Michael Bryan By Michael Bryan Boy, a campaign's financial reports can be really interesting. Take for instance David Bradley's pre-primary report. David is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the State Senate seat in LD 10. David has some new supporters who might be surprising to some. Many of you will know John Charles "Chuck" Coughlin, President of … Read more
Apropos of nothing, save praising a worthy local business here in Tucson, I bring you the Southern Gravity from 47 Scott's cocktail bar Scott & Co. Our own local speakeasy has been named one of the 10 best new bars in America by Food and Drink magazine. The cocktail is in the old fashioned style … Read more
By Karl Reiner With the possible exception of many of those in Arizona, U.S. political leaders tend to agree that it is in the national interest to have a prosperous and democratic Mexico on the other side of the southern border. Although Mexico’s development issues have been a low foreign policy priority, the relationship between … Read more
By Michael Bryan
It appears Heinz is sharpening his messaging as early voting is underway. Heinz just released the following mailer, which hit my box yesterday:
Nothing new here, but dropping it in mailers may push the message home with more amplitude. But the rhetorical flourish of suggesting Barber is follower (of Speaker Boehner, no less), not leader, is pretty sharp.
Even sharper is an ad posted by the Heinz camp today. The ad leads with headlines about Arizona's image problems and the voice over that "Southern Arizona has become a dumping ground for extremist Tea Party legislation" with a pic of a landfill, which cuts to a pic of Barber over that dump with the voice continuing "Ron Barber added to that pile when he voted for a Tea Party backed bill exempting the border patrol from over a century of environmental laws." Again, no new material here, but a fairly sharp elbow to throw in attempting to associate Barber with the Tea Party in a Democratic primary.
See the ad after the fold…
So, it appears that Heinz main contrast message will be based on those unpopular votes and how they demonstrate that Barber is getting rolled because of his inexperience as a legislator, and perhaps a bit too accommodating of Tea Pary wingnuttery. I'm not convinced that these two votes, no matter how obnoxious they might have been to many Dems (myself included) will be enough for Heinz to make major in-roads on Barber's support.
Primary voters in a competitive district are inherently conservative, in the sense that they want to back a horse they think can win, and will be fairly strategic and stubborn about that choice. Barber demonstrated convincingly that he could hold the seat for Dems against a determined (if flawed) challenger. It will take a lot more than a few poorly considered votes to drive a wedge between primary Dem voters and Barber, who now looks to most like a safe bet to hold the seat.
Perhaps Heinz can find a way to overcome Barber's advantages, but I'm guessing that Heinz probably missed his chance when he stepped aside for Barber in the Special, along with all the other candidates. The rest of those pols understood that if Barber decided to go for a full term, it would be nearly impossible to successfully primary him. Perhaps Heinz would be a better candidate and Member than Barber, but I doubt that Heinz will be able to sucessfully make that case. Heinz has to be too careful of alienating Dems with strong attacks on Barber to overcome the quasi-incumbency and front-runner momentum that millions of dollars worth of Special election advertising has given Barber.
by Michael Bryan
You might have already heard about Sam "Joe the Plumber" Wurtzelbacher's assinine comment at two different events here in Arizona about putting troops on the border and shooting illegal immigrants. He and Lori Klein have chosen to claim that he was just joking. Watch the video of the event yourself (starting at about 2:10 into the video) and see what you think. That he made is comments in a perfectly serious tone, prefaced by the statement that politicians should "say what they mean," and followed by the assertion that it would "solve our immigration problem real quick," makes it seem not so jokey. But that's not even half the stupid shit he said.
In the video of one of the events (start at 4:45 for this gem…), you will see Joe/Sam practically say that Jews are behind a plot to weaken America through the media by enforcing 'political correctness'. What he actually says is that prior to WWII "this think tank" of emigres came from Germany to Washington D.C. and Hollywood to spread communism. Now who does that sound like, to you? Joe/Sam just clumsily dog-whistled anti-semitism right here in our backyard.
Next Joe/Sam says the "Federal government can go stick it" (he's only running to be a member of that government, after all…) and claims that "the Federal government cannot, and it's obvious, run the country." What, huh? So why do you want to join that team, Joe/Sam?
The man is a racist, a dangerous reactionary, an anti-semite, and an incoherent fool. He's the perfect GOP candidate!
Watch the idiocy yourself after the click…