“Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, will fundraise with Arizona Republican Kari Lake next month — a snapshot into the party’s full-court press to help elect the pro-Trump election denier,” Axios reports.
“Republicans view the Arizona opening as one of their top opportunities to gain a Senate seat in November, prompting every corner of the party to coalesce around Lake, despite her controversial past.”
“GOP leaders have counseled Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake to avoid airing grievances about past elections and instead center her campaign on a more forward-looking message,” CNN reports.
“She hasn’t exactly taken the advice.”
“While Lake did say she is more concerned about her upcoming battle against Democratic candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego, the former TV broadcaster is still not shying away from echoing former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about the election when asked about the issue as she fights for a critical Senate seat in a battleground state.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the number two Republican in the Senate, is endorsing Kari Lake (R) in her Arizona Senate bid, Axios reports.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) announced she will not run for reelection, NBC News reports.
Her decision provides Democrats a sigh of relief and avoiding what would have been a messy three-way race with an independent incumbent, a Democrat and a Republican.
Kari Lake (R) and her Republican allies are planning an advertising and messaging offensive against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) on crime and the southern border in the Arizona Senate race, Axios reports.
Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) reached out to Meghan McCain in an effort to mend fences after she was critical of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Said Lake: “I value you. I value your family and I value the passion you have for our state.”
A few hours later, McCain responded: “No peace, bitch!”
Meghan McCain wasn’t impressed by Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) saying her past criticism of Sen. John McCain was just a joke.
Said Ms. McCain: “No peace, bitch. We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.”
“A defensive Kari Lake acknowledged in a radio interview Monday she couldn’t identify exactly who ‘stole’ her gubernatorial election, said Ukraine ‘is lost’ to Russia, and said she would not back a federal ban on all abortions,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“Lake also now says her past criticism of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that offended and alienated many of his supporters was meant in jest.”
“Kari Lake’s months of courting the Republican establishment in D.C. are paying off,” Politico reports.
“Once the consummate outsider, Lake has been maneuvering since even before launching her Arizona Senate bid last fall to show party leaders she’s ready to play nice — and move beyond her antagonistic and election-denial-centered 2022 run for governor.”
“It’s a move that indicates top Republicans believe she has put together a serious campaign, and it sends a strong message to donors that she is worth their investment. And it’s a sign that this time, Lake is ready to work with the D.C. establishment.”
Washington Post: “It was an unfamiliar greeting for Lake, an outspoken election denier and former local television anchor who just a year ago was welcomed rapturously by the same Donald Trump-supporting crowd.”
“Yet it was an indication of the mistrust that’s developed within the Arizona GOP after Lake and her allies appeared to have turned a favorite hardball tactic — taping conversations and then leaking them publicly — against one of the party’s own.”
“The booing followed by days the release of a secret recording made of her conversation last year with Jeff DeWit, then the state party chair. During their discussion, DeWit said that important people did not want Lake to run for Senate and wondered if she would think about instead going on a corporate payroll. Lake told him that she would not ‘be bought’ and publicly cast the offer as evidence of bribery.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-AZ) fundraising cratered to her lowest quarterly total yet this cycle as she stares down an April deadline to file for reelection, Politico reports.
Washington Post: “It’s the type of intricate legislative dealmaking the former Democrat has built her unusual political brand on. But in the next few weeks, Sinema must decide whether voters in her purple state care enough about her brand of politics in a polarized era to reelect her as an independent, as the window for her to gather enough signatures to land on the November ballot quickly closes.”
“A Republican consultant familiar with the recent internal deliberations within Sinema’s tight-knit circle said that the team’s debate involves one central question: In today’s hyperpartisan environment, do voters value elected officials who bring both sides together to deliver legislation?”
The Daily Mail has an audio recording of what appears to be Arizona’s top Republican official trying to bribe Kari Lake (R) not to run for U.S. Senate.
Jeff DeWit, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, can be heard asking Lake, a close ally of Donald Trump, to name her price to stay out of politics for two years.
Said DeWit: “There are very powerful people who want to keep you out.”
DeWit also told Lake that he thinks Trump will lose the 2024 election and it is time to make way for someone else.
“Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego on Monday endorsed her ex-husband, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, in his campaign to move up to the Senate,” the AP reports.
“The mayor’s decision to publicly back her former husband, while not surprising, will help him blunt criticism for their divorce, which occurred weeks before the birth of their child.”
Washington Post: “The outreach, made over the course of several weeks through in-person meetings and phone calls, is a welcome sign to Washington Republicans, who would like to see Lake broaden her MAGA base in the once reliably red state and help them retake the U.S. Senate in 2024. But Lake’s effort to reassure political rivals and onetime supporters in this desert state has been met with skepticism, according to interviews with half a dozen Republicans familiar with her conversations who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private talks.”
“Most cite her refusal to acknowledge her electoral loss — even up to today — as well as the relentless demonization of members of her own party, including former Arizona governor Doug Ducey and the late U.S. senator John McCain (R-AZ).”
Senate Republicans are trying to boost Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) among Democratic voters in the state with a new ad that ties her tightly to President Biden.
Polls show her pulling more Republican votes than Democrat votes in a three-way Senate race.
Playbook notes the ad also criticizes her challenger Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) in “intensely personal terms” even calling him a “deadbeat dad,” without evidence to support the claim.
A Noble Predictive Insights poll in Arizona finds Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) leading a hypothetical three-way U.S. Senate race with 39%, followed by Kari Lake (R) at 33% and incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I) at 29%.
The data shows that Sinema is pulling more Republican votes from Lake than Democratic votes from Gallego.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.