By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — With its own strange brand of politics, Arizona acquired a new U.S. senator who agreed to fill the upper-chamber seat for at least a few months.
Huh? With the late John McCain’s health slipping away for more than a year to an aggressive brain cancer, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had plenty of time to weigh whom he’d appoint when the apparently inevitable vacancy arrived.
But when Ducey named his choice of 76-year-old Jon Kyl on September 4, the day after Labor Day, the governor could only express the hope that his selection would serve past the current term of Congress, ending in a few months.
A September 4 news release from Ducey’s office said, “As Arizona’s senator, Kyl will serve through at least the second session of the 115th Congress, concluding this year.”
Under Arizona provisions for filling the vacancy, McCain’s successor could serve until 2020 and either face voters then or step aside for another candidate.
Ducey said that as he searched for a successor to McCain, he kept coming back to the name of Kyl, himself a former U.S. senator.
But why appoint someone whose possible brief tenure would leave Ducey naming yet another senator soon? Does Ducey have some GOP friend in mind who may lose in November?
The conservative Seeing Red AZ blog commented on September 4, “The question to ask is why would Ducey opt for a 76-year-old placeholder and McCain clone when he has the opportunity to make a decisive impact on the state?”
A moderate conservative, Kyl is a familiar name to Arizonans, and to Capitol Hill veterans, having served three Senate terms alongside McCain when he announced his surprise retirement rather than run again in 2012.
Although McCain and Kyl had worked as a team, including in favor of “comprehensive immigration reform,” Kyl had been an accessible and familiar face at Arizona pro-life rallies while McCain didn’t show up. McCain, however, would buy a page of advertising in the programs of pro-life dinners.
McCain retained his Senate title up to his death on August 25 rather than resign when it became plain within his inner circle that he no longer could serve again.
Kyl had been considered a pretty safe bet to win a fourth consecutive Senate term in 2012. His voluntary withdrawal into a new career as consultant opened the way for eager Cong. Jeff Flake successfully to ascend to a seat he’d been eying — but which Flake’s globalist policies flubbed away so he ended up as a one-term senator.
On September 4, Flake quickly endorsed Ducey’s selection of Kyl.
ABC News reported on September 4: “The appointment of Kyl also marks a slight ideological departure from McCain, and gives Republicans a more reliably conservative vote in their ranks. According to FiveThirtyEight, Kyl sided with the GOP on party-line votes at a higher rate than McCain in seven out of the nine sessions of Congress in which both of them were in the Senate.”
The well-connected Kyl recently served as the Trump administration’s “sherpa” to guide Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate confirmation process. How awful that process had become became plain when babbling Democrat senators and screaming left-wing protesters in the Senate hearing room frightened Kavanaugh’s two young daughters into exiting.
Pro-abortion Democrat extremists are turning this nation into a jungle, having already made it a slaughterhouse.
Constantin Querard, a conservative GOP political consultant, told The Wanderer on September 5 that aside from former Arizona Cong. Matt Salmon, Kyl was the only name on Ducey’s list of possibilities to replace McCain that conservatives could be comfortable with.
“Outside of Salmon, there wasn’t another name on the list conservatives would have felt good about, and quite a few they would have really disliked,” Querard said. “Kyl may be considered a typical Ducey safe pick, but he’s way better than most of the alternatives, so Arizona should consider itself lucky.
“At this point my preference would be that he serves through 2020 and we have a regular primary come 2020, but he may just serve the rest of this year, given how sincere he was about retiring the first time,” Querard said.
“In that case, Ducey will be appointing someone who might end up with a real jump on the 2020 competition, and given how unlikely Ducey is to pick a genuine movement conservative, that is cause for some concern,” he said.
Ducey became close to the McCain universe after arriving in Arizona in 1982 to attend college and working at the beer distributorship owned by Cindy McCain’s wealthy father.
Even in this age of President Trump proclaiming dedication to “draining the swamp,” there are longstanding alliances and relationships that oppose outsiders who have more-conservative ideas.
Querard had reflected in mid-August on how hard it still is for someone to break past establishment barricades. On August 12 he posted on his blog at his Grassroots Partners consulting firm’s site that when a conservative candidate like former Arizona State Sen. Kelli Ward tries to make her mark by running for a U.S. Senate seat, resources dry up.
Ward first ran unsuccessfully against McCain in the GOP Senate primary in 2016, then entered the race against Flake in 2017 for his Senate seat that expired in 2018. However, Flake saw the handwriting on the wall and announced in October 2017 that he wouldn’t run again.
Querard blogged shortly before this year’s August 28 Arizona primary that even if a candidate like Ward were to win then, “they’ll be abandoned by many of their party’s donors and supporters, who would prefer a Democrat to someone like Kelli. Outside of the occasional social-media error, none of that is Kelli’s fault per se, but she ran against John McCain, and in the eyes of the establishment, that remains an unforgivable sin here in Arizona.
“The establishment will never support her, for anything,” Querard blogged. “And in a competitive year like 2018, that is a real problem if you’re trying to keep the Senate seat in the GOP column.”
The national GOP establishment instead picked southern Arizona establishment Cong. Martha McSally as its favorite and shoveled advertising money into her successful race that blistered Ward with lie after lie.
McSally won the primary and faces left-wing Democrat Cong. Kyrsten Sinema in November.
“There is no question that McSally will be far better-funded and supported than Ward would have been,” Querard told The Wanderer, “and that’s where judging the consensus gets tricky.
“I could make the case that Ward would present a stronger contrast than McSally if the financial support were equal. But we can be sure that the financial support would not have been equal and the D.C. establishment would have largely walked away from the Senate seat if Ward were the nominee, which means the consensus is right that McSally ends up being the GOP’s only shot at keeping the seat. That’s not fair to Ward, but that’s still how it is.”
Pay The Protection
Rob Haney, a retired chairman of the Phoenix-based Maricopa County Republican Party, told The Wanderer that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s backing “handed the victory to a well-funded RINO Cong. Martha McSally over conservative former State Sen. Dr. Kelli Ward.”
Likening RINO tactics to a Mafia protection racket, Haney said that in the general election, “the conservatives are now told to pay the protection by voting for RINO McSally to prevent the ultra-left Democrat Cong. Kyrsten Sinema from winning. During every election cycle, this and similar scenarios are played out across the country to defeat real conservatives.
“If the RINO wins, the country moves left at a more acceptable speed while the Mafia maintains power. If the Democrat wins, the Mafia is still victorious, for their goals are accomplished quicker and they maintain power within the Republican Party while being eaten last,” Haney said, referring to traitors who let their companions be eaten first while eking out a little longer life for themselves.
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