Federal Committees update

No real surprises here, though there is some scary unbridled optimism presented.

Franks forming a committee in no surprise, as he's already announced that he's seeking to be elected to the seat (CD8) he resigned from in disgrace.

Republican Becker was a 2022 primary candidate for the CD7 seat held by Democrat Raul Grijalva.  She lost in the primary then but WAS adjudicated to be competent...to assist in her own defense.

She's seeking the seat again, but even R voters may not want that to be the primary qualification of one of their candidates.

The middle two are PACs which I don't normally cover here, but they share two things with Kari Lake's primary candidate committee -

1. The treasurer, Bradley Crate.

2. The mailing address.  From the FEC - 

My only question is a rather cynical one - how much of the money raised through the PACs will be funneled to Cheeto's defense team?

Lots of money will be spent on AZ's general election, though much of won't be from candidates

A lot of will come from PACs, some of them "dark money," with undisclosed sources.

And some of them will be local and not the well known (and already active) national groups that we already know about, like the DCCC, NRCC.DGA, RGA, DSCC, and NRSC (and others).  Still, whether paid for by candidates or PACs (national or local), we should expect our airwaves and mailboxes to be filled with vote for/don't vote for crap in October.

To be sure, some of these PACs will NOT be active; a lot will depend on the ability of their principals to raise money.  Also, some were formed to support/oppose a particular candidate in their primary races.  But the PACs have interesting names.

Caveat: Many names will be thrown around in this post, and I've never met any of these people in real life.  They might be decent human beings...other than for their heavy involvement in R politics.

Caveat to the caveat: Except Sean Noble.  With a track record like his, anyone who shakes his hand should probably count their fingers afterward.

Note: this list, though long, is NOT meant to be comprehensive.

Recently formed at the Maricopa County level -

Arizona Liberty Coalition                      1002272

Chair: Stewart Carlough, occupation: pilot           Treasurer: Charles Coolidge, occupation: consultant

Date formed: May 12, 2022

It's already accepted $50K from the Kendricks.

Registered with the IRS -

Sean Noble has a long and sordid history as a conduit for dark money.

Bigot with a badge Mark Lamb is involved with this one.  He's the sheriff in Pinal County; what is it about the recent sheriffs there?

The next time Ragan is an independent will be the first time.

From the website of Prosper.org -

Ragan is involved with another PAC -

Ragan is involved with a state-level committee, too -

Of course, Ragan isn't the only name common to PACs.

This looks to be a dark money group, as its address circles in on that of its donor.

Another name to keep an eye on -

An Arizona PAC not based in AZ?  Really?

To be fair, this one may not be active in the general election.  Based on their expenditures, their preferred candidate was Republican Shawnna Bolick, and as she didn't win her primary...

My "independent" crack applies here.

Another "Arizona" PAC that's not actually based in AZ.

State Committees update

I was going to refer to this as a federal committee update as both are registered with the IRS (which is how they came to my attention). but neither is registered with the FEC and both are registered with the Arizona Secretary of State.

As such, this is a State Committees update.

Silvey is running as a write-in candidate in the R primary for State Senate in LD5.

From the website of the AZSOS -

Disclosure time: I live in LD5, and will NOT be voting for either R write-in candidate. :)

I generally don't cover PACs here, but this one contains contains a blast from the past.

The treasurer of the PAC, Heather Carter, is a former state legislator (2013-2021) and currently a yoga instructor.  And always a Republican.

My guess, given the date of formation of the committee, is that it is going to disburse money in the R primary.

From the IRS' website, for both committees -

From the AZSOS' website, also for both committees -