For Immediate Release
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org
Senate Showdown: A Week of Deafening Silence
PHOENIX — Welcome to this week’s edition of the ‘Senate Showdown’ — a weekly roundup of the latest news in Arizona’s “crowded,” “costly,” and “chaotic” GOP Senate primary.
With “no clear frontrunner,” these amateur candidates will be busy duking it out well into the summer, ahead of Arizona’s August primary date. Until then, the Arizona Democratic Party’s ‘Showdown’ is here to help you keep track of this race’s breaking news, cringiest Tweets, and nastiest doses of infighting.
On a serious note:
WHEN SILENCE SPEAKS: After days of wall-to-wall coverage and a renewed national conversation about our shared obligation to make our communities safer, Jim Lamon and Blake Masters still have not publicly acknowledged the unspeakable loss of life in Texas. They have, however, told POLITICO they “weren’t interested in talking about gun restrictions,” and are instead parroting tired GOP talking points about bringing more deadly weapons into schools.
Here’s what else you missed this week:
MORE MONEY, STILL LOTS OF PROBLEMS: This week, Peter Thiel answered Blake Masters’ desperate pleas for more campaign cash, injecting another $3.5 million into his pro-Masters super PAC. To date, Thiel has contributed $13.5 million to support his protege’s candidacy — now if only literally anyone else would donate to Blake, maybe he could afford his own TV ads…
BRNO BEING BRNO: We’re a broken record. Yet again, folks are calling for Mark Brnovich to resign his post as Attorney General, this time because he’s refusing to defend our state’s early voting system from the AZ GOP’s lawsuit to wipe out the chosen method of voting for 90% of Arizona voters.
COWBOY VS. PUPPET: Over the weekend, Blake Masters and Jim Lamon resumed their weeks-long rift over Lamon’s now-notorious negative ad wherein he labeled Masters “the puppet of California Big Tech.” Masters deflected, highlighting the fact that he’s outraised Lamon “by a lot” while Lamon doubled down, ironically calling Masters a carpetbagger.
THE BOY IS MINE: This week’s races in Georgia tested Donald Trump’s “kingmaker” status, piling on more uncertainty around the former president’s power over primaries. Apparently, his plan to endorse in this GOP Senate primary is on hold “indefinitely,” but that didn’t stop Brnovich, Lamon, and Masters from continuing to pander for his support.
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