Congresswoman Martha McSally continued to demonstrate her fundraising prowess last week, announcing she had raised nearly $750,000 in the first quarter of 2017.
“It’s clear to Southern Arizonans that Rep. McSally has a standout ability to get things done and deliver results,” said McSally campaign manager Anthony Barry. “She has successfully secured funding for the A-10, advanced key Southern Arizona infrastructure projects, led on national security and border issues, and passed the second highest number of bills in the House in the 114th Congress—to name a few of her accomplishments.”
But McSally also spends money at a fast clip. McSally had only $630,000 in the bank at the end of the quarter for her 2018 campaign.
McSally’s political opponents continue to focus on unseating the rising GOP star in the highly competitive Congressional District 2. New groups such as Indivisible Southern Arizona and McSally Take a Stand continue to hold regular demonstrations outside her midtown office. And last week, McSally took fire from both the right and the left in the form of TV ads targeting the GOP’s stalled efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Save My Care, which is funded by Alliance for Healthcare Security (which is in turn funded by healthcare groups and labor unions), hit McSally with a TV ad highlighting provisions of the Affordable Care Act repeal legislation that crashed and burned in the House of Representatives last month. The ad criticized McSally for supporting legislation that raised premiums, particularly among Americans older than 50, and caused 24 million to lose health insurance (according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis).
Meanwhile, the conservative Club for Growth aired an ad accusing “professional politicians like Martha McSally” of “standing in the way” of an effort to resurrect the healthcare legislation.
Barry said the two ads “reveal what this all really about: politics as usual in Washington. Despite these attacks from all sides, McSally remains resolved and focused on being a constructive voice in the legislative fight for better health care for Southern Arizona, including the most vulnerable in our community.”
McSally is finding support from her political allies. Earlier this week, America First Policies, a political nonprofit aligned with Trump, announced plans to run TV and digital ads supporting her and other Republicans who supported Trump’s efforts to push the House healthcare legislation that failed last month.
DJ Quinlan, spokesman for the Arizona Alliance for Healthcare Security, said the ads by America First Policies was another demonstration that McSally was aligned with Trump.
“McSally showed her true colors when she supported a bill that would take healthcare coverage away from 41,000 people in her own community,” said Quinlan said in a prepared statement. “She has forgotten that she is supposed to be working for the people of Southern Arizona, not taking orders from Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, former Air Force fighter pilot Jeff Latas, a Democrat who lost a primary for an open congressional seat in 2006, launched an exploratory committee to weigh his chances against McSally, while earlier this week, Prep and Pastry cofounder and current Hotel Congress operations manager Billy Kovacs, who has never run for office, announced he wanted to challenge McSally. And former state lawmaker Victoria Steele, who sought to challenge McSally in 2016 but lost her Democratic primary to former state lawmaker Matt Heinz, is also considering another run in the district.
The other hot rumor in the district has former Arizona congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick relocating to Southern Arizona to challenge McSally. Kirkpatrick gave up her seat in Congressional District 1 to challenge U.S. Sen. John McCain last year.
In other political news: In this year’s race to replace retiring Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich in Ward 3, Democrat Tom Tronsdal, who owns a local fencing company, has filed for matching funds for his campaign. To qualify for matching funds, candidates have to file at least 200 contributions of at least $10 from city residents. Filing for matching funds is generally considered a sign of solid campaign organization.
Tronsdal is facing two other Democrats, former Ward 6 council aide Paul Durham and teacher Felicia Chew, in the August Democratic primary. No Republican has yet entered the race for the open seat, but Libertarian Julian Mazza has filed to run.
Democrat Steve Kozachik, who has sworn off campaign fundraising as he seeks a third term representing midtown Ward 6, has picked up a Republican opponent, architect Mariano Rodriguez.
Candidates continue to make moves for 2018 as well. Last week, attorney Deedra Abboud, who founded and chaired the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) announced her plans to seek the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake in 2018. Flake is also facing a challenge from the right in the form of former state lawmaker Kelli Ward, who lost a primary to Sen. John McCain last year.
Democrat David Garcia, an ASU education professor and former state Department of Education staffer who lost to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas in 2014, announced last week he was launching a challenge against Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.
He is the second Democratic candidate to announce; the first was Noah Dyer, a political rookie who got national headlines, including a “scandal and controversy” page on his website that included the disclosures about his experiences with group sex and making sex tapes, as well as various financial difficulties.
State lawmaker Steve Farley, a Democrat who represents midtown Tucson, is also exploring a run for governor.
Former Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman, who ran as a Democrat against Sen. John McCain in 2010, is exploring a run for Arizona Corporation Commission as a Republican.
Republican state lawmaker Steve Montenegro is considering a 2018 primary challenge to Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, who had been beset by blunders as Arizona’s chief elections officer. On the Democratic side, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and state lawmaker Katie Hobbs are weighing runs for Sec of State.
Earlier this week, David Schapira, a Tempe City Council member and former state lawmaker, announced his plans to run against Douglas for the job of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Douglas is also facing a challenge from Tracy Livingston, a school teacher who serves on the Maricopa Community College Governing Board who has previously served on the Peoria Unified School District Board..
This article appears in Apr 20-26, 2017.
I’ve demonstrated outside McSally’s office, but I’d call myself a constituent, not a political opponent. Isn’t there an interim between elections when a representative should be thinking about keeping promises (McSally did promise to only support a health care plan if it provided better and more affordable coverage than the ACA), addressing constituents’ concerns, and even keeping her oath to support the Constitution?
Based on the ROI (return on investment), I am pretty sure that electing politicians to any office — federal, state or local — amounts to crowd-sourcing careers, income, benefits and retirement of said politicians with little else to show for the common constituents.
Now, if you are a special interest lobbyist, corporation or major donor, America has the best politicians you can buy, but don’t ask the Russians right now, I think they are having buyer’s remorse.
For all of you that hate corporate welfare, didn’t the city and the county just approve a million of our pothole repair dollars to an airline for non stop flights to NY? Please make them one way flights and take the politicians with you.
McSally also voted to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal the ACA numerous times without a viable alternative. She voted in favor of plan that would take healthcare from millions of people who desperately need it so the uber-rich could get the $200,000 tax refund they so richly deserve (insert sarcasm here). She voted to let Cox and Comcast sell your web viewing history because, well, the cable companies make a $40,500 contribution to her. She has been and will always be a paid for shill for the Koch brothers.
Oh yeah, I forgot. She voted to let coal companies pour their waste into streams, voted to let people with mental challenges purchase guns, voted to bring back lead bullets, which leach into the ground and poison birds who eat other animals hit by those bullets, and generally roll back all things that are trying to keep corporate greed from destroying the planet.
Since you’re bringing up challengers to Congresswoman McSally, may I note that I’m also running? If you want a representative that will spend less time fundraising and more time talking and listening to constituents, visit my website, check me out, and get in touch. I sincerely want to hear from you. https://charlieverdin.com/
I don’t believe that it was McSally’s pestering of the Air Force that saved the A10 and, other than a weak vote of support for the Sonoran Corridor project, she has brought NOTHING of value – – not even on the conservative side – – to southern Arizona. And for the desperately poor people of her district? Also, NOTHING of value. Face it! She is just a certain vote for the Koch/Exxon/Putin wing of the Federal Government, which serves only corporate greed and the idle rich. Time to send her back to New Jersey.
“And for the desperately poor people of her district?” They just finished 8 years with the fantastic Obama economy. What else could they need?
And now you link Koch with the Russians? You do know the Kochs opposed Trump, or do you?
Everyone else has dropped the Russian fake news. You might as well join them.
Ah, so Rodney Glassman has resurfaced
Several times back in the past (i.e., before the attack) I can remember listening to our Representative Gabrielle Giffords live on local radio, being interviewed and taking calls. Gabrielle took all calls without hesitation and spoke up on a range of issues, even those that were personal to the caller. In a soft voice, Gabrielle spoke with strength and sincerity. With so many people in office today, such courage and common sense have evaporated.
Sally ability to get things done, you mean like Trump has. Revoking all the life saving laws for EPA, you mean revoking AHC She is just another TRASH Republican who needs to be defeated. What has she actually done to HELP AZ citizens? NAME ONE.
Don’t think McSally is much of a lay….
(your subhed…)