Alarm Bells in Arizona

[DonViejo]

The southwestern Sun Belt state may be turning bluer sooner than Republicans expected.

By David Catanese, Senior Politics Writer ?April 26, 2018, at 4:21 p.m.

ARIZONA DEMOCRATS SEE their competitive performance in a deep red U.S. House district this week as a sunny harbinger for their chances in marquee statewide races this fall.

On top of an open seat U.S. Senate race that was already deemed a toss-up, Democrats now believe they can make the governor's race competitive, particularly given the uproar in the state over sagging education spending and subpar teacher pay.

GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, seeking a second term this fall, is under swelling pressure to resolve the crisis that sparked tens of thousands of Arizona teachers to walk out of their classrooms on Thursday in one of the largest demonstrations of educators in modern history. While he's offered teachers a 20 percent raise by 2020, they are also demanding higher annual spending levels to push down mushrooming class sizes and pay for new books, desks and computers. It's unclear how the stalemate will get resolved given that the recalcitrant GOP legislature is wary of okaying spending increases.

"Ducey's numbers have been falling with this education fight," says Andy Barr, a Democratic consultant who works on Arizona campaigns. "And I don't think they were fully aware of it until recently."

Meanwhile, a pair of polls of the U.S. Senate race show Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema leading all three of her potential Republican opponents by margins of six to 29 points. Rep. Martha McSally, former state Sen. Kelli Ward and former county sheriff Joe Arpaio will wade through a late August Republican primary to determine which one will face Sinema, who faces only nominal opposition in her own party. The seat came open due to the retirement of outgoing GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, who was staring at defeat at the hands of a conservative primary electorate.

more
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-04-26/alarm-bells-in-arizona-for-republicans

[tanyev]

1. I have a Trump-loving Facebook friend in Arizona who posted a bunch of stuff supporting the teachers

Surprised the heck out of me.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I lived in Arizona when it was progressive and blue

Would be nice to see it again

[jes06c]

3. I've lived in Arizona 11 years now

Arizona Republicans are weird. Most of them sound pretty moderate when you talk to them, but they elect hard right Republicans.