Opinion: Primary races for governor, Legislature and secretary of state show how disconnected politics has become from reality – and what voters actually want.
Editorial board Arizona Republic
The choice of candidates in major Arizona primary races is thin and the party benches are weak. Even the issues the candidates press are disconnected from voters’ priorities.
The 2022 Arizona state elections have come to embody our national culture. Both are fractured from a half-dozen years of earth-shifting politics and a pandemic that killed thousands as it staggered our economy.
A heavy air of national populism still hangs from the last election and refuses to move on, encouraged by a former president who still holds a spell on many Arizona candidates. He and they continue to insist that he was robbed of victory.
Our national dysfunction is now our state dysfunction, and the coming elections bear the symptoms of a body in distress. To our eye the choice of candidates is thin and the party benches are weak. Even the issues the candidates press seem disconnected from today’s priorities. They are not always the most important issues facing the state.
With early voting rapidly approaching on July 6, The Arizona Republic editorial board looks at the state of major primary races and how outside forces have shaped them.
U.S. Senate: Roll the dice on this one
Blake Masters finally got Donald Trump’s blessing, the only thing setting him apart from his competitors in the Republican Senate primary to take on Democrat Mark Kelly.
Even so, Masters’ victory isn’t a sure bet given that Trump’s endorsement has had mixed results in GOP primaries elsewhere.
Rest assured, though, that Masters will make the most out of Trump’s blessing to break through rivals in the fight for “patriot” votes.
Listen to Masters or Jim Lamon or state Attorney General Mark Brnovich and you get the same drumbeat of a “border invasion” and Biden-induced inflation. Former state lawmaker Justin Olson and Mick McGuire, who commanded the Arizona National Guard, also are in the race but remain in the background.
