By DEXTER DUGGAN
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The forest of yard signs for incumbent John McCain’s Senate re-nomination by the driveway of a Phoenix polling place helped illustrate the overall clout he carried into the Arizona primary election. The state’s political establishment was doing all it could to weight the scales in his favor.
Almost lost among his signs was one yard sign for McCain’s main GOP opponent, Kelli Ward.
A significant factor in McCain’s August 30 primary victory were two minor GOP challengers also on the ballot who split the vote and stole some of Ward’s momentum, a local Republican activist told The Wanderer.
As of the morning after the vote, unofficial election returns from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office showed McCain winning with 51.65 percent, Ward second with 39.21 percent, and two minor GOP candidates with a combined total of 9.14 percent.
That meant Ward, a physician, trailed McCain by about 12 percent, just a bit more than the 9.14 percent siphoned off by the other hopefuls.
In fact, one of the minor candidates dropped out of the race about a month before the election, too late to remove his name from the ballot. Both of these two claimed to represent a purer form of conservatism, but their presence in the contest had the effect of splitting the vote and handing the nomination to strong foe of conservatism McCain.
That would be a point to keep in mind as some Republican foes of presidential nominee Donald Trump keep searching for a way to drain votes from him as Trump battles against left-wing, Alinskyite extremist Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s office said voter turnout for the primary was only 24 percent. Results could have been different if more people cared to practice democracy.
As usual at election time in Arizona, McCain claimed to be conservative, too, hardly consistent with his performance in office.
Rob Haney, a longtime foe of McCain and retired chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party, based in Phoenix, told The Wanderer that Ward needed to have Republicans united behind her, but “you had the conservative base split” by the other candidates, who “took some momentum” from Ward.
McCain’s victory hardly was resounding, considering that he barely broke past 50 percent after serving five terms in the U.S. Senate.
Moreover, an approximate 12 percent victory over Ward was dramatically different than recent polls that claimed McCain was leading her by more than 20 percent — a figure presumably calculated to leave Ward’s supporters discouraged and perhaps staying away from the polls.
A CNN/ORC poll released August 24, less than a week before the August 30 primary, claimed McCain led Ward by 26 points, 55 percent to 29 percent.
Haney, the anti-McCain GOP activist, told The Wanderer that such polls are “just the establishment in control of the media and in control of the polling,” the same problem that Trump has with polls.
In other significant results from the Arizona GOP primary, two sheriffs identified with strong opposition to illegal immigration won their races, and Fourth Congressional District incumbent Paul Gosar, a Tea Party Catholic conservative, easily beat back a challenge from open-borders, establishment interests that inaccurately tried to portray Gosar as weak on protecting the border.
They were attempting to repeat the primary-election defeat of Kansas Tea Party conservative Cong. Tim Huelskamp in early August — like Gosar, a conservative targeted for removal by the national GOP establishment and its allies.
However, Gosar took more than 70 percent of the vote, to pummel his lone challenger.
When Gosar went on the national Mark Levin conservative radio program on August 12 to warn of the establishment attempt to remove other conservatives from office, Levin said, “It is truly a disgusting spectacle to watch the Republican Party become this.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, well known for opposing massive illegal immigration, took about 66 percent of the vote in a four-person sheriff’s race despite a biased federal judge’s recent attempt to sink Arpaio’s bid for a seventh term by making a remarkable referral for criminal contempt against him.
The Seeing Red AZ conservative blog commented on August 31: “Arpaio’s triumph is more than the lopsided percentages. He prevailed despite contemptible daily assaults from the left-wing Arizona Republic and the relentless punitive measures taken against him and his chief deputy by Judge Murray Snow, who persists despite the fact that a personal conflict should have caused him to recuse himself from the case.”
At an election-returns party in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale on the evening of August 30, conservative activist Valerie Roller told The Wanderer that the judge’s pursuit of Arpaio is “nothing more than the open-borders folks using their political clout and money to further their agenda.”
Another Arizona sheriff well known nationally for his opposition to illegal immigration, Paul Babeu of Pinal County, decided to run for Congress this year. Competing for an open seat in Arizona’s First Congressional District, Babeu led a six-person GOP race with nearly a third of the vote, more than eight points ahead of the second-place finisher.
An August 29 news report on Phoenix’s KKNT radio (960 AM) said that in addition to spending by outside groups, McCain so far had spent $6 million on his primary race, while Ward spent $1.6 million.
Haney, the retired local GOP chairman, told The Wanderer that McCain is “deeply despised by the conservative base, but the conservative base is not enough” to defeat him. “He has the money, and he outspends her, and he has the potential to outspend” anyone else. Also, “he has the Republican elite, and he has the media.”
Incumbents also have the advantage of being well-known, Haney said. “He’s been in there so long, and they recognize the names.”
When The Wanderer mentioned the name-recognition factor to Ward after she had conceded her likely loss here on August 30, she replied, “I agree…Name recognition. I think if there had been a one-on-one debate with Sen. McCain, the results would have been completely different.”
McCain declined to debate Ward during the campaign.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. Shortly before 9 p.m., Ward told the crowd at the Scottsdale vote-vigil party that she likely couldn’t close the margin with McCain, but she invited them to continue to stay around to enjoy the live band and food.
“Tonight we’re completing an amazing chapter in our lives,” she said. “. . . Sadly, the establishment seems to have won this battle by spending untold millions. . . . We fought a good fight. . . . This is only the beginning. . . . Do not be sad and dejected. . . . I’m not sad. We fought an amazing, amazing battle.”
After conceding the likely loss, Ward remained at the party to talk with others rather than flee the scene. Earlier, while awaiting word of the voting results, she autographed people’s Kelli Ward T-shirts with messages like, “Fight for liberty! Kelli,” and “Freedom! Kelli,” and included a heart-shaped symbol by her name.
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