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Pardoned former Sheriff & future Senator Joe Arpaio thread
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Not on topic.
Also, his performance has been worse in every election since 1996, (when he ran unopposed).
Also, he lost his last election in Maricopa County.
Also, he's become a convicted felon since then.
Also, the rest of the state isn't really much redder than Maricopa and won't provide much of an extra base; Tucson and Hispanic or Native American-majority rural areas are blue.
Also, based off of polling and special election results, we should expect the country to go bluer than typical.
None of which means he'll definitely lose. I agree with Badger that I'd rather the GOP become more sane. But I do think that he he'll have a much tougher path to victory than a typical Republican, and if he gets nominated that is a saving grace.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
You can volunteer for the Democratic candidate. This woman appears to be the favorite. She is kind of moderate and annoying (but also bi!) so if that troubles you, you can try to find a more progressive alternative for the primary before volunteering to defeat whichever nutjob the Arizona GOP nominates, since Ward is just as awful as Arpaio.
Ok, i mean, Ward is awful, but Arpaio literally tortured (and likely killed) human beings in horrific conditions and licked his trembling jowls on TV time after time to brag about it, defied a court order, was convicted for criminal contempt due to his gross disrespect for the rule of law, and was plucked from the fires of hell by another jowled racist's gross abuse of the rule of law
Ward is a nutbar and a shameless right wing opportunist but Arpaio is a fucking monster
NNID: Hakkekage
Arpaio is a better friend to Trump than Moore was. He bent the knee during the campaign, and was rewarded with a pardon.
NNID: Hakkekage
And you think that either Trump or Trump's base have any ounce of loyalty to him when is not longer convenient?
I'm very skeptical of that.
You can also donate money and (more importantly) time. Get out and knock some doors! Call in vacation time on election day and spend it shuttling people to their voting location!
Do you know Spanish? Put it to use!
Hell, start now! http://www.onearizona.org/ Get people registered sooner rather than later
The bottom line is Trump was using Arpaio to begin with. The pardon gesture was about further radicalizing his base. He doesn't give a shit about Arpaio.
Trump isn't going to abandon Arpaio; he didn't abandon Moore after the whole child molester scandal broke, probably because whatever charge of sexual assault can be leveled at Moore can be leveled at Trump. Similarly, whatever charge of grievous, cruel racism toward Hispanics can be leveled at Arpaio can be leveled at Trump. They are basically kin.
I do not think the Joe Arpaio/Roy Moore/core Trump base will be swayed by even the goriest details of Arpaio's plain unfitness for the Senate, much as they generally weren't in Alabama. It is the moderate/sane/embarrassed Republicans who may have a longer memory and choose to abstain from voting
NNID: Hakkekage
I don't actually agree. As far as I'm concerned Orrin Hatch or whatever is just as awful as Trump. The problem is the structural problem that one of the two political parties being authoritarian lunatics represents.
So that's the line Arpaio has to walk. Everything has to be about making Trump look great. Any misstep and that endorsement will be walked back to a shallow "eh, he's the GOP candidate, you don't want a Democrat do you?" Which is still an endorsement, but it's not as moving as an enthusiastic "CHECK OUT MY BUDDY."
But for now I'm curious to see the GOP response. Who are they fielding to run anyway?
This is getting far afield of my point, which is that Arpaio has actually committed inhumane crimes. Again, Kelli Ward is awful. But she's a standard issue right wing kook compared to what Arpaio has done
NNID: Hakkekage
So the aforementioned Kelli Ward has already been running. She's a conspiracy theorist and a crackpot who, upon learning about John McCain's cancer diagnoses, didn't skip a beat in calling for him to step down so she could graciously be appointed to his seat. A whacko opportunist who believes in chemtrails. She ran against McCain in the primary in 2016 and was already planning to run in the primary against Flake before he announced he wasn't going to run again, a decision he made possibly out of fear of getting primaried by this Ward. Trump has already said some nice things about Ward and was rooting for her while he was clapping back at Flake's criticisms.
Then there is Martha McSally, a current AZ Congresswoman who is much more qualified and electable on paper--was in the military, sits on Homeland Security, by all accounts a standard-issue Republican shuffling in line behind the party. She is anti-LGBT but is quiet on immigration issues, except she has expressed sympathy for DACA recipients.
NNID: Hakkekage
I can't help but feel you jinxed us here.
You'd think Joe would just ride off into the sunset, happy with his pardon, but nope. Why would someone with his past even want the scrutiny that comes with modern elections?
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I hate to pull this card, but the guy is 85. There's GOT to be things going on with him that prevent him from serving as a Senator.
Ward and McSally are much more dangerous in that arena
Volunteering and donating for the Democratic candidates are important to make sure those three never get a chance at the seat
That northwest contingent generally holds the balancing point for Maricopa County politics, and it's been apparent in Arpaio's diminishing number of votes over the years that even the retiree community is becoming less conservative as the oldest die off and a younger generation takes their place.
Tucson is a more liberal college town that gets more conservative the farther away from the university you are.
So yes, Maricopa County is where the action is, as there are people who can be swayed to either come out and vote or stay home. Rural AZ is just as conservative as rural everywhere else, but they don't have the numbers to really move the needle in a statewide election
I feel like McCain might be trying to tough it out until after the election, because then Ducey gets to appoint a replacement all the way to 2020 instead of for only 10 months.
@Ceno
Voting isn’t the most you can do! If you’re able, volunteering your time is an excellent way to make a real difference, especially in close races. It’s still a ways out from election time ramping up but you can offer to volunteer for them here: http://www.azdem.org/volunteer
*cough* @Arch *cough*
Edit: Whoops, guess I’m not the first to mention this.
Also Arpaio is the worst, this is known.
Geth, close the thread.