McSally Trails in Another Poll After Sticking By McConnell Instead of Standing Up for State, Local Relief

Pollster: “McSally Is Doing Terribly,” No “Bright Spot”

Yet another poll shows unelected Senator Martha McSally trailing combat veteran and former astronaut Mark Kelly, with the pollster behind the data concluding, “McSally is doing terribly…there’s no way to find a bright spot on that one.”

The devastating numbers follow McSally’s decision to stick with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell instead of Arizonans, by refusing to oppose his position that states like Arizona go “the bankruptcy route.”

Instead, McSally has ignored a letter from local mayors requesting her assistance in securing federal relief, and she was caught siding with McConnell on opposing direct relief. After McSally’s position was made public, a spokesperson said her remarks “were not intended to be made public” – even though McSally made them at a publicly-advertised event.

McSally’s political maneuvering caused one local columnist to ask, “Is Sen. Martha McSally more beholden to Sen. Mitch McConnell than to Arizona?” And that’s a legitimate question, given that McConnell-linked groups plan to spend at least $16 million to keep McSally’s vote in the Senate.

Today’s new poll isn’t the first to show the unelected senator trailing Kelly, who has also out-raised her each quarter and has a $10 million cash-on-hand advantage.

That should come as no surprise: Arizonans are well-aware that McSally has repeatedly voted to let insurance companies increase prices on older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions – that’s why McSally has called on outside groups to start “muddying up the landscape” on her health care record.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Arizona Republic (Opinion): New poll shows Sen. Martha McSally losing ground to Mark Kelly and that’s not even the bad news

By Laurie Roberts

Key Points:

• From the Republican uh-oh department: Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is sliding in the polls, dropping four percentage points in a month.

• McSally now trails Democrat Mark Kelly by 13 points, according to the latest tracking poll by OH Predictive Insights.

• “McSally is doing terribly,” pollster Mike Noble told me on Monday. “There’s no way to find a bright spot on that one.”

• And that’s not even the bad news for McSally.

• McSally’s declining support lies within the 4 percent margin of error in the May tracking poll, a blend of live and automated calls made between May 9 to May 11. But her Maricopa County numbers are a disaster.

• In May 2019, this same tracking poll showed Kelly up over McSally, 46%-41%, among likely voters in Maricopa County.

• In May 2020, Kelly has climbed to 54% in Maricopa County while McSally has dropped to 36%.

• Just think about that for a moment. Kelly has gone from a five-point advantage in Maricopa County to an 18-point cruise.

• That’s a stunner when you consider that Maricopa County always goes for Republicans (well, except for now-ex-state Superintendent Diane Douglas and McSally).

• More stunning still: the fact that the state’s most populous county is the one place that McSally must win if she wants to hang onto that Senate seat yet she has done nothing to appeal to the independents and moderate Republican voters who likely will decide this race.

• I’ve never understood McSally’s strategy — why she decided to become a Donald Trump pocket pal when it was obvious she lost in 2018 because she campaigned as a Donald Trump pocket pal.

• Republicans, meanwhile, are mostly silent on the campaign front. The Senate Leadership Fund, run by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, plans to spend $9.2  million to try to boost McSally but not until the fall.

• Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, faced with possible loss of the Senate, recently pushed the panic button, announcing plans to move ahead in June with a $5.7 million ad campaign to try to save the appointed senator who now trails by double digits.

Read the full column here.

Arizona Republic (Opinion): Is Sen. Martha McSally more beholden to Sen. Mitch McConnell than to Arizona?

By E.J. Montini

Key Points:

• Sen. Martha McSally is towing the line of Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell when it comes to stiffing cities and states in the next federal bailout bill for communities devastated by the coronavirus.

• Which is pretty much every community.

• But McSally is sticking with McConnell.

• McSally said, “I’m just going to be frank with you guys. This is not the time for states and cities – unlike Arizona, unlike Surprise – who have mismanaged their budgets over the course of many decades, for them to use this as an opportunity to see you, as a taxpayer in Arizona, as a cash cow for them in whatever city you want to talk about, whether it’s Chicago or New York or whatever.”

• Perhaps her zeal in this matter is philosophically based. But I can’t help but wonder if McSally’s willingness to tow the McConnell line might have something to do with her needing a bailout herself, when it comes to the November election.

• Last month it was reported that Kelly had raised $11 million in the first three months of the year and finished the quarter with $19.7 million in cash available, nearly double the campaign cash of McSally.

• Not only do states and cities need financial help, but so, too, does McSally’s campaign.

• And while McConnell isn’t willing to help local governments, he seems perfectly happy to bail out McSally.

• And you know where she stands.

Read the full column here.

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