The primary races for spots in the Arizona Legislature offered few surprises and many disappointments. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer viewed each race as a personal statement on her legacy.
Early results showed Karen Fann in LD1 losing, but at the end of the day, she and Noel Campbell took the race. In the LD3 Senate race, radical Salomon Baldenegro lost to traditional democrat incumbent Olivia Cajero Bedford. Representative Sonny Borelli easily beat a Brewer-backed assault.
LD7 Senator Carlyle Begay easily won his race against two challengers. In the LD8 race, Irene Littleton won her race while her “teammate” Darla DeWald lost to Brewer’s boys Frank Pratt and T.J. Shope. Shope is considered the dimmest bulb in the Capitol, and he faced stiff competition for that title.
Brewer took a beating in LD11, when her candidate Scott Bartle was crushed by Steve Smith. Smith’s teammates; Mark Finchem and Vince Leach easily won their race. The Governor’s hired hit man; political consultant Nathan Sproul, failed in his efforts to smear the men. Sproul has one of the worst success records of all of the political dirty tricksters.
In LD13, Don Shooter defeated perhaps the most unusual candidates this season; Toby Farmer. Republican Steve Montenegro, who gained attention for his impassioned fight against Brewer’s expansion, and Darin Mitchell both kept their seats in LD13. The Governor lost big with the wins for David Gowan and David Stevens against Susan Syfert.
Brewer darling Heather Carter barely held her spot in LD15. The establishment fought and defeated anti-corruption candidate and former legislator; John Filmore in the LD16 race. David Farnsworth stomped Taylor McArthur in the LD16 Senate race.
Jeff Dial beat Tom Morrissey in the LD18 Senate race.
The Governor and her legacy makers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on smear campaigns.
One member of the grassroots summed up the night’s results for the ADI, “Nothing to celebrate tonight. There were a couple of bright spots, like education and corp. commission, but for the most part we conservatives had our asses whipped, again. In the state legislature we lost big. I know of 9 Republican turncoats that survived, to screw us again. Don’t know about the rest, but it appears that we failed to unseat most, if not all, the Medicaid expansion, big government, tax and spend Republicans”
The total monies spent by independent expenditures (IE) and dark money organizations totaled approximately $9 million. IE’s spent approximately $2.3 million. Most of that money was spent on ads for candidates, while the dark money was on negative ads which tore at the fabric of the Republican Party, but enriched a small group of sleazy operatives.
In one case, a group calling itself the Alliance for Principled Conservatives, led by former failed State Senator Frank Antenori and his partner Christine Bauserman, were denounced by the soft-spoken Dr. Ralph Heap, for their robocalls in which they implied that Heap’s establishment Republican challenger, Senator Bob Worsley, was a criminal. Antenori has a history of making unsubstantiated claims, and inciting fear and anger.
APC also launched an ineffective attack on Pratt and Shope. According to the Yellow Sheet, APC claimed that Shope and Pratt were part of a team of “bought and paid for politicians who were recently charged with criminal acts,” according too the Yellow Sheet. Pratt told the Yellow Sheet that he was stunned by the outrageous allegations. “It’s pretty bad. My wife came in crying. She was that upset by it yesterday afternoon,” Pratt told the Yellow Sheet. “It’s really taking electioneering to a whole new low, in my opinion.”
According to the Yellow Sheet, “the voice on the robocall sounded eerily familiar, and former legislator Frank Antenori was quick to take credit. “Damn right it was me!” Antenori told the Yellow Sheet reporter that the robocall went out against Heather Carter, Bob Worsley, Pratt and T.J Shope.
In a rare stroke of intelligence, Shope told the Yellow Sheet, “The calls went out about the same time as the kickoff for the Arizona Cardinals game Sunday evening.”
Dr. Heap lost to Worsley, who spent a small fortune to preserve his power.
However, it was the Governor and her surrogates that created the most fear and anger in the Republican ranks as she tried to save her legacy by promoting establishment candidates dedicated to crony capitalism, corporate welfare, and the agenda of the chambers of commerce.
The fear and anger was spread by the likes of Republican establishment member Scott O’Connor, the son of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor, known as a pompous ass among the Party’s grassroots for never missing an opportunity to take a cheap shot at anyone and everyone, told Facebook “friends” on Tuesday afternoon, “I became a PC to show right wing nut jobs that they do not have the exclusive voice of the party.” That progressive elitist attitude has caused a migration of independent minded conservatives and libertarian leaning Republicans to become Independents.
One member of the grassroots said in response to O’Connor, “If it is crazy to want a secure border, freedom of religion, and a level playing field for small businesses that don’t have cronies in high place, then Scott is right. Call me a proud right wing nut job.”
“The final batch of early ballot returns before Election Day was processed Friday, and stats from Maricopa and Pima counties show that independent turnout in the Republican primary is unlikely to fall below 14 percent,” reported the Yellow Sheet on Monday. “Indies account for 14.3 percent of the GOP ballots in Maricopa County and 14.9 percent in Pima County, for an aggregate total of 14.4 percent in the two most populous counties.”