May was a disastrous month for U.S. Sen. Martha McSally.
You don’t have to take our word for it. Former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich said the same thing in a recent fundraising email for McSally: “This month has been a disaster, friend.”
OK, OK. Gingrich probably didn’t say that. More likely, it was crafted by Team McSally as they try to figure out how to raise more money without triggering a fundraising surge for her Democratic opponent, former Navy captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. (McSally herself helped fill Kelly’s coffers with her “liberal hack” comment to CNN’s Manu Raju, which resulted in a flood of money for Kelly back in January, as reported by the Arizona Republic‘s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.)
It’s hard to find much good news for McSally in recent weeks. The headlines have been brutal. At the end of March, Kelly had $20 million in the bank, compared to her $10 million. Politico reported that President Donald Trump expressed concerns that McSally’s unpopularity in Arizona might be bringing him down in our state. While she’s made an effort to deliver supplies and otherwise get good press during the pandemic, McSally has continued to praise Trump’s incompetent handing of the outbreak. On top of that, McSally dismissed the real economic concerns of Arizona towns and cities by suggesting that further federal aid was just a way of bailing out corrupt Democratic cities like Chicago—and when those comments, made in an online town hall with Surprise Mayor Skip Rimsza, made headlines, McSally’s spokesperson suggested the statement wasn’t meant to be made public, as if that’s somehow helpful.
Is it any surprise that two recent polls have shown McSally falling further behind Kelly, the husband of beloved former Southern Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords? First, there was the OH Predictive survey that showed Kelly with a 13-percentage-point lead. That was followed by a poll showing Kelly with a 10-percentage-point lead over McSally by one of the state’s most respected political consulting firms, HighGround Public Affairs Consultants. More than half of the voters surveyed, 51.3 percent, supported Kelly in the HighGround poll, while McSally had the support of just 41.3 percent.
Those double-digit leads were wider than most of the earlier polling in the race, which suggested Kelly was leading by 4 to 6 percentage points. But one thing has been consistent: Kelly has led the race for months. At this point, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Kelly’s lead at 9 percentage points.
Given that HighGround’s poll showed Trump trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by just 2 percentage points, maybe there’s something to Trump’s worry that McSally is dragging him down, contrary to conventional wisdom that McSally has damaged herself by slipping into Trump’s pocket.
“Clearly, for the Arizona voter, Kelly is presenting himself as a better option than Biden, adopting the similar strategy which won Kyrsten Sinema her United States Senate seat in 2018 of avoiding the progressive partisan label that the Democratic Party’s nominee must shoulder,” said Coughlin, a onetime advisor to former Arizona governors Fife Symington and Jan Brewer.
But polls are just snapshots in time. Sure, if the election were held today, Kelly would topple McSally, whose political career has hit a serious tailspin. But the election is still five months and tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending away.
Speaking of that campaign spending: A few months back, McSally said she was praying for independent campaigns to come into Arizona to start muddying up the landscape—and it appears someone upstairs was listening. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign launched a $5.7 million campaign in support of McSally this week with a TV ad accusing Kelly of being too close to China.
As The Skinny reported a few weeks back, a GOP strategy memo warned candidates to avoid defending Trump and shift the blame to China. McSally has fully embraced the “blame China” approach, which is particularly useful in her campaign, as Kelly has had business dealings with Chinese companies in the past. (Of course, so has Trump and his family, but we’re sure McSally will be ignoring that little fact.)
Coughlin warned that even though she’s trailing now, nobody should count McSally out.
“Our survey released yesterday indicated that 20 percent of the electorate is blaming China for COVID-19 and 25 percent still doesn’t know or is blaming no one,” Coughlin said. “Given the recent attacks on Kelly’s business dealings, you can expect the Republican narrative to focus sharply on this issue in an attempt to link Kelly to China and undermine his performance in the dominant media markets of Maricopa and Pima County. McSally will clearly have to up her game with Republican and swing voters in Maricopa and greater Arizona in order to be successful, but as long as Trump is running a competitive race, you cannot count Senator McSally out.”
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2020.
McSally is not a personable individual. That has always been a weakness. That, and the fact, that her staff does not respond to correspondence.
That being said, the carpetbagger hanging on Gabby’s coattails just irritates the crap out of me, and the fact that he is being bankrolled by Bloomberg irritates me more. Every time I see his face on my computer screen or TV, I want to throw something at it.
Don’t fall for it. Kelly will owe his seat to the big donors. Nothing will change.
https://conservativeeditionnews.com/mark-kelly-is-receiving-donations-from-the-mccain-donors-for-key-arizona-senate-race/
They will buy him out. they know he is in it for himself.
What ever does it matter to any sensible person who is to ‘blame’ for the virus? That is an irrelevance, like me trying to figure out who is to ‘blame’ for my cancer. It does not matter. The key question should be, why has this been handled so chaotically and inefficiently by the Feds. States have been allowed to pretty much do whatever they want, with little coherent input as to what is necessary. Also key is to break the extreme partisan nature of this government, so I for one would be happy to see McSally consigned to the political wasteland. Kelly is a worthy substitute in my mind, and at least has the welfare of Arizona’s citizens more to heart than McSally.
“Clearly, for the Arizona voter, Kelly is presenting himself as a better option than Biden,”
??????????????????????????????????
What does that even mean?
Every time I see that annoying McSally ad about China I just want to ask her what else she wants to blame on China. There is one guarantee with both McSally and Trump, they will never take responsibility for anything, everything is always someone else’s fault.
Childrenatwork all options are better than Biden. It’s one of the few things he still knows.
Got an email from Col. Ret. McSally this morning, asking whether or not Trump’s ‘visit’ to St. John’s was appropriate. I responded: Trump did not ‘visit’ St. John’s Church. perhaps he should have but only after contacting the Rector and asking whether it would be appropriate. What he did was get the street cleared by use of pepper spray and rubber bullets and then march across the street, have some flunky hand him a Bible, display the Bible for photos, hand off the Bible to a flunky and walk back home. Definitely not a visit, not presidential, not appropriate, pure Trump. And the photo may be the iconic image of his miserable presidency.
Got your parachute buckled on, Martha? It’s about time to bail out.
Kelly is an American astronaut that Republicans seek to tie to a foreign dictatorship while they try to start a US dictatorship. I’m pretty sure this one is an obvious call.
McSilly should be suing whoever talked her into that “never trust a communist” ad. That is a pretty bizarre throwback to the cold war. But, on the other hand, she said it in an interview. So she really has no one else to blame. She has no place in the Senate.
Cascabel, Yeah. That reminds me of the bogeyman the Democrats made out of Putin and Russia.
Mark Kelly need to adress Mcsilly n.ever trust a communist.ad
Mc Sally is a Fake Senator, mirrored in the republican ideal, fake of course, that they stand for God and country. She is just another government succubus, with no individual thought or commitment, to humanity or the plight of the middle class, and the poor. Her being a woman pilot, and willing to sell her soul(assumption she has one), to the heartless, wealth driven, godless Christian right republican party, has run it’s course. Enjoy retirement, MM.
Regarding “Never trust a communist” ad comments: Yes, the ad was cheap and misleading, but for comments Cascabel “throwback to the cold war” and Ic69hunter “bogeyman the democrats made out of Putin and Russia”–These statements really show shared thinking. Reminds me of 2016 and millions of liberals/progressives/democrats suddenly discovering and complaining about Moscow-directed information-manipulation campaigns. Big whooping surprise after decades of mostly dismissals or buy-ins to Soviet propaganda. And since 2016, millions of conservatives/rightists/republicans dismissing Russian interference as a hoax, and often mouthing memes created by troll-factories sponsored by the FSB or GRU. Revelatory, not good for America, but very united.
And while liberals throw another temper tantrum because their ideas confuse honest voters, the media neglects to show you Senate testimony of Rosenstein admitting the whole Russia storyline be Comey and the deep state was nothing but lies.
Voters are kept ignorant by the leftists as they overthrow American government.
Sheesh liar always lying, I’m not sure what type of conservative laced gak you’re shooting up, but you need to stop. It’s causing you to believe outright lies and it’s causing you to post some really stupid commentary. The one you posted here is just as bad or worse than the ones you posted while sock-puppeting under the username see brees in a recent Claytoonz comment thread. Get professional help and do it quickly. You’re very close to reaching the point of no return.
to acdc, what LAL mentioned about rosenstein was in fact true. so much easier for the I know better, cause it makes me feel good rationale, ad hominum arguments you use. BTW who made you the monitor of truth? Many of your arguments here are weak and misguided, have a nice day
I don’t even attempt to argue with the partial truths or blatant lies that some conservative conspiracy theory loving sock-puppet chooses to believe ladddderflapppy. This is probably why you see my “arguments” as weak. Why bother to even try presenting facts to someone who can’t accept them?
These antagonistic trolls keep posting this misinformation, under hundreds of cringe worthy usernames, with the voracity of a 3 peckered billy goat. Because of that, they deserve every ounce of disrespect they receive. I’m not sure why they, or you, even bother with this website. What’s the point? Do you do it to raise your blood pressure?
Rosenstein was nothing but another toady in the never ending supply of them that the bunker bitch finds while dragging the conservative infested swampy waters. His reputation has, for good reason, become beyond damaged. Anything he did or said during his time as AG didn’t reflect truthful or righteous intent. The only thing making Rod look good is William Barr. The fact that you guys take anything RR was involved in as being unbiased or non-partisan just highlights the fact that you’re blind and/or ignorant.
Additionally, I don’t see myself as the arbiter or “monitor” of truth. The truth is just so obvious when you actually take the time to dig into the things that are said and done…as opposed to believing the partial truths or blatant lies faux snooze or OAN summarize for you so that you can digest it easily. This way, as the leftists overthrow the ‘Merican gubermint by keeping voters ignorant and killing babies, you can feel safe knowing that there’s somebody out there somewhere that shares the same misguided conservative views that you hold dear.
Have a nice evening precious.
From the comment section comes the realization that the truth definitely does hurt. Trump and his Family of Grifters, Traitors and Crooks will soon come to an end and a Real Patriotic American (Democrat) will have to spend the next 2 years traveling the world in an apology tour and cleaning up the mess once again.