EDITOR MDB: Reminder – any endorsement, implied or explicit, by our authors is personal and not necessarily reflective of the editorial position of this publication, which generally does not endorse Democratic candidates over any other. As a publication we always advocate for the Democratic Party, but not always for every Democratic candidate.
We all remember 2016 when spoilers helped swing the election in Trump’s favor and ushered in four years of chaos. Spoilers threaten races at any level – whether they be third-party contenders in a general election or nominal figures in a packed primary.
In AZ-01, six candidates are vying to take out MAGA extremist David Schweikert. Of the six, there are four viable candidates, as reflected by polling and financial data.
Yet, two candidates, Andrew Horne and Kurt Kroemer, stubbornly remain in the race with no path to victory in the primary. Neither has any endorsements nor raised what it takes to win a school board race in CD1, let alone a congressional race, with Horne landing in the red last quarter.
What they could certainly do, however, is take enough combined vote share in the primary and throw the race to former Republican and Governor Jan Brewer supporter Marlene Galán -Woods or former Republican Amish Shah.
Should Galán-Woods or Shah become the nominee – and in the event one of them beats Schweikert – we risk another politician governing us in the mold of Senator Sinema in a critical time when we need Congress to hold the line. Both Galán -Woods and Shah are weak on the issues, as evidenced by Shah not attending five Democratic candidate forums and Galán-Woods having a record eleven absences. Shah lives out of the district and Galán-Woods only recently moved here. You would think they would make a point to earn the trust of the local Democratic leaders, but alas, they are almost never in attendance with little chance of winning the true support of local Dem volunteers necessary to win the seat.
But if Horne and Kroemer ride out this primary and go down with their respective ships – as they seem poised to do – you may be thanking them for Democratic defeat in November or insufficient leadership come January.
Nobody likes a spoiler, and unfortunately, in this crowded six-way primary, we have two. We, the voters, must prevent them from throwing this race to a lesser nominee. Your vote is crucial.
We need a nominee who knows the issues and is ready to go toe-to-toe against Schweikert. With Adrian Fontes’ winning campaign team, Conor O’Callaghan is on the path to victory and the clear choice for our CD1 nominee. He is a lifelong Democrat with the fire, determination, and resources necessary to win and effectively represent us in Congress.
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Actually, the real “race spoilers” here may be the R-lite candidates. We’ve seen time and again that Democrats in Arizona don’t win that way.
A vote for one of them in the primary is a vote to have two Schweikerts on the general election ballot.
While I’ve already expressed my preference for Kurt Kroemer in another blog piece on this site, my main point here is that for a primary, let everyone judge the candidates on their merits – none of the candidates are “spoilers”, since they all have aspects that some voters like. We shouldn’t vote for someone in a competitive Democratic primary because someone thinks it is a foregone conclusion that their preferred candidate will win. The historic cases of spoilers (Ralph Nader, Jill Stein) have been 3rd party candidates. The July primary is an occasion for our party’s voters to make their preference known.
Let us make Arizona Great Again!
What’s spoiling the Democratic primary race in CD1 are Democrats telling other Democrats who or who not to support. This race has been unusually combative and it’s due to one candidate in this race, Conor O’Callaghan.
There aren’t enough characters here to explain the drama he’s created in this race. Maybe he should consider dropping out due to his shady past on Wall Street. The man was labeled an “unindicted co conspirator” by the DOJ in a criminal fraud case during his employment at Nomura. This case stemmed from the financial mortgage bank collapse we all remember. Nomura settled the lawsuit by paying tens of millions of dollars to the Feds. Is the author of the Op Ed unaware of his unethical past? Certainly the GOP will use O’Callaghan’s past against him and probably will dig up more based on his career behavior. Suggesting Dems support someone who could potentially be as bad or worse than Sinema (allowing tax loopholes for wealthy hedge fund managers) is a bizarre notion. Each Democratic candidate has qualified to be on this primary ballot. May I suggest Conor’s supporters kindly keep their opinions to themselves and let the voters of CD1 pick their nominee? Thank you.