The editors of The Arizona Republic(an) today must be regretting their premature capitulation in writing off their favorite Scott Smith in their endorsement of “Cathi’s Clown” Doug Ducey for governor in the GOP primary. (The editors looked at the “skewed” poll numbers and decided that they wanted to bet on a winning horse, no principles or convictions involved).
It is widely reported today that Governor Jan Brewer, who has previously said that her choice of endorsing her successor was down to two candidates, will drop Doug Ducey and endorse Scott Smith for governor. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Moderate Republicans met with Brewer to urge endorsement of Scott Smith:
Gov. Jan Brewer will give her coveted endorsement to Scott Smith in the crowded GOP primary for governor at an event in Mesa on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the event.
The former Mesa mayor’s campaign announced today that Brewer and campaign supporters will join Smith at a special event at Cubs Park in Mesa.
Brewer’s endorsement has been the subject of speculation for months. Many observers expected her to endorse Smith, the only candidate in the six-way Republican primary who supports her controversial positions on Medicaid expansion and Common Core education standards. In May, Brewer met separately with Smith and rival candidate Doug Ducey, telling the Arizona Capitol Times that she had narrowed her choice to two candidates.
But Brewer’s lack of an endorsement, even after early ballots were mailed on July 31, led many to wonder if her reticence was a sign that she would simply stay out of the race and not endorse a possible successor.
Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa, said he and a handful of other Republican lawmakers who supported Brewer in her 2013 Medicaid expansion fight, such as Rep. Heather Carter and Sen. Steve Pierce, met with the governor on Tuesday and urged her to endorse Smith.
* * *
Worsley said Brewer and the lawmakers discussed “philosophically who is the most consistent” with Brewer’s views. And that candidate is Smith, he said.
“If you take all the other gubernatorial candidates, they just don’t line up with Governor Brewer,” Worsley said. “Their platform just doesn’t line up with the governor’s.”
The endorsement could be a boon to Smith’s campaign as the Aug. 26 primary nears.
Ducey and his allies — the Arizona political media — have sought to cast the GOP primary as a two-way race between him and GoDaddy Girl Christine Jones. This was based almost entirely upon push polling by the “Kochtopus” network of dark money organizations operated by their campaign money laundering bag man, Sean Noble, a Ducey supporter.
Brahm Resnik for News 12 reports, Poll: Ducey up, Smith climbing, Jones slipping:
A new poll of the Republican primary for Arizona governor tells a different story from previous polls: Doug Ducey is in the lead, but Scott Smith is on the rise, Christine Jones is on the way down and the number of undecided voters is significantly lower than other recent polls have found.
The Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, a powerful business group at the Capitol, commissioned the poll by Magellan Strategies, the first in a series of weekly tracking polls through the Aug. 26 primary.
OK, let me stop you right there. The poll was commissioned by the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association — shorthand for Tucson car dealer and GOP bundler Jim Click, who is a co-chair of Doug Ducey’s campaign and previously led a “Draft Doug Ducey for Governor” scam to make it appear that there was a groundswell of support for Doug Ducey.
And Magellan Strategies works for the “Kochtopus” front group Americans for Prosperity and the RNC. As has been previously noted by Daily Kos:
Magellan Strategies . . . is not a legitimate pollster. In fact, they’re not pollsters at all.
Instead, they’re a Republican consulting firm on the payroll of the Republican National Committee and Americans for Prosperity that publishes polls tailor made to boost Republican candidates. Their tagline is,“Magellan Strategies Helping Republicans Win Elections.”
The whole point of this push poll is to claim Doug Ducey is leading and his chief rival, GoDaddy Girl Christine Jones, is stumbling down the stretch — she’s even losing to that RINO Scott Smith. Ha!Ha!
The media is misreading this push poll to suggest that there is a “Smith surge,” but Brahm Resnik isn’t buying it:
Smith’s improving numbers appear to be influenced by the poll’s oversampling of independent voters [This polling sample included a high number of independents (21%)]; Jones appears to be suffering from upside down favorability ratings. Here is the polling memo from the AADA:
Beginning last Monday-Thursday nights – 1,644 likely Republican voters were surveyed by Magellan Strategies. Similar tracking polling will continue each week through the August 26th Republican primary.
GOVERNOR’S RACE
Doug Ducey: 23%
Scott Smith: 21%
Christine Jones: 13%
Ken Bennett: 12%
Andrew Thomas: 10%
Frank Riggs: 5%
Undecided: 16%
As I have told you many times, you can make a poll say whatever result you want it to say by the questions you ask, and the sample of who you ask.
The Arizona Republic(an) in its editorial endorsement pointedly noted that the Smith campaign had failed to catch fire (bummer). Brahm Resnik notes in his report “Smith has not been advertising on television for some time suggesting he may be facing money challenges.” Doesn’t sound like any “surge” to me.
“Cathi’s Clown” Doug Ducey is endorsed by Cathi Herrod (a campaign co-chair) and the Christian Domionionists of her Center for Arizona Policy; the “Kochtopus” network of dark money organizations operated by their campaign money laundering bag man Sean Noble; Governor Scott Walker,”the goggle-eyed homunculus who was hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin” and the subject of a grand jury investigation; Canadian-born Cuban immigrant Sen. Ted “Calgary” Cruz; the halfling governor of Alaska and Facebook troll, the “Quitta from Wasilla” Sarah Palin; and the most corrupt politician in the state of Arizona, Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio (who has cost the residents of the state of Maricopa millions of dollars in court settlements, attorneys fees and costs for his misdeeds). Oh, and the editors of The Arizona Republic(an).
With a rogue’s gallery of far-right crazy supporters like this, how could Ducey lose to Smith in a GOP primary?