One of the hottest U.S. Senate races in the country is in Arizona, where Republicans hope to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. But they waste all their money during the long Arizona primary criticizing other Republicans while out-of-state billionaires try to unseat their own candidate.
Blake Masters, who spent most of his life as a libertarian in California working for Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, just obtained money from three more billionaires; New York pro-choice The Winklevoss twins each donated $50,000, with $75,000 from Texas libertarian billionaire Andrew Beal. A childhood friend of the Masters he said Masters convinced him to become pro-choice. Thiel,A Bilderberg who served on Facebook’s board for years, making its ties to Big Tech troubling, donated $13.5 million.
Due to the excessive amounts of money, Masters was able to portray Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a solid conservative with a long history of attacking the left – perhaps suing the Biden administration more than any other public official – as cushioned. In fact, Brnovich was consistently targeted by the left for his principled activism, and Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs filed 12 attorney complaints against him and his lawyers over election integrity issues, which he narrowly defeated.
The kind of things Masters says will eventually get him disbarred. While calling Biden a criminal is unkind to the base, lawyers have told me off the record that he will soon be disbarred over such remarks, and then he will be of no apply to anyone with a disgraced reputation.
Masters is such an arrogant candidate who constantly brags about his youth and criticizes other candidates because of their age (Brnovich is Gen X), he doesn’t care what damage his mouth does. He unnecessarily discouraged black conservatives declaring that “frankly, black people” are responsible for the shootings. In fact, extended murder statistics The FBI’s single-victim/one-offender case study shows that of the approximately 6,500 murders in 2019, 3,218 people were killed by Black criminals, 2,948 people were killed by White criminals, and 874 were killed by Hispanic or Latino criminals. Putting the blame solely on one race is irresponsible for someone who clearly thinks he is smart.
The Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a longtime activist in Phoenix and now a conservative Republican who supports news anchor Kari Lake’s meteoric rise to governor, told me that was a sign that Masters was “unstable.” He was furious at Masters’ sloppy statement. “This is irresponsible and inflammatory. It’s catering to the worst element, one of the most irresponsible things I’ve ever seen in grade school.” He quoted A physical altercation He had Masters with a veteran wearing a BLM T-shirt. “The incitement to violence by the left shows that you are not politically mature.”
Indeed, this kind of dog whistling attracts racists. Andrew Anglin, the neo-Nazi publisher of The Daily Stormer, one of the most notorious white supremacist websites, has just approved Masters. Another racist site, VDare, proudly approved his. Jewish Insider completely painted Masters as an anti-Semite due to multiple incidents, including his apply of a “poignant quote” from Nazi leader Hermann Goring in an article in which Masters stated that “the United States has not participated in a just war for over 140 years” – an insult to millions of American soldiers who lost their lives during World War I and II.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump was persuaded to support the Masters program. Thiel similarly cajoled Trump into supporting another candidate he supported, J.D. Vance in Ohio, angering conservatives there who supported solid conservative Josh Mandel. While most of Trump’s endorsements were excellent, unfortunately there were a few questionable ones. Trump insiders now say they wonder whether they made a mistake in endorsing Masters.
Jim Lamon, the billionaire in the race, literally gives Masters a run for his money, revealing him in endless TV commercials. As a libertarian, Masters supported open borders and the legalization of the difficult drug trade, vocation difficult drug dealers “heroes”. Originally from Alabama, Lamon came to become a billionaire and CEO of the solar industry under fire for “managing a group backed by Obama’s green energy loans” and then establishing “a new business partnership with Chinese-controlled solar companies.”
There are two other candidates in the primary, Mick McGuire and Justin Olson, but they don’t have a chance given the single-digit vote count. McGuire has the support of the GOP and RINO establishment, thanks in part to his committed support of unpopular Gov. Doug Ducey, who did not challenge any of his roadblocks during the nomination process.
If Masters receives the GOP nomination, Democrats will destroy him for his needlessly inflammatory and sloppy statements. The only general election surveys show that Brnovich is doing at least five points better against Kelly than against Masters, and also against Lamon. Kelly has raised and issued more money than all of his GOP rivals combined and appears to be on track to raise the same amount he raised for the 2020 special election, $100 million. Ninety-six percent of the money from an outside PAC supporting Masters comes from three billionaires. Only $190,000 of that PAC went to defeating Kelly.
The strange thing is that billionaires portray Brnovich as… RINO is that he is considered Arizona’s Ron DeSantis by those who know his achievements. He stepped in and defended Arizona’s election integrity laws when Hobbs didn’t, all the way to the Supreme Court and victorious. By contrast, his opponents simply make statements but never follow through on them – they never bothered to sue the Biden administration or legally attack Ducey and leftist towns in Arizona – which they could easily do. It all turned out to be the only thing basic debate between them. Week says Masters doesn’t even believe there was voter fraud.
Instead, his opponents dishonestly invent lies about Brnovich. Will Arizona GOP voters see through billionaires’ money? The first one is on August 2.
Disclaimer: The author worked in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in 2003-2004 as a line attorney when Mark Brnovich was also a line attorney there.
Editor’s note: FBI numbers have been updated to reflect the full number of homicide victims and perpetrators, as shown in the Bureau’s 2019 Enhanced Homicide Data Table No. 6.
