The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched a new nationwide ad buy targeting Republican House members who haven’t disavowed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
The ad will be running both in the Phoenix market and here in Southern Arizona, where freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally is seeking reelection in Congressional District 2. Right now, former state lawmakers Matt Heinz and Victoria Steele are battling it out in the Democratic primary to see who will have the chance to face McSally.
While she captured the highly competitive CD2 by just 167 votes over Democratic incumbent Ron Barber in 2014, McSally is undeniably favored to win this year’s race. A former A-10 pilot and squadron commander, she has been one of the loudest voices in the fight to save the Warthog and the jobs it brings to Southern Arizona. She’s worked with local officials on efforts such as reversing plans to shut down Tucson’s mail-processing operation. She’s a rising GOP star in D.C. who regularly lands spots on the cable news nets.
We’ll see where Heinz and Steele are on the fundraising front later this month, but neither one has come close to keeping pace with McSally, who remains one of the best fundraisers in the country.
To sum it up: Few people are betting on McSally losing in November. Nonetheless, the DCCC’s willingness to dump money into the region with this buy shows that Democrats aren’t completely writing off CD2. Sure, the ads also benefit Democrat Tom O’Halleran in his race for the open and competitive seat in Congressional District 1, but Dems are holding out hope that in the Year of Trump, the national mood might just bring a wave powerful enough to sink even McSally.
McSally herself has continued to keep her distance from Trump. As she often does when facing tough political choices, McSally has neither denounced nor endorsed Trump. Instead, she’s said that she needs more time to measure his character, which was certainly on display in DC today.
Republicans have basically four ways of dealing with Trump—and all of them have negative consequences in one way or another. They can go #NeverTrump and outright denounce him, as Jeb and Mitt—who aren’t so concerned about having a political future—have done. They can withhold their support, as Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has done. They can embrace him, even reluctantly, as Arizona Sen. John McCain has done as he seeks to tamp down yet another challenge from the right in this year’s GOP primary. Or they can do like McSally and just kind of pretend he’s not out there, saying all these crazy things.
But until or unless McSally denounces Trump, expect Democrats to connect her to his every outrage with spots like these, featuring #NeverTrump Republicans like these:
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2016.
When will democrats denounce Hillary Rodham Clinton? She is a five time liar, married to a habitual liar. But all I see are anti Trump stories. Why not defend your candidate? Indefensible?
The problems is that how an republican put up with Trump. Most look at it like the best of two evils. We as a republican wonder why the Democrats dont care about the actions of Hillary. One has the government sewn up to continue with favored corony capitalism. One will be hobbled and have to fight for everything. Like the republicans did for civil rights and voting rights. Learn your history this political rag sheet LOL
If you are afraid of Trump, vote for Bernie Sanders. This is a no-brainer!
I viewed both the videos linked in Nintzel’s column. Nowhere is McSally mentioned except for the fact that she is a Republican candidate running for (re)election in the House and has not taken a stand against Mr. Toxic Waste. The lede “DCCC Links McSally and Other House Republicans to Trump in Early Air War Sortie” is misleading at best. Anyone looking for profiles in courage candidates in this election, will be sorely disappointed.
Should McSally come out against Mr. Toxic Waste? Sure, how hard is it to come out against a madman who has seized the Republican Party’s candidacy for president of the US? Should Democrats running for office gut up and distance themselves from their own toxic candidate? Of course. Especially in light of the real possibility the party is about to nominate the single candidate who can conceivably lose to the most unqualified presidential candidate in US history.
Why is “like” and “dislike” comments our only two choices? Maybe each sentence should end with the option. There was some really good stuff above. But not in total.
If I can imagine Bill Clinton’s schedule. With campaign schedules coming into the final stretch. I would guess I have scheduled every day to the 15 minute. So here I am jetting across the country and hey lets help grandkids party, and which golf course has the best greens. Why dont you give old Loretta call see if she want to go? Just so happens she is jetting over Phoenix right now. Hey lets land at Sky Harbor and exchange schedules and have a cup of java what do ya say? Ok will will change my schedule and we will be parked way out on the tarmac the best brew is there.
Lets ask Martha McSally just what it take to make that happen, during a campaign final stretch. To land go to a tarmac set and then jet off. Whats the cost to others schedules and monies? That might be journalism rather than hate basing because your hate is more valid to you than his.
But then again she is doing the work of Congress for southern AZ. She is working on so many fronts,not campaigning for scraps thrown for helping the presidential candidate. We have serious issues here in AZ
Just a follow up lets ask Martha McSally what her opinion bogus intentionally altered Scientific Data. This was done by a government office USGS Scientific. It has been happening for 2 decades concerning the Kaibab and all along the Colorado river. It was this data that Raul Grijalva used when he tried to grab so much of Northern AZ.
We need to break up the Congressional District 1. To where the Tucson Congressional Representative has congressional oversight over the Nogales port. Raul has been instrumental in shifting transportation of all freight through the Port entry of San Luis.
Thanks for mentioning the fraud at the USGS. I am finding very little media coverage on this. They have “cooked the books” for environmental groups to argue for more government regulations.
Whoever said the system is rigged, is absolutely right. Public schools have been promoting this faulty science for a generation, so these young adults need to be reprogrammed. They were lied to.
OH yes ! Lets cast our vote for MRS. Clinton instead, she’s a far better candidate, then that racist Donald Trump, she’s Honest, trustworthy, compassionate. Loves our veterans, why she was even under fire once, so she knows what our soldiers went through in Benghazi, when they were under siege by a rowdy crowd, upset over a video.
And she never lied to congress under oath. As ‘Secretary of State’ she was unaware of the laws regarding Top Secret E-mails sent on a private server were illegal. Stupid ass Conservatives.
She’s genuine, why she even threw all of our police departments throughout the country, under the bus, because all of them are a bunch of racist S.O.B.’s and she encouraged young Black African Americans to do the same. She hates terrorist. especially Radical Christian Conservatives.
She’s going to continue to fight against the Second amendment, Heck, why should the common, law abiding citizens of this nation, deserve the same protection as the Clintons and the Obamas, Right ?
Ladies and Gentlemen, on Nov, 8 cast you’re vote for a woman of true integrity, Hilary Clinton 2016, YEA !