Primary Prepping: LD7 House Republicans
Primary Prepping: LD7 House Republicans
Measuring the MAGA … We’re leaning Trumpian … And so many headlines, so little mailer space.
Rep. David Cook’s departure from the House — to challenge Sen. Wendy Rogers for the Senate seat in their northeastern Arizona district — has created Arizona's most crowded primary race this year.
Six Republicans are piling on to take two House seats in Legislative District 7, which spans Coconino, Navajo, Gila and Pinal counties. The district’s Republican voters more than double those registered as Democrats.
The race has unveiled divides in even the far-right wing of Arizona’s Republican Party.
State Rep. David Marshall Sr. is seeking reelection and has endorsed former state lawmaker Walter Blackman as his seatmate. In a race that’s largely a mashup of MAGA candidates, Marshall is championing an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Blackman has brought in endorsements from House Speaker Ben Toma, Sen. Shawnna Bolick and Rep. Quang Nguyen.
Meanwhile, MAGA warrior Rogers has endorsed Steve Slaton, the owner of a Trump merchandise store and the subject of stolen valor claims. Slaton also stands accused of using the N-word to describe Blackman and Marshall, who are Black. Rogers warned accuser Ari Bradshaw, a fellow Republican legislative candidate, that he was “playing with fire” by talking about it, per a leaked recording.
And former Arizona lawmaker John Fillmore trying again after losing his seat in 2022. Last year, he took the reins of the election-denying Patriot Party that lost its bid to become a recognized political party in Arizona.
Also running are Republicans Andrew Costanzo and Barby Ingle, the owner of an Irish-themed gift shop and advocate for chronic pain awareness, respectively.
Walter "Walt” Blackman
Blackman first won a seat in the House in 2018 and served until 2022, when he ran for Congress and lost in the primary to Eli Crane.
Career experience: He’s a U.S. Army veteran and CEO of W.B. Consulting Services, which advocates for free market economics, per his LinkedIn. Blackman’s started both HR-centered and victim advocacy consulting services.
Fun fact: He has a wild financial history and was criminally prosecuted over bad checks and defaulted from credit card debt.
Campaign website: www.votewaltb.com
Andrew Costanzo
Costanzo is a first-time candidate and owns an Irish gift shop with his wife.
Career experience: Costanzo says his first job was mowing lawns, which he turned into a commercial landscaping business that failed because of competition from “truckloads of illegal aliens using stolen equipment,” he said in a Ballotpedia candidate survey.
Fun fact: Costanzo was a volunteer coordinator for Arizona Republicans’ censure of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Campaign website: voteandrewaz.com
John Fillmore
Fillmore was elected to the state House for one term in 2011, then returned for a two-term stint from 2019 to 2023 and lost his reelection bid after recruiting Marshall, the candidate who ultimately beat him. He took control of the extremist, far-right Patriot Party last year.
Career experience: He’s a “fire artist” and founded a WeatherShack in Mesa, which sells evaporative coolers and fireplaces. He also served in the Army during the Vietnam War.
Fun fact: Fillmore backed marijuana decriminalization before it was popular, advocated for returning Arizona to 1958-style voting and ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1988.
Campaign website: johnfillmore.com
Barby Ingle
Ingle espouses a lot of titles on her campaign website, including a precinct committee member, certified poll observer and a beauty queen.
Career experience: She’s an editor of iPain Living, a magazine dedicated to chronic pain issues. Ingle has written several books on her struggle with reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome and appeared on TV shows like “Dr. Drew” and TLC’s “Extreme Time Cheaters” to talk about her life with the nerve disorder.
Fun fact: Ingle hosts an online video series with her husband, Ken, called “The Ken and Barby Show.”
Campaign website: barbyingle.com
David Marshall Sr.
Marshall is seeking a second term after he was elected in 2022 alongside Rep. David Cook.
Career experience: He’s a U.S. Air Force veteran and former member of the Santa Ana Police Department. Marshall is currently a pastor at Calvary Chapel Snowflake.
Fun fact: Marshall lists one of his key issues as “religious liberty” and said he’ll introduce bills to “identify houses of faith as essential organizations” to keep churches open during “natural or unnatural disasters such as the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Campaign website: www.marshall.republican
Steven Slaton
Slaton has been the subject of national news coverage ahead of the primary for claiming he saw combat in Vietnam, despite official discharge records that say otherwise.
Career experience: He owns the Trumped Store in Show Low, which sells Trump merchandise including a kids T-shirt of the former president riding a T-Rex. In a past life, Slaton was a professional real estate appraiser and a manager at a fiberglass company.
Fun fact: The Trumped Store used to be the Northern Arizona Trump Campaign Office, but Slaton and his wife converted it to retail space after the 2020 election.
Campaign website: steveslatonaz.com
2024 is 2016: Nonpartisan election forecaster Cook Political Report has shifted Arizona from a “Toss Up” state to “Leans Republican” in the upcoming presidential election, alongside Nevada and Georgia, three states President Joe Biden won by narrow margins. But Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego is polling so well that he could help drag Biden over the finish line in the Grand Canyon State, the Guardian U.S. writes, citing previously unreleased polling and Gallego’s strong performance among Latinos who are on the fence about Biden. And former Republic columnist and “conservative Never Trumper” Robert Robb joins the chorus of people calling on Democrats to abandon Biden, saying Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer should be the nominee since she has the best chance at beating Trump.
Queen of the molehill: Kari Lake, who fired off countless over-the-top statements and held press conferences about Gov. Katie Hobbs’ refusal to debate her in 2022, tells KTAR’s Mike Broomhead the story about her refusal to debate her GOP primary challenger, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb,1 being “blown out of proportion.” Lake claims she did debate Lamb because the two appeared in a non-debate format. Hobbs and Lake also appeared in non-debates and that wasn’t good enough for Lake in 2022.
Clueless conspirator: Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is spouting misinformation about Arizona elections again, and the Phoenix New Times’ T.J. L'Heureux explains that while Musk may know how to make rockets and electric cars and a “cocktail of LSD, cocaine, mushrooms, ecstasy and ketamine” he doesn’t know jack about Arizona elections and has zero interest in learning.
Smear campaign: Republican state House candidate Ari Bradshaw tweeted that he’s drafting a defamation lawsuit after MAGA Twitter accounts and Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers started accusing him of selling fentanyl. The accusation, which Bradshaw vehemently denies, showed up online after Bradshaw accused fellow Republican and Rogers-ally Steve Slaton of using the N-word against Republican Rep. David Marshall.
No vacations in Tehran: ASU Police Chief Michael Thompson, who was suspended with pay two months ago for zealously breaking up pro-Palestine protests on campus, has been hit with meaningless sanctions from the Islamic Republic of Iran, 12News’ Brahm Resnik reports. And he’s been paid about $33,000 since his suspension began, as Fourth Estate 48’s Dillon Rosenblatt notes.
Now do the Grand Canyon: Arizona is about to be home to the first canal in the Western Hemisphere that is shaded by solar panels to reduce evaporation, an idea that seems blindingly obvious but has been hampered by environmental concerns and the fact that utilities need access to canals, environmental news outlet Canary Media reports. Three people have died in the Grand Canyon in the last month, the New York Times reports, and while the causes of death have not been officially identified, it has been very very hot, so that probably had something to do with it. Finally, KJZZ has some cool maps measuring the urban heat island effect in the Valley.
Narc housing: The old Phoenix DEA office near Central Avenue and Thomas Road is being turned into apartments, the Republic’s Corina Vanek reports. It has 171 units, ranging from $1,700 to $3,000 per month, but the developers took out the old DEA holding cell.
There’s a phrase in politics: The attack ads write themselves.
That’s certainly the case with disgraced former Democratic Rep. Leezah Sun, who is running for the state Senate this year in a Democratic primary against her former seatmate, Sen. Eva Diaz.
Here’s one of the mailers2 going out to Democratic voters in her West Valley LD22 this election season.3
Not to mention Elizabeth Jean Reye, who always gets left out of the conversation.
To be honest, we’re a little disappointed the Agenda isn’t cited anywhere on this mailer.
The mailer was paid for by Sigale PAC, which doesn’t show up anywhere in the state’s godawful campaign finance system. But they’re not the only ones spending to defeat Sun. Realtors have also spent almost $13,000 so far on mailers in the district through the Responsible Leadership for AZ PAC, according to the godawful campaign finance system.
If you look at the abysmal GOP candidates running for office in LD7...you can be forgiven for thinking there is no hope for us.
The Legislative District #7 bios were a joke? Yes? That is the best ARIZONA can do? Since 2016, we've become Looney Tunes.