Daily News Roundup

Kaminsky: Mark Kelly Raked In Cash From Corporate-Backed PACs Despite Pledging To Refuse ‘Corporate PAC Money’

Sen. Mark Kelly has pledged since unveiling his 2019 senate bid that he would refuse corporate campaign dollars. But since that time, the Arizona Democrat has accepted hundreds of thousands in donations from political action committees (PAC) backed by corporations, according to federal records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Kelly has repeatedly emphasized he does not and will not “take a dime of corporate PAC money.” Despite that pledge, the former astronaut’s campaign has raked in roughly $154,000 from Democratic PACs since March 2019 that have hauled in large sums from PACs for corporations, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

For instance, Kelly’s campaign has received $20,000 combined from the Green Mountain PAC since June 2019, FEC filings show. Green Mountain PAC, a leadership PAC affiliated with Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, has accepted $247,500 since 2005 from corporate PACs for Google, Pfizer, AT&T, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, filings show.

Nutmeg PAC, a leadership PAC associated with Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has contributed $17,500 to Kelly’s campaign since May 2019. At the same time, the PAC has accepted $231,000 since 2011 from corporate PACs for Microsoft, Comcast, Raytheon Technologies, Pfizer, Honeywell, General Dynamics and UBS, filings show…..
Read article at Daily Caller.

 

Justice: Heritage Action Steps Up In Arizona Senate Race After McConnell Pulls $8 Million From Masters
On Monday, the Sentinel Action Fund announced $5 million to support Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters.
An independent super PAC aligned with Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, is pumping money into the Arizona Senate race amid near-total abandonment by Republican leadership in this highly competitive race amid a currently 50-50 Senate.
On Monday, the Sentinel Action Fund announced $5 million to support Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters in the form of voter outreach efforts and television ad buys after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) pulled $8 million from the contest.
“We wanted to be there from a conservative standpoint,” said Jessica Anderson, the president of the Sentinel Action Fund, highlighting the group’s spending in Arizona, and Masters in particular, as a “clarion call for the conservative movement to come and support this candidate.”
While the group has also announced efforts to get involved with pivotal Senate races in Nevada and Georgia, Anderson emphasized “$5 million is so far our largest single expenditure that we have planned.”
In the final week of August, McConnell’s super PAC canceled nearly $8 million in ad buys for Arizona and demanded private entrepreneur and megadonor Peter Thiel step in to replace the lost funding. The money initially set aside for Masters will instead go to support J.D. Vance in Ohio.
Both Masters and Vance, who worked for Thiel prior to jumping into crowded Senate primaries, were backed by the billionaire venture capitalist with $15 million each during the party contests. McConnell is now demanding more money from Thiel, who has yet to spend on either in the general, to push the candidates across the November finish line…..
Read article at The Federalist.

 

Lauterbach: Hobbs Becomes First Gubernatorial Candidate In Decades to Refuse State-Sanctioned Debate Offer
Katie Hobbs will be the first candidate for Arizona governor in decades to refuse an invitation to debate her opponent in a state commission-organized event.
Hobbs, the current Democratic secretary of state, announced Sunday that she would “respectfully decline” the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission invitation to reach terms on debating her Republican opponent, former Fox 10 anchor Kari Lake. No other candidate running for office in November has declined an invitation, nor has any candidate for governor done so since the commission began holding debates in 2002.
“Secretary Hobbs remains willing and eager to participate in a town hall-style event, such as the forum she participated in last week in which Arizonans were able to hear directly from Sec. Hobbs about her in-depth policy plans and how she would approach governing this state,” Hobbs’ campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, debating a conspiracy theorist like Kari Lake – whose entire campaign platform is to cause enormous chaos and make Arizona the subject of national ridicule – would only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions, and childish name-calling.”
The AZCCEC met last week to discuss Hobbs’ request for separate town hall-style Q&A sessions with the commission’s chosen moderator. They denied that request and gave staffers a week to figure out a setting where Hobbs would join Lake on stage…..
Read article at The Center Square.

 

Lyman: ‘Look At Mark Kelly Squirm’: Arizona GOP Candidate Blake Masters Pounces As Opponent Dodges Questions On Biden Record

Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, pounced on his challenger, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, after Kelly dodged a question on whether President Joe Biden is doing a good job.
Kelly sat down for an interview Sunday with Arizona’s Family to discuss the upcoming election and current events. At one point, the interviewer asked Kelly about Biden’s record.
“Your thoughts on [Biden’s] job, has he done a good job, do you think?” he asked the senator.
“Hey, I th—, you know, I, uh, you know, I, it, first of all, it’s not my job to give him a report card,” Kelly said, appearing to stutter. “I would say, mixed reviews on certain things. I have issues about Afghanistan, how our role in Afghanistan ended.”…..
Read article at The Daily Caller News Foundation.

 

Elordi: Private School Grad Katie Hobbs Releases Anti-School Choice Plan

Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for Arizona governor, released her education plan on Sunday, which doubles down on her opposition to school choice.
Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state and herself a private school graduate, said her education plan for Arizona includes cracking down on the state’s school voucher program.
“Too often, Republicans have completely disregarded public opinion in an effort to defund our public schools. At every turn, they have moved to expand school vouchers without common-sense measures of accountability, with the clear intent to eventually do away with our local public schools,” Hobbs said in her plan.
Arizona expanded its school voucher program over the summer. Governor Doug Ducey (R-AZ) signed a bill in July allowing every Arizona student to get a taxpayer-funded Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) account to pay for their education at a private school, about $6,500 per child for grades 1-12.
In the first two weeks after the online portal for new ESA applications opened, the state received around 6,800 new applications for school vouchers.
Hobbs said that as governor, she would roll back the expansion…..
Read article at The Daily Wire.

 

Murdock: Maricopa County Recorder Forewarns That Democrats Will Lead On Election Night

In an attempt to set voter expectations ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared that initial results would favor Democrats heavily.
Richer based his prediction on the voting patterns from November 2020 and last month’s primary election. Both elections first tabulated early ballots received the week beforehand, most of which voted for Democratic candidates. Then, the county tabulates early ballots dropped off the day before and on Election Day, as well as in-person ballots, most of which voted for Republican candidates.
“First moral of the story: in Arizona, initial results will likely be much bluer than eventual final results,” said Richer. “Second moral: if you want your ballot to be part of results released at 8:00 pm on Election Night, return it before the weekend before Election Day.”
Less than two weeks after last month’s primary election, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released their canvas of the election results. Over 866,000 voters (35 percent of the 2.47 million registered voters) cast ballots in the primary election, over 87 percent of which were early voters.
According to the canvas, Republicans had a higher turnout than Democrats in Maricopa County: over 59 percent to just over 47 percent, respectively…..
Read article at AZ Free News.

 

Young: Trump, Trump-backed Candidates Surge in New Arizona Polling

Polling shows a tight race in Arizona in the lead up to the November election, as Donald Trump endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake faces off against Democrat rival Katie Hobbs and Trump backed Blake Masters goes up against incumbent Senator Mark Kelly.
A new poll out of Emerson College shows that Hobbs and her GOP rival, Kari Lake, are neck and neck and polling at 46 percent support each. Mark Kelly holds support at 47 percent with Blake Masters holding at 45 percent.
In the governor’s race only six percent are undecided and two percent claim they will vote for some other candidate. In the senate race, five percent say they are undecided and four percent claim they will vote for a third candidate.
Kari Lake, Blake Masters, and Mark Kelly all polled at 48 percent general favorability. 54 percent of voters expect Lake to win the governor’s seat and 53 percent expect Kelly to hold the Senate seat. 46 percent of those polled expect Hobbs to win, coincidentally Hobbs holds a 46 percent favorability rating…..
Read article at The Post Millennial.

 

Joyce: Arizona governor’s and U.S. Senate races highly competitive, poll shows

If a new poll is any indicator, Arizona will have at least a couple of highly-competitive statewide races on the ballot this November.
The poll released by Emerson College this week found that the incumbent in the U.S. Senate race has a slight lead, and no one has a lead in the race to be the state’s next governor.
According to the poll, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, has a two-point lead over his Republican challenger, venture capitalist Blake Masters. The poll shows Kelly has a 47% to 45% lead. Five percent of voters said they were undecided, and 4% said they plan to support someone else. Additionally, 53% of voters say they think Kelly will win the race, regardless of who they support…..
Read article at The Center Square.

 

Corrine Murdock: Maricopa County Recorder Forewarns That Democrats Will Lead On Election Night

In an attempt to set voter expectations ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared that initial results would favor Democrats heavily.
Richer based his prediction on the voting patterns from November 2020 and last month’s primary election. Both elections first tabulated early ballots received the week beforehand, most of which voted for Democratic candidates. Then, the county tabulates early ballots dropped off the day before and on Election Day, as well as in-person ballots, most of which voted for Republican candidates.
“First moral of the story: in Arizona, initial results will likely be much bluer than eventual final results,” said Richer. “Second moral: if you want your ballot to be part of results released at 8:00 pm on Election Night, return it before the weekend before Election Day.”……

Less than two weeks after last month’s primary election, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released their canvas of the election results. Over 866,000 voters (35 percent of the 2.47 million registered voters) cast ballots in the primary election, over 87 percent of which were early voters…..
Read article at AZ Free News.

 

Cole Lauterbach: State officials deny Hobbs’ request for town hall format to escape debate with Lake

Arizona’s election debate authority will not bend to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ demand to have a sequestered conversation with a moderator in lieu of a traditional debate with Republican Kari Lake. The two women won their respective primaries for governor and face off in the general election Nov. 8.
The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission held a virtual meeting Thursday to consider Hobbs’ demand that she and the former Fox 10 anchor give separate moderated interviews, eschewing the long-held tradition the panel has organized.
“I don’t believe that the commission should accept Secretary Hobbs’ proposal of these back-to-back town hall interviews,” commission Chairman Damien Meyer said. “However, I do want to acknowledge the concerns of the Hobbs campaign that any debate needs to be a fair and reasoned debate.”
Meyer tasked both campaigns to work with the commission within a week to come to a compromise.
Other commissioners reluctantly agreed to a week but opposed appeasing Hobbs. They voted 3-1 to give staffers and candidates a week to come to an agreement and debate.
“We have a format that we have used for a number of years that has been successful,” said Mark Kimble, an independent, who criticized the Hobbs campaign for demanding a revamp of the format days after the deadline. “It’s incumbent on us to say ‘enough.’”
Hobbs appointed Kimble to his position on the commission in her time as Senate Minority Leader.
Commissioner Galen Paton agreed with Kimble, saying they owe it to the electorate to put the two into a debate.
“If they want to do town halls, they can do it somewhere else,” Paton said. “This is our top elected official. If you want to represent nearly 8 million Arizonans, we need to see a debate between these two.”
Commissioner Steve Titla agreed with the others but stressed that civility is maintained…..
Read article at The Center Square.

 

Corrine Murdock: Senator Kelly Claims He Avoids Stock Trading Despite Violating STOCK Act Last Year

On Thursday, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed that he doesn’t engage in stock trading. Yet last year, Kelly was fined for violating the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
Kelly tweeted that he also doesn’t benefit from corporate political action committee (PAC) money, and has a public Senate schedule.
“These are the standards I hold myself to,” stated Kelly. “And I’m working to make it the standard for the whole Senate.”
The stock trading that earned Kelly his fine was with Boom Technology (previously known as Boom Aerospace, or Boom Supersonic): a Chinese-partnered company designing supersonic aircrafts on whose board Kelly served from 2015 to 2019. Kelly failed to file a disclosure on exercising that stock option for four months. The STOCK Act requires legislators to disclose that action within 30 days of notification or 45 days of the transaction…..
Read article at AZ Free News.

 

Arizona Free Enterprise Club: It Is Critical to Drain the School Board Swamp This November

Public schools are out of control. And it’s going to get worse if we don’t do something about it. Unfortunately, for far too long, school board elections have been some of the most ignored around our state. But whether you have kids in public school, private school, or homeschool—whether your kids are out of school or you don’t have kids at all—this year’s school board election will affect you.
How? Take a look at some of the worst abuses in public school districts in the past year.
A Financial Mess
As a taxpaying citizen, you probably care a lot about where your dollars go. But most school districts don’t share your same concerns. Mesa Public Schools (MPS) is one of them. Back in March, MPS failed to explain where over $32.3 million of their federal emergency funds slated for COVID-related expenditures went—which should’ve resulted in an audit by the State of Arizona.
But Mesa isn’t the only problem. Earlier this year, the Arizona Auditor General discovered that Buckeye Elementary School District may have grossly overpaid Superintendent Kristi Wilson. She received 100 percent more in compensation than the superintendents of Arizona’s three largest districts made on average.
Then, there’s teacher pay. Stop us if you’ve heard campaign after campaign that promises higher teacher pay. It’s been the calling card of teachers’ unions forever. So, how’s the follow through? A report from the Goldwater Institute in July revealed that despite the fact that state lawmakers provided nearly 28 percent more funding to increase the salaries of Arizona’s public school teachers between 2018 and 2021, teacher pay only went up 16.5 percent. But don’t worry. Your dollars were used somehow, as public school districts still continued their long-running pattern of increasing overall spending.
Now, you may be wondering what exactly our state’s public school districts are spending your money on. We’re glad you asked.
Radical Gender Theory Is Spreading Like Wildfire.
Over the past year, many of Arizona’s public schools appear to be playing a game of “Who Can Be More Woke” in their attempt to indoctrinate children with gender identity ideology. One of the worst offenders is Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD), the same school district where the now-former Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg was connected to a secret dossier on parents and other political opposition……
Read article at Arizona Free News.