Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Senator @KyrstenSinema knows that Arizonans need an independent voice representing them in the Senate. pic.twitter.com/quSlnyMAj5
— Captain Mark Kelly (@CaptMarkKelly) October 3, 2020
Tonight is the first big showdown between appointed U.S. Sen.
Martha McSally and her Democratic opponent, Mark Kelly, the former NASA
astronaut who is leading in the polls.
McSally and Kelly will meet at 7 p.m. for a 90-minute debate
that’s being moderated by Phoenix NPR station KJZZ’s Steve Goldstein, Ted
Simons of Arizona PBS, Lorraine Rivera of Arizona Public Media and Yvone
Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic.
You can watch the debate in Tucson on PBS 6.
Ahead of the debate, Kelly rolled out new TV ad from Sen. Kyrsten
Sinema, the Democrat who defeated McSally in 2018. (McSally was later appointed
to a U.S. Senate seat by Gov. Doug Ducey to finish the term of the late John
McCain.)
Sinema charges that “McSally will say anything
to get elected” and adds that the Republican incumbent hitting Kelly with the same
kind of “false attacks” that she tried against Sinema two years ago.
“But Martha’s worst lies
are the ones about her own record,” Sinema concludes. “She voted to eliminate protections for pre-existing health
conditions. An Arizona senator
should be an independent voice that puts everyday people first.
That’s why I support Mark.”
Polling shows Sinema is considerably more popular that
McSally in the state. At the start of 2020, McSally was ranked among the most
unpopular senators in the country, with 37 percent of those surveyed approving
of the job she’s doing and 40 percent disapproving, giving her a with a net
approval of -3. Sinema, by contrast, had an approval rating of 44 percent and a
disapproval rating oof 30 percent, giving her a net approval rating of +14.
Piggybacking on the theme that McSally can’t be trusted, the
Arizona Democratic Party rolled out a new website, MisleadingMcSally.com, linking
to various news outlets and fact-checking sites that have called out McSally
for false or dishonest statements.
Among the areas that the site explores: McSally’s record on
preexisting conditions, which she herself admitted was a major vulnerability in
her unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Senate. Democrats link back to articles by
PolitiFact and the Washington Post fact checker that recount McSally’s previous
votes for eliminating protections for people with preexisting conditions by
repealing the Affordable Care Act to counter McSally’s vow that she will “always”
protect people with preexisting conditions. It also reminds readers that
McSally has not opposed the Trump administration’s effort to persuade the U.S.
Supreme Court to dismantle the entire Affordable Care Act.