On Friday, September 7, 2018, the Clean Elections Commission sponsored a debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees for State House and State Senate in LD 18. The appropriately named Republican Nominee Frank Schmuck chose not to debate his Democratic opponent, incumbent State Senator Sean Bowie.
Kyrsten Sinema
Sinema Up by 7 Points in Race for US Senate
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema holds an advantage in the race for US Senate in Arizona, a race that is critical to the party’s chances of taking control of the US Senate, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. The surveys show Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema tops Republican Rep. Martha McShifty by 7 points, 50% to 43% among likely voters.
However, roughly 1 in 6 voters in each state say there’s a chance they’ll change their mind before Election Day.
Likely voters are a subset of registered voters in the poll and include those most likely to turn out based on a combination of self-reported intention to vote, interest in the election and past voting behavior.
Democrats have a chance
Arizona is one of the four states where Democrats are widely seen as having at least some chance of picking up Senate seats in November’s election. The others are Texas — viewed as more of a long-shot – and Nevada — generally viewed as the Democrats’ best chance for a Senate pickup. In order for the party to have any shot at taking control of the Senate, it’s almost certain that at least one seat from Arizona or Tennessee would need to go Democrats’ way.
Another New Poll: Sinema & McShifty in Dead Heat, Garcia Nearly Tied with Ducey

A new Gravis Marketing poll finds Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in a dead heat with Republican Martha McShifty in the race for US Senate and — good news — Democrat candidate for Governor David Garcia is within 4 points of Republican Doug Ducey where the margin of error is 3.3 points.
Gravis, a nonpartisan research firm, conducted a random survey of 882 registered, likely voters in Arizona from Sept. 5-7. It found that Trump is very unpopular, with 47% saying they “strongly disapprove” of his job performance. This could become important because McSally has snuggled up close to Trump.
The entire nation is watching the Arizona race for US Senate, which has been marked by stupid, false and nasty attack ads by McSally. See McSally ad lies to denigrate the First Amendment rights of Americans.
US Congress member Sinema supports full access to healthcare. “We need to fix the parts of the system that are broken while protecting the things that are working — like ensuring coverage for the 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions. We need to protect Medicare, Kids Care, and AHCCCS — critical programs that Arizonans count on for affordable, quality care. We need to fight back against misguided proposals like an “age tax” that would force Arizona seniors to pay up to five times more for their care,” she says on Tucson.com.
Sinema also supports improving health care for veterans, funding military bases in Arizona, citizenship for Dreamers and protecting federal funding for Arizona public schools.
McSally voted against Obamacare, for raising premiums for seniors and for abolishing coverage of pre-existing conditions.
Podcast: What You Don’t Know About the Primary Elections
In this 9/1/18 interview on the John C. Scott Show broadcast on KVOI 1030 AM, Blog for Arizona writer Larry Bodine reveals his insights about the August 28 Arizona primary races. Topics include: Who turned out to vote in the primary election? Was it Millennials and Latinos? Astonishingly, 100,000 people voted for a convicted racist crook. … Read more
Planned Parenthood Super PAC Begins Multi-Million Dollar #AZSen Campaign With $1.1M Canvassing, Digital Ad Spend
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood’s political organization announced that Arizona’s Senate race would be one of its top eight priorities in the nation. Today, they disclosed their first $1.1M have been spent on digital advertising and canvassing. Planned Parenthood Votes is spending $600,000 to set up in-house canvassing operations with main offices in Tucson, Phoenix and … Read more