’s livestreaming website, Frank Speech. At one point, Peters went into hiding at a Lindell “safe house.”

Controversy swirled around Peters even before Trump’s 2020 loss.

In 2019, her office allegedly left 570 ballots uncounted and let others escape from a ballot drop box. Patti Inscho, a former Mesa County Clerk employee, was enlisted to help Peters get organized—but Peters fired her within two months. A Peters staffer then sued Inscho, alleging delinquency.

“Tina didn’t want to fight facts,” Inscho told The Daily Beast at the time. “She wanted to damage people. She did and said a lot of things about me that are untrue. It hurt my reputation, and it’s hard to fight back against.”

Anderson, the primary winner who will be the Republican on the ballot on Election Day, has publicly declared that there is no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential vote.

In a statement after the victory, she said that if she is elected the state’s top election officer, she “will support local election officials through reliance on evidence-based elections, adherence to the law, training, and funding resources.

“I will be the fair referee for Colorado to continue to improve both access for voters and securing and enhancing our elections. These efforts won’t be driven by partisan politics or campaign talking points but focused on policy and rebuilding confidence in our elections by removing the rhetoric and outright lies that are driving debates in echo chambers.”

The problem here in Arizona is that all four of the Republican candidates for secretary of state are MAGA election deniers: MAGA/QAnon insurrectionist Stop The Steal founder and Oath Keeper domestic terrorist Rep. Mark Finchem; Coup Plotter Rep. Shawnna Bolick, BFF with Coup Plotter “Ginni” Thomas, who signed the GQP legislator letter to Pence to not certify the 2020 election, and then sponsored a bill to make Coup Plotter lawyer John Eastman’s bullshit “Independent State Legislature” doctrine the law in Arizona (which would allow a GQP legislature to nullify your vote and pick presidential electors of their own); Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the GQP’s longtime Queen of Voter Suppression, and one of 16 GQP Senators who voted for the GQP sham “fraudit” (before she later tried to distance herself from it when it became obvious to everyone that it was a fraud and a grift); and some Dude no one has ever heard of, Beu Lane, whose “candidate info” page screams MAGA election denier.

Not one of these MAGA election deniers is like Pam Anderson in Colorado, willing to publicly declared that there is no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential vote, who “will support local election officials through reliance on evidence-based elections, adherence to the law, training, and funding resources.” Arizona’s election deniers are committed to rigging the 2024 election for Donald Trump or whomever the GQP nominee is. That is their motivation for running for Secretary of State this year.

In other races in Colorado, Election Deniers Wiped Out In Colorado GOP Primaries:

MAGA Election deniers suffered a stinging series of defeats in Colorado on Tuesday night, losing handily in Republican primaries for governor, U.S. Senate as well as secretary of state ― the top three statewide races on the ballot.

Greg Lopez, a former mayor who falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, lost his primary to Heidi Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent who finally said in mid-June that she believed President Joe Biden won legitimately.

Businessman Joe O’Dea, who acknowledged Biden’s victory, defeated state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Jan. 6 insurrection attendee, for the GOP Senate nomination.

Colorado is the latest swing state where Republican voters have rejected those conspiracy theories and the candidates who pushed them.

Caveat: Social media troll insurrectionist Lauren Boebert won her primary. (Redisricitng made her district even redder so we are stuck with this batshit crazy loon for another two years unless the DOJ brings an indictment against her for January 6). Republican voters in her district are anti-democracy White Christian Nationalists who are OK with the violent insurrection against the U.S. government on January 6. GOP Rep. Boebert: ‘I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk’:

Speaking at a religious service Sunday in Colorado, she told worshipers: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”

She added: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.” Her comments were first reported by the Denver Post.

There are no “moderate” Republicans who are not committed to Donald Trump’s Big Lie running for office in Arizona. It is a litmus test to run for office in the Arizona GQP. They must all pledge to support the Big Lie. (In a unanimous vote, the Maricopa County Republican Committee Executive Board voted last Tuesday to approve a resolution rejecting the certification of the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.) Arizona’s Republican candidates closely resemble social media troll and insurrectionist Rep. Lauren Boebert. There are no good options from among which to choose in the Arizona Republican primary.

So NO, Laurie Roberts, your half-baked theory that “Independent” (no party preference) voters voting in the Republican Primary can moderate the Republican ticket in November does not hold water. There are no “moderate” Republicans who are not committed to Donald Trump’s Big Lie running for office in Arizona. Don’t get mad about abortion. Get a Republican ballot.

Also, there are no Republicans in the Arizona legislature, or GQP governors, who have ever defied “Arizona’s 31st Senator,” Christian Nationalist Cathi Herrod from the Center for Arizona Policy, on her abortion bills for the past two decades. Abortion is a litmus test in the Arizona GQP, just like Trump’s Big Lie.

The only way to defeat the anti-democracy MAGA/QAnon cult of Donald Trump in Arizona is a massive Democratic voter turnout, combined with a massive “Independent” (no party preference) voter turnout, combined with the last remaining Republican voters of conscience in Arizona (about 20%) to all vote a straight Democratic ticket in November 2022 to overcome the GQP gerrymandering of districts in 2022, and the midterm election voter participation drop-off in elections. You just can’t not vote this year, because the survival of American democracy is on the ballot. It will be too late in 2024. It’s now or never, people.