The Daily Agenda: Kari, Ruben and Kyrsten reboot
The Daily Agenda: Kari, Ruben and Kyrsten reboot
The latest models are all upgrades? ... It's like 2016 all over again ... And what do QAnon Shaman and Gandhi have in common?
In nature and in politics, fall is a season of change and rebirth.
Candidates across the country are deciding now who they want to be in the next election cycle. Are they a warrior for their base? A thoughtful moderate with a broad appeal? An outsider aligning with the disaffected independents who are fed up with politics?
It’s their last chance to reinvent themselves to fit the electorate before the next election.
The cycle of political rebirth is apparent nowhere more than in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, where three candidates well known to voters are attempting to remake themselves and put their best face forward, or at least the face best suited to their political strategy.
U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s most recent campaign finance reports highlight her departure from her base and her transformation into a political nomad, partyless, yet still powerful in her own right.
Kari Lake’s sudden disinterest in the election fraud that robbed her of the governorship and her courtship of the moderate influencers in her party underpin her reboot as an electable adult.
And Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego’s newfound ability to take the high road and pull a punch has surprised even some of his allies — it’s a hard-learned skill for a Marine and former Democratic bomb thrower!
But whether voters buy these new personas of old candidates will depend on how well they play the part and how fully they commit to the transformation.
Lake the Momma Bear
After basing her entire campaign for Arizona governor on lies about the 2020 election being stolen from former President Donald Trump, then spending the last year spreading lies about the 2022 election being stolen from her, Lake is no longer interested in talking about election fraud, which she once called the greatest threat facing our country.
Lake 2.0 is far more interested in talking about the border, clearing homeless people off the streets and her status as a “MAGA Mama Bear” and the only mother in the race.
She doesn’t think John McCain was a “loser” or that his supporters should “get the hell out” of the Republican Party — Lake 2.0 welcomes them!
It’s a tough sell to so quickly go from driving a stake into the heart of a revered Republican’s legacy to courting his supporters. But moderate Republicans who have been beaten down, kicked aside and trashed by their party’s new America First wing may be willing to believe, against all good judgment, that this time, Lake has truly changed.
Gallego the Electable
Gallego has a reputation as a hard-tweeting, trash-talking shining star of his party and also a potential liability.
After serving in the Marine Corps and graduating from Harvard, Gallego started his career as a young liberal firebrand. His political transformation into U.S. Senate candidate began by moderating his votes and comments in recent years, despite representing one of the most solidly Democratic districts in the state.
Still, his allies worry about what kind of baggage an opposition researcher might dig up, not to mention what expletive he might shout in a candid moment of frustration on the campaign trail.
But the New Gallego is older, more reserved, empathetic and cautious. He doesn’t have to engage in every opportunity for a fight, as one supporter remarked to us after the airport run-in with Lake.
“We’re seeing him transform before our eyes,” the supporter said, before adding that it could be Gallego was just too hungover to engage.
We expect he’ll don glasses before the campaign’s end to drive home the point that this is a more grown-up and refined Gallego seeking the state’s highest federal office.
Sinema the Outsider
Sinema has always been an adept political shape-shifter. But her latest transformation into an almost McCainian political power broker who’s above the fray of partisan politics is her greatest yet.
From Green Party activist to die-hard Democrat, legislative leader and congressional star to independent swamp culture enigma, Sinema has more political personalities than used triathlon gear.
Yet, oddly, her transformation feels most like the result of genuine personal change. Sure, the independent makeover was prompted by her tanking approval ratings among her party loyalists and the likely reality that she couldn’t survive a primary. But it’s the logical culmination of her two-decade character development arc, from Green Party activist to the (semi) liberal lawmaker most beloved by Republicans.
By our count, independent Sinema is her sixth political incarnation, meaning she only has three lives left, per cat and political life theory. Hopefully, the independent outsider persona lasts the whole election cycle!
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Returning to the hits: Republican lawmakers introduced a potential 2024 ballot referral to use the state land trust to boost average teacher pay to more than $60,000 annually (or about $44,000 for first-year teachers). The plan is to extend and expand former Gov. Doug Ducey’s Prop 123, which drew more money out of the land trust and expires next year. The new plan would dedicate the funding solely to teacher salaries, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. And school Superintendent Tom Horne announced a $1,000 grant for full-time arts teachers who are expected to pay for materials like “sheet music, dance props, theatrical costumes,” a press release announcing the grant said.
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Oh how the tables have turned: Former Arizona Corrections Director Charles Ryan pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a 2022 event when he allegedly aimed a gun at two officers amid a three-hour standoff after shooting the firearm in his Tempe home, the Associated Press’ Jacques Billeaud reports. He could face up to two years in prison.
It’s the economy, stupid: President Joe Biden is struggling in Arizona as voters pin economic concerns at his feet, the New York Times’s Jack Healy reports. Early polling (for what it’s worth) shows Trump ahead in a hypothetical matchup, and Phoenix-based polling firm Noble Predictive Insights’ Mike Noble said the former president is consolidating support from Republicans while winning back independents who say immigration and inflation are their top concerns.
Reentering society with good health: Arizona’s corrections system plans to spend $117 million of next year’s already strained budget to overhaul prison healthcare in response to an April court order, Bob Christie reports for Capitol Media Services. The new plan requires increasing medical staffing and spending by more than a third. Meanwhile, Pinal County officials are planning to build a “reentry center” to provide resources for those leaving incarceration, many of whom are released to the streets of Florence with no money or guidance, Pinal Central’s Mark Cowling writes.
What’s that aroma?: Desert Monks Brewing Co. in Gilbert is getting a lot of ink for using purified and recycled wastewater from Scottsdale’s treatment plant to make some of its beer. 12News’ Chase Golightly reports that it “tastes OK” and not at all like the sewage from whence it came. Meanwhile, Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality released a roadmap of a program to turn wastewater into drinking water, a process experts say is completely safe, and the department is still accepting comments on the plan through the end of the month via email at reuserulemaking@azdeq.gov.
"We think it makes a beer better," beer company co-owner Chris Decker said. "It's amazingly flavorful and aromatic.
It’s sports or books: Fixing the University of Arizona’s budget crisis will require “difficult decisions” Arizona Board of Regents Chair Fred DuVal writes in an op-ed for the Star. But UA isn’t alone in facing cuts, he said, noting universities are incredibly expensive to run (thanks, sports!) and state support has decreased dramatically in recent decades. Still, the regents’ chair said UA President Robert Robbins, who’s shouldering much of the blame for the financial crisis, has the board’s “full support” as he comes up with a plan to sort out the debacle by Dec. 15.
“To be crystal clear, the Arizona financing model disincentivizes Arizona degree attainment,” Fred DuVal wrote.
Scandal at the Fair!: The Mohave County Board of Supervisors is set to consider a settlement offer in a lawsuit against the Mohave County Fair Association after the county found $71,208 in missing revenues from the group, which operates the Kingman fairgrounds, the Today’s News Herald’s Brandon Messick reports. Mohave County terminated the Fair Association’s lease in 2022, and the gap in the books, if unaccounted for, could indicate unlawful spending.
Another first-place prize: October marked a new monthly record for fentanyl seizures in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector with 220 pounds of the synthetic opioid confiscated, AZPM’s Danyelle Khmara reports. In fiscal year 2023, Arizona’s ports of entry surpassed San Diego’s for the highest amount of fentanyl seized at the border.
If you want to start doing your homework on what’s to come in Arizona’s 2024 elections, the forums and webinars are already starting.
Republican candidates vying to take over Debbie Lesko’s seat in Congressional District 8 will meet for a forum at 7 p.m. You can buy a ticket for $1 for the online or in-person event from conservative grassroots group EZAZ.org.
Also, get a rundown of what to expect next year from election administrators and lawyers at the Capitol Times’ “Morning Scoop” today at 8 a.m. You can register for the free Zoom webinar here.
Serious radio host James T. Harris invited serious congressional candidate Jacob Chansley, AKA the QAnon Shaman, to talk seriously about his serious candidacy.
But the interview to check out is KTAR’s “Gaydos and Chad Show,” where hosts stuck Chansley with a seemingly impossible question: “Don’t you lose credibility if you were in prison for 27 months, if you’re wearing the horns, if you’ve got the facepaint, if you’re going shirtless?”
The Shaman, however, nailed the answer.
“Did Gandhi lose credibility when he was in prison? Did Nelson Mandela lose his credibility? What about Martin Luther King Jr. and the fact that Gandhi wore a single piece of cloth?” he said.
He later accused the hosts of “mocking (his) religious attire.”
Sounds like he’s been hitting the shamanic ‘shrooms a little too hard!
And in case we haven’t previously laughed at his website, today is a good day to start. Check out his merch shop!
There will be no consideration of forgiveness for Lake. Not from this cowhand. She tried to hurt our kids. Our teachers. Our schools. She stood front and center leading the scam - holding the mic - calling for the decimation of SUSD. Removal of the entire Board - people we elected and admire. Firing our Superintendent - a guy who worked miracles through the Pandemic to hold some sense of stability and logic in place as Governor Ducey cut our schools loose to drift in the hurricane.
And she tried to DeFund SUSD. Part of the AZGOP leadership's call for denying all Override requests all over the State.
You tried to hurt my kids, Kari. So it's not business. It's personal. Here's my message:
"Dear Rabid Sociopath Mama Bear - meet Angry Grizzly Bear Dad. Stay away from political office."
How quickly does AI create these graphics? And are they free? I can see how this is unfair competition with creative people. It took me a few hours on Photoshop to create and arrange all of the sperm and x and y chromosomes in my most recent graphic. The egg has a balanced serenity while sperm of different sizes and shapes squirm around her. There are 50+ layers in that graphic and many decisions. With my Cookie Cutter Politician graphic, I started out with a black and white photo that I took of a cookie cutter I own. I have used that cookie cutter in dozens of memes since the 2014 election. I use my graphics to communicate. Often I think of a story to write, rough it out, create the graphics (while I contemplate the rest of the words) and finish the story. My point is that the AI graphics are eye-catching, but where's the humanity?