I am paraphrasing a bit in my title, but that pretty accurately sums up what Jim Small, an editorial writer for the Arizona Mirror, says in an article he wrote for Raw Story yesterday.
Mr. Small points out that Republican voters in 2022 were enthusiastic about voting, outpacing Democrats even in perhaps mistakenly perceived as blue Maricopa County where 75% of registered Republicans cast a ballot, as opposed to only 69% of Democrats.
The problem for Lake, and the rest of the Republican candidates at the top of the ticket, was Republican Voters either voting for their Democratic opponents or not bothering to vote at all in their races:
“Critically, overall turnout in Maricopa heavily favored the GOP. More than 40% of voters were Republicans, about 8.3 percentage points more than Democrats — slightly better than the eight-point edge that reputable polling predicted.
And yet, Lake lost 315 precincts that voted for Doug Ducey in 2018, when he easily secured reelection over David Garcia. Between Maricopa and Pima counties, where some 80% of Arizona voters live, 295 precincts flipped from R to D in the governor’s race.
At the same time, Kimberly Yee secured reelection as treasurer by more than 280,000 votes, an 11 percentage point margin over her Democratic opponent. And Republicans picked up competitive congressional seats in Phoenix and Tucson.
You don’t have to crunch the data too hard to understand that Lake’s loss wasn’t because of fraud or the hacking of machines, as she desperately wants people to believe. It’s because her message about pervasive election fraud and fealty to Trump — also the central message of the Masters, Finchem and Hamadeh campaigns — drove Republican and conservative-leaning independents away from her by the thousands.
By contrast, Yee didn’t cozy up to Trump — or to Lake, Masters, Finchem and Hamadeh, for that matter. Neither did U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, who narrowly won reelection, or Juan Ciscomani, who was elected to Congress in a tight race in Tucson.”
Small also points out that Lake’s dissing of John McCain voters, whom she pointedly told to “Get out!” of one of her campaign rallies and was likely done to curry favor with the Orangeutan, did little to endear her to moderate Republicans and independents.
So, it was not long lines, or malfunctioning printers, or spiders from Mars that cost her the Governorship, but a weariness among Republican voters themselves over the continued conspiratorial antics of the election denier-in-chief and his trained monkeys in the state parties.
Mr. Small’s article should be sufficient to drive a stake through the heart of Lake’s election denialism but should also serve as a warning to we Democrats that our work is far from done in Arizona and other purple states.
But there is another lesson to be gleaned from his writing:
If the GOP manages to jettison Trump from the 2024 election, while retaining a significant proportion of his supporters – which very much is open to question – and also nominates candidates that are not obviously deranged, we could be in for a very tough fight.
But such a fight might just be immeasurably better for the country.
Them purging out MAGA is going to take more than a couple of years, FYI. New political alliances take a lot of time to build and none of the Trump cult is going away quietly. So expect more Republican shitshows for a while yet.
Oh, one other reason Lake lost: she’s a blithering idiot. After her kind of loss, the smart move is to lay low and wait for cultural amnesia to kick in. But no, gotta loud and proud so NOBODY forgets why she lost.
“while retaining a significant proportion of his supporters – which very much is open to question – and also nominates candidates that are not obviously deranged,” — which is also very much open to question.
Yes, IF they do, then you’re absolutely right. But if they don’t, asx I think is more likely, the GOP is headed for a nation-wide shitfest. One I’d truly love to see and which they absolutely deserve, as they (including most of the so-called “sane” ones) brought upon themselves.