Click below to hear broadcaster John C. Scott interview writer Larry Bodine of the Blog for Arizona on a recent radio program covering the Arizona race for US Senate, the race for Governor and the Democratic primary for Congress in Tucson’s CD2.
Topics covered:
US Senate:
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Kyrsten Sinema — she’s now running ads as if she’s in the general election. She running on three winning issues: access to healthcare, better education and creating jobs that pay well.
Republicans are running on losing issues: fear of immigrants, the Second Amendment and repealing Obamacare.
Martha McSally: a new poll shows her in the lead against Kelli Ward and evil Joe Arpaio. McSally is running anti-immigrant ads, but this will doom her in general election. She’s known as “Marty McShifty.” She flip-flopped on immigration and on supporting Trump. Now she brags, “I get invited to the White House all the time.”
Joe Arpaio is a disgrace, embarrassing even Republicans.
Kelli Ward is pro-war, anti-immigration and pro-guns in schools — kissing up to the tea party.
On YouTube, McSally’s top recent video got 880 views. In comparison Sinema’s announcement for running got 25,000 views, her video on affordable healthcare got 6,000 views, and video about her brother Paul got 9,000 views.
There is a move afoot in Congress by a handful of Republicans worried about losing in November to use a discharge petition to force a vote on DACA and the DREAMers that GOP Congressional leadership pushed aside during the continuing resolution (CR) budget battles earlier this year. House Republicans, Defying Leaders, Move to Force Immigration Votes:
More than a dozen House Republicans defied Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Wednesday and moved to force a vote on immigration in the House, aiming to settle the uncertain futures of so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to this country illegally as children.
The group is gathering signatures for a so-called discharge petition, a parliamentary maneuver that could be used to circumvent Mr. Ryan by bringing legislation to the House floor with the support of a majority of members. The party out of power often uses such petitions, but they rarely succeed because a signature from a member of the party in power is seen as a betrayal of leadership.
“We are well aware that the speaker’s preference was not to have this process,” said Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, who introduced the petition Wednesday morning. “I’ve made the argument to the speaker personally that this process actually empowers him.”
If nine more Republicans sign on, along with all House Democrats, the group will be able to revive an immigration debate that had appeared all but dead. Its goal is to force debate on four immigration-related measures, including one of the speaker’s choosing.
Under a little-used rule known as Queen of the Hill, the measure that received the most votes would be adopted, and advance to the Senate, so long as a majority of the House voted in favor. Representative Jeff Denham, Republican of California and the architect of the strategy, said such a rule could be brought up on the first and third Monday of every month. The next opportunity to do so, he said, would be June 11.
Regardless who the Republicans choose as their candidate for the Arizona US Senate seat, a new poll shows Democratic Congress member Kyrsten Sinema winning against them.
The survey by OH Predictive Insights and ABC15 says that the key reason is independent voters, who have a very negative view of GOP leader President Trump, and the negative view that voters in general have of Republicans Kelli Ward, Joe Arpaio, and Martha McSally.
And this is despite the 12% advantage that the GOP has (1,223,219 registered Republicans) over Democrats (1,090,310 registered Democrats) in Arizona. The survey sample reflected the Republican +12-point advantage over Democrats.
Democrats are unified
“The issue we are consistently seeing in the numbers is that Democrats are unified, Republicans are less united, and the all-important Independent voters are trending anti-Republican/Trump” said Mike Noble, managing partner at OH Predictive Insights of Phoenix. “The factors to look for will be if there are enough voters that do not view Trump favorably that still vote the Republican party.”
The survey did not mention Democrat Deedra Abboud, an attorney and Muslim-American community activist, whom Sinema faces in the August 28 primary.
Speaking on KVOI radio 1030 in Tucson, Republican strategist Sam Stone says there may be statewide losses for Republican candidates in the mid-term elections.
“I do think we’re heading into something of a [blue] wave. … If you’re in Wisconsin and other states, Democrats have been undervoting in the last three cycles now and they’re going to come out, absolutely. The question is, are Republicans? So far, the answer in the special elections has been ‘no.’ We’re fat and happy with the presidency,” he said.
Stone is Chief of staff of Republican City Councilman Sal DiCiccio in Phoenix and a former campaign advisor to Martha McSally. He was interviewed on the John C. Scott political forum, which is now on the radio Saturdays 4 to 6 pm.
Asked if there will be a “blue wave” in Arizona, he said, “potentially a little bit.” He said Democrats may win the races for Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The race for in Tucson’s CD2
He foresees a Republican defeat in Tucson’s Congressional District 2, even as he sneered, “the Democratic bench that is running in CD2 is pretty pathetically weak. You’ve got a carpetbagger and a bunch of people who Lea Marquez Peterson would normally slaughter. Whoever comes out of that may well win that race.”
Though people disagree, former congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick is seen as the Democratic front-runner in a primary contest with Mary Matiella, Billy Kovacs, Bruce Wheeler, Matt Heinz, Babara Sherry and others.
Stone said president Trump’s “waned popularity” is a problem for Marquez-Peterson. “Lea has the advantage of clarity that didn’t exist for Martha McSally in the last three years. … The electorate that first elected Martha McSally [in 2014], both in both the Republican primary and general election, is not the electorate that is enamored of Trump. You can run away from him. The electorate that is enamored of him is about 40% of the Republican primary base. She [Marquez-Peterson] has a relatively open primary, she really is not contested very much. So for her, doesn’t need to stray into Trump territory.”
President Trump’s base is “30% of the Republican primary base, and it incredibly strong with him. The rest of the folks who went along [with Trump] voted against Hillary Clinton and for Neil Gorsuch and for a conservative majority supreme court. If he continues to ignore and really inflame larger swaths of the country, those folks aren’t necessarily with him, that voted for him,” Stone said.
Activists worldwide have been organizing, educating, protesting, writing, and sharing stories and videos to tell the citizens of the world just how bad the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal is for people. After all, anything written in secret by 600 multinational corporations can’t be good for us.
This Wednesday– June 3, 2015– is another national day of action against the TPP. Organizers are calling on us– all of us– to call our representatives in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday and tell them to vote NO on the fast track authorization for the TPP.
The top three people to call in Arizona are Representatives:
Martha McSally: Ron Barber stood with workers and opposed the TPP. What about you, Martha? Will she stand for corporate people or humans? (BTW, On June 3, the TPP Flushers will be protesting in front of Martha’s office at 4400 E. Broadway Blvd at 9:30 a.m. Bring signs.)
Kyrsten Sinama: She has been a Wall Street darling since she went to Congress, but a recent anti-TPP protest at her office may have sparked a no vote on the TPP. Let’s encourage her to stand with us this time– instead of Wall Street.
Ann Kirkpatrick: Ann is a blue dog Democrat, but in the last Congress she had a better voting record than Sinema or Barber, when it came to issues that would help everyday Arizonans. Ann recently announced that she will challenge Senator John McCain for for the Senate in 2016. Show us how different you are from McCain and vote NO on the TPP, Ann! (Don’t make Barber’s mistake of not sufficiently separating your views from your opponent’s.)
