Primary election August 2, 2022

The main purpose of this blog is to try to help our neighbors with difficult ballots. That is easier when the ballot question is merely obscure, like a bond issue by the Maricopa Health Authority. After November 2020, we doubt any election conducted by mail and counted by machine.

This primary is particularly difficult. Lots of good Republicans are running. It is nearly impossible to choose between them. I am also painfully aware of the huge blunders I have made in the past. In both August and November 2020, I supported Stephen Richer and Eddie Cook. I gave money to Richer and helped Cook with his signs. Yet we must continue to try to vote, to overwhelm the evil with the sheer numbers of our votes.

Here is my ballot. I will submit it as late as possible, partly to foil the bad guys, partly to be able to change my vote in case one of these people does something dumb. Below are my arguments. I hope this helps someone. Here is an image of the ballot.

  1. US Senate: Blake Masters
  2. US Congress, District 4: Kelly Cooper
  3. Governor: Kari Lake
  4. Secretary of State: Mark Finchem
  5. Attorney General: Abe Hamadeh
  6. Superintendent of Public Instruction: Shiry Sapir
  7. State Treasurer: Bob Lettieri
  8. Arizona Corporation Commission: Nick Myers and Kevin Thompson
  9. Arizona Senate District 12: Suzanne Sharer
  10. Maricopa County Attorney:

US Senate: The worst possible outcome of this primary is to select Mark Brnovich. Primaries are won by plurality and four acceptable Republicans are splitting the anti-Brnovich vote. We must get behind someone and Trump endorsed Masters.

US Congress: District 4 is supposed to be a Democrat district. The Republican party therefore encourages candidates who will appeal to Democrat voters, because they are ‘moderate.’ What is the point, though, of sending someone to Washington who will betray you? I prefer Jerone Davison but here, too, it is necessary to get behind someone who can stop the moderates. Kelly Cooper has some good endorsements, including Kari Lake’s.

Governor: Kari Lake has guts. She has taken on fights that she could have avoided. In particular, she has backed draconian reforms of our election system, like HB2289 (one day, no machines), while the other candidates squirm when asked about election integrity. Perhaps she was Saul. She is now Paul.

Secretary of State: This post is the chief election officer of the state. Mark Finchem has done some dumb things (like support the National Popular Vote) but he has been a fairly reliable advocate of the right kind of major election reform.

Attorney General: The experience of November 2020 inverts the rules. I am averse to candidates who appear to enjoy the support of the establishment, to those who have money, and even to those who are running on their experience. I believe Abe Hamadeh is the one most likely to punish the people who have stolen our elections. He is endorsed by Trump, Rand Paul, and Rick Grenell.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Shiry Sapir has school-age children. She understands the evil that infects the district school system.

State Treasurer: There are no bad candidates here. Bob Lettieri has the best claim to being an outsider.

Arizona Corporation Commission: Two seats are open in November. Myers and Thompson have the endorsement of Jim O’Connor and Justin Olson.

Arizona Senate: District 12 is supposedly a Democrat district, so it is hard to get Republicans to run and those who do often think their job is to be moderate. David Richardson is an acolyte of Rusty Bowers. He won’t take a position on election integrity for fear of being divisive. There is no more important question for a legislator.

Maricopa County Attorney: To get on the ballot, both of these women had to declare that they saw nothing wrong with the November 2020 election. Do we vote for the one we think was lying? If we win back control of our elections, this is a good example of a race that just clutters our ballot and makes them harder to count. The winner of this election is more accountable to the Board of Supervisors than to any voters.