ONE WEEK OUT: What to Know About the #AZSEN GOP Showdown

Across the map, this Republican Senate primary season has been a nightmare filled with recruitment failures, bitter infighting, and deep division. And they’ve saved the best example for last: the ongoing and increasingly contentious fight boiling in Arizona.

The battle between Congresswoman Martha McSally, State Senator Kelli Ward, and disgraced Sheriff Joe Arpaio have created divisions so deep in the Arizona GOP that they have virtually guaranteed whoever becomes the nominee will be damaged and limping through the general with just under 80 days to go.

Ahead of next week’s  August 28th primary, here is everything you need to know about the GOP’s Nightmare Primary:

Congresswoman Martha McSally, backed by Washington Republicans and hyped by the likes of Mitch McConnell,  was supposed to be the frontrunner in the race, but has been an utter disappointment to Arizona Republicans

• Politico: “Jittery” Republicans beg President Trump to intervene Arizona primary “out of fear” that McSally is floundering.
• Arizona Republic: McSally “has refashioned her tone and priorities, a U-turn that hardliners like Ward have said is a sign that McSally is only conservative as it suits her career needs.”
• Arizona Republic’s EJ Montini labeled her “McSilent,” “McSkittish,” a “political changeling,” and asked “so, who is McSally, really?”
• Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts: “since launching her Senate campaign, Martha McSally has become virtually unrecognizable,” lurching to the right on immigration and other issues as she struggles with conservative primary voters after running for years as a moderate. In McSally’s campaign, “principles and positions apparently take a back seat to political ambition… for an ambitious Republican looking to move up, up and, unfortunately, away from previous convictions and beliefs.”
• Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts: Martha McSally looks small over her snub of John McCain
• McSally’s policy flip-flops angered Republicans and fed attacks from her opponents.
  • HuffPost: McSally’s abandonment of the RAC Act seems an indication that she is responding to Ward’s attacks from the right.
  • Arizona Republic: The move comes as McSally is facing two rival conservatives seeking this year’s Republican nomination for the state’s open Senate seat
  • RealClearPolitics: McSally’s DACA Flip Lays Bare AZ Senate Race Dynamics
  • Slate: An Arizona Senate Candidate’s Painfully Obvious Shift on Immigration
  • ThinkProgress: Congresswoman McSally quietly drops support for DACA fix

• McSally was grilled for improperly fundraising for two campaigns at the same time.
  • Associated Press: Group: McSally Improperly Fundraising for House, Senate.
  • WATCH: KMSB (FOX)
  • Arizona Republic: Liberal group: Martha McSally improperly raising money for House, Senate at same time
  • WATCH: KOLD (CBS)
  • Arizona Public Media: Group Claims McSally Fundraising for Two Campaigns
• Arizona Daily Star: McSally “has increasingly highlighted her close ties to the president, drawing criticism that the retired Air Force Colonel has changed course to better to appeal to Trump supporters” as she runs to win a contentious primary.
• AZ Family: Congresswoman McSally “would not say what she believes” when asked if she agreed with the president’s statements that the press are the “enemy of the American People.”

Kelli Ward is running as the consistent conservative who would be a rubber stamp on the GOP’s most dangerous policies.

• Ward was endorsed by Congresswoman McSally’s colleague Congressman Paul Gosar
  • Roll Call: “Gosar criticized McSally in his announcement, saying “we cannot afford another establishment patsy who promises one thing and votes differently…Gosar said while he liked McSally personally, he found her to be “inconsistent politically.”
• Vox: Arizona’s Kelli Ward is campaigning with an alt-right troll to prove her love for Trump.
• Washington Examiner: Kelli Ward ‘open’ to supporting McConnell as GOP leader if elected.
• Politico: Kelli Ward touts endorsement from fake-news site.
• Business Insider: Conservative media stars are bucking GOP leadership and endorsing an opponent of a vulnerable Republican senator.

From the beginning, the primary has been a “scorched earth” battle plagued with months of petty squabbles and personal attacks.

• CNN: Kelli Ward refuses to say whether she’d back Rep. Martha McSally as Arizona Senate primary nears.
• NBC News: “Conservative Kelli Ward has been bashing Rep. Martha McSally from the right (and don’t forget that Joe Arpaio is in this race, too). The winner will face a strong candidate in Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.”
• McSally’s legal team has threatened to “pursue legal remedies” against tv stations who run Ward’s statewide PAC ads.
• Arizona Republic: Martha McSally and Kelli Ward clashed at The Arizona Republic. Here’s what we learned.
• Politico: The battle between Kelli Ward, Martha McSally, and Joe Arpaio devolves into a “total muddle, prolonging the GOP slugfest.”
• ABC15 poll: Arizona Senate race tightening in primary, general election matchups.

Outside groups are lining up behind the candidates and the campaigns are pouring money into the primary.

• Politico: Megadonor boosts Ward in Arizona Senate race.
• Newsweek: Ward does have the support of Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, and of Robert Mercer, the hedge fund executive and megadonor behind Trump’s campaign. Bannon stumped for Ward on October 17, and Mercer donated $708,100 to her previous election efforts and $300,000 so far in 2017, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
• Roll Call: “McSally spent nearly seven times as much as Ward in the pre-primary reporting period between July 1 and Aug. 8”
  • “The two-term congresswoman had $1.9 million in cash on hand, compared to Ward’s $257,000. Arpaio’s pre-primary report was not available at the Senate Office of Public Records, but the former sheriff had $292,000 on hand as of June 30.”
  • “The problem is that Sinema was left alone as Republicans fought it out,  one Arizona Republican consultant said.”

 

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