The DCCC is dialing down their commitment to Arizona and to the 3 Amigos who are in very vulnerable districts in the state. Read more about their retreat in this Hotline story by Reid Wilson. The explanation given by the DCCC is strangely suspicious, mostly because it is false. They are pulling out of AZ 5 because the strength of Harry Mitchell’s campaign? The situation on the ground is the opposite. The most recent poll showed Mitchell down 6 points. The article also said the Democrats feel good about Giffords because she is ahead in the polling. Since when is 46-46 ahead?

The Republicans struck back today. The NRCC put up an ad in CD 1 and Schweikert and Kelly also went on the air with their own ads. Take a look at all 3 right here.

Are GOP moderates an endangered species?  According to Linda Valdez in the AzCentral blogs they just may be.   So should we invoke the Endangered Species Act on behalf of moderate Republicans, or simply let evolution remove them from the political gene pool as a species unable to survive in a post-progressive United States?

www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Valdez/97859

pictured at far left is "... Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a pragmatic Republican who lost his primary race for state Senate in District 5"

Rasmussen Reports: 75 percent of GOP voters say Republican elected officials are out of touch with the party base because they are too liberal.

To the left of center in the picture is a candidate who took advantage of political opportunity – not because she believed in the purpose – but because by so doing she could eliminate the field of her competitors and appear to be that which she may not be.

The mendacious senior senator to the right of the Governor is proof that if you carpet bomb your opponent with enough money, and create the biggest echo chamber you can overcome the need to allow the voters to look at your own sordid record .

And lastly, the newly unemployed politician on the right is proof again, that sometimes integrity and honesty can trump money and distortions when the voters are informed of their choices.  In this case, common sense indeed did march to victory.  [As for the individual to the right of the senator?  We have no idea why he is in this picture.]

A Political Party stand on the values expressed by its platform and let its case be made before the voters.  Values, not expediency should direct policy and lawmaking.

If you are a Republican, then be a REPUBLICAN.  If you are a Democrat, then be a DEMOCRAT.  Voters are tired of having a dimes worth of difference between the two parties.  They see through the veil of feigned differences on the surface to the sub-surface where both parties begin to look very much alike.

The story may be considered already stale, and I believe Mike Broomhead covered most of what I’m about to say days ago, but the story remains in the news and I’m compelled to speak out. The Democrats have been crying like little girls for days now about Steve May recruiting Green candidates to siphon Democrat votes in the general. In fact, in their usual hyperbolic, forced parlance, they’re calling it fraud. My response: …so what, Democrats? You do it to Republicans all the time. This is a valid tactic and it’s been used for a very long time. Apparently, a judge just affirmed that there’s nothing illegal about their candidacies.

The Democrats are just crying because their tactics are being used against them. At least in terms of putting candidates on the ballot, we Republicans, should know their tactics well and we should use the same tactics against them mercilessly. While the Democrats are whining and crying to the courts, they use the same kind of tactics against Republicans all the time. The difference? We don’t engage in the beta male behavior of crying about it. We simply out the Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) and Democrats in Disguise (DIDs) and try to win elections. We don’t go running off crying to the courts, that’s for Democrats. We Republicans believe in achieving our goals through the legislative process.

Arizona has a set of laws that governs who can and can’t get on the ballot. I believe they’re all in Title 16. These Green candidates at issue here jumped through all the legal hoops to get on the ballot, but the Democrats don’t like the way the law worked, so they cry about it. They want an exception to the law to benefit them, and them alone. They believe they shouldn’t have to operate under the same laws as the rest of us, that they’re special and everything should be their way. They believe the rules they’re crying about should only work in their favor. Remember what Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, “some animals are more equal than others”?

Exactly how do the Democrats use the laws against the Republicans? Two ways. First, and this may not be a conscious, concerted effort, but Democrats that want to hold office realize that they live in a Republican district and then they change their voter registration and run as a Republican. If they’re smart, they’ll lie to the electorate about being a conservative just to get elected. There are plenty of examples in Arizona politics of this. Life-long Democrat Tom Horne changed his party registration before he ran for the state House years ago. Dean Martin flogged him for it. Horne, the stereotypical RINO, has since done everything in his power to SOUND like he’s a conservative since but his record shows otherwise. Unfortunately, if the old man can win the AG’s spot, he’ll be third in line to the Governor’s office. We’ve done it to ourselves to let such a moderate Republican get so high in the party, but it’s nothing new. Jane Hull was a moderate Governor too and Jan Brewer has less than a conservative record now after hiking your taxes and increasing spending with her line item vetoes. Most recently Democrat In Disguise Heather Carter won a Republican nomination to the House in LD 7.

It is possible to have a Republican register as a Democrat and run in a Democrat stronghold district, but few Republicans can stomach lying to the electorate like that whereas Democrats have no compunction about it. Also, Republicans tend to brand anyone registered as a Democrat as a liberal. It would take an immense amount of self-sacrifice to run as a Democrat, so, it’s not often done.

Second, in addition to the tactic of running a Democrat as a Republican, the Democrats often run one Democrat House candidate in a solidly Republican district. How does this work? Easy. The Democrats “one-shot” their candidate. For those who don’t understand, to one-shot, a Democrat walks into a voting booth, and, for example, once they get to the state House races, they intentionally undervote, casting only one vote for the Democrat candidate and they fail to cast their second vote in order to deny the Republicans additional votes. You see, if Democrats were to fully vote, then they would be padding the vote totals for the Republicans and ensuring their candidate would lose. The hope is that, by one-shotting, the Republican candidates will not get as many votes as the Democrat candidate and the Democrat wins a seat. Democrats can win when the voter registration is close or the Republicans put up a bad candidate or when voters also undervote because they don’t like a Republican candidate. It’s also possible for independents and PNDs to vote for the Democrat candidate to put them over the top as well. Also, if it’s a bad year for Republicans, because moderates have been in power betraying Republican principles and conservatives have determined to discipline the party, a Democrat also has a shot at winning. It’s one of the many reasons why I thrash the moderates on a daily basis, because I want Republicans to win elections and stay in the majority for the long term. There’s a couple of split districts like this: LD 5 (it has a very slim 2% Republican registration advantage), LD 11 (has a 12% Republican registration advantage, but it has a history of moderate leadership), LD 20 (has about a 10% registration advantage), and LD 26 (has about an 8% registration advantage).

Republicans actually do the exact same thing to the Democrats…and we should do it to them EVERY TIME, without fail. LD 23 would be a district with a Democrat registration advantage, but we have one Republican Representative in that District. We’re also sticking it to the Democrats in LD 16 with Mike Gular. Again, I’d like to remind all LD 16 voters to one-shot Mike. Please ONLY vote for Mike and NEVER vote for a Democrat in the House races. If Republicans cast ANY votes for a Democrat in the LD 16 House races, you’re assuring you have NO representation in the House for another 2 years. LDs 24 and 25 also have Democrat registration advantages and one Republican office-holder.

Also, while I’m no proponent of Clean Election, I want the system abolished, as long as the sham is in place, we Republicans should be running a full slate of candidates in all 30 districts, ESPECIALLY the Democrat strongholds. Why? To fritter away taxpayer money? No, to make the fat, lazy Democrats EARN their seats in the legislature and possibly take the seats away from them.

Another tactic that the Democrats love to use is non-partisan races. In Republican strongholds, we Republicans are dumb enough to agree to non-partisan contests so the Democrats can pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes and sneak Democrats into office. How else would we get horrid mayoral and city council office holders. Phil Gordon is a horrid mayor. Had we had partisan elections, Randy Pullen would have been our mayor. Randy did his best to make it clear that he was a Republican candidate. I voted for Pullen and despite my differences with him, I rue that he’s not mayor. In Democrat strongholds, like Tucson, the Dems want partisan elections so they can ensure that their majorities can control things. If I had my way, ALL elections would be partisan, even in the Democrat strongholds.

What’s also hypocritical about the Democrats’ tears, with all their high-minded talk about “democracy,” is that they have done their best to knock as many candidates off the ballot as they can this year. One would think that if they believed in democracy that they’d want as many candidates on the ballot as possible. Just remember, Democrats are hypocrites and liars. They’ll tell you one thing and do another. Same with moderate and liberal Republicans. You should also remember that we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a republic. Decisions aren’t made by the masses (except for ballot propositions and who our representatives are), they’re made by our chosen representatives. Our Founders hated and feared democracy as mob rule. Initially, we had a limited franchise because our Founders hated democracy. They also instituted a bi-cameral legislature to put further brakes on the passions of the mob. Same with state legislative election of U.S. Senators, six year terms for Senators and the Electoral College.

To sum up, the Democrats’ crying is hypocritical. They just want things their way and never you mind that they also employ deceptive practices during election cycles.