Is Congressman Eli Crane (R-Most of Northern AZ) in trouble?

From Inside Elections -

Arizona 2 Poll: Sleeper Race Awakens

Arizona voters already faced a gauntlet of competitive races this fall, from a toss-up presidential contest to a high-profile Senate race and two of the most expensive House races in the country.

But another election may be asserting itself in the closing weeks of the cycle, according to new polling by Noble Predictive Insights for Inside Elections.

Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of the northeastern part of the state, has largely flown under the radar since Republican Eli Crane flipped the seat from Democrat Tom O’Halleran in 2022. While Crane made some headlines for his efforts in ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, his re-election campaign has attracted little outside attention.

But the latest Inside Elections/NPI battleground House district poll suggests he is entering the final month of the election neck-and-neck with his Democratic opponent, former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.

[snip]

There are nine Congressional districts in Arizona; six are currently held by Republicans, three by Democrats.

I fully expect Biggs (R), Gosar (R), and Grijalva (D) to retain their seats; they're in districts where their party has an overwhelming advantage.. I expect Stanton (D) to retain his - the district he represents has a slight Republican advantage in voter registration numbers but that race is in a turnout district and the Democrats there do a far better turnout job.  Though they're newbies, I expect Ansari (D) and Hamadeh (R) to win their races as the districts they're running overwhelmingly favor their parties.

Two of the races, CD1's Schweikert (R) v. Shah (D) and CD6's Ciscomani (R) v. Engel (D) are currently held by Republicans, but those are actual contests - Schweikert is ethically challenged and Ciscomani is a first-termer in a district that, like Stanton's, slightly favors Rs in voter registration numbers but is a turnout district.

CD2's Crane (R) v. Jonathan Nez (D) should be added to the competitive list (to be fair, it probably should have been there all along).

Crane is a first-termer and is a stone cold bigot in a district with a large number of Native American voters.

Nez is a former president of the Navajo Nation.

Of the three races, I expect that one will go Democratic, hope that two will, and be (pleasantly) surprised if all three do.

I'm not going make any predictions in these races - at this point, it's all about the candidates and turnout efforts.

Arizona's Paul Gosar being..."Paul Gosar"

From The Hill -

Third House Republican backs Johnson ouster

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) announced Friday that he will co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) resolution to remove Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the House’s top job, becoming the third House Republican to back his ouster.

Gosar, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, revealed his support for dismissing Johnson minutes after the House — with help from Democrats — advanced a foreign aid package that omitted border security provisions.

I suppose we should glad...that he's contributing to the chaos in the House GOP caucus and doing his level best to ensure that the Democrats regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives

House Rs declare that Dulles Airport is about to go bankrupt

Actually, they said they want to name it after Cheeto.

They've introduced H.R. 7845 to do just that.

And one of the original cosponsors?  One of Arizona's own, the ever-bigoted Paul Gosar.

As expected,  the gambit wasn't received.

From The Hill -

Virginia Democrat slams proposal to name airport after Trump: ‘I’d suggest they find a federal prison’

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Tuesday criticized a recently-introduced GOP bill that would rename Washington Dulles International Airport after former President Trump.

“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” Connolly, whose district includes a portion of Dulles, said in a statement. “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.” 

Personally, I think that an immigrant service center, a place where they help immigrants, should be named after him.

He will *absolutely* hate that.

Short Attention Span Musing - justice system edition

And, surprisingly enough, Cheeto and his many indictments aren't part of it.

...First up: the big news of the week.

From AZ Family, written by Peter Valencia, dated 11/29 -

2 Cochise County supervisors indicted for 2022 election interference

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has announced that a grand jury has handed down an indictment against two Cochise County supervisors.

The indictment was filed Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court. According to the AG’s office, Peggy Judd and Terry “Tom” Crosby conspired to delay the canvass of votes cast in the county during the November 2022 General Election. Both now face felony offenses of conspiracy and interference with an election officer.

A press release from Attorney General Kris Mayes is here.  The indictment itself (part of the press release) is here.  From Maricopa County Superior Court records: the case number is CR2023-008495.

Arraignment is scheduled for 12/21/2023

Guessing that Kelli Ward and the other 2020 fake electors were hoping that election-denying would get lost in the hubbub.

My guess: Not so much.

Other news:

...The U.S. House expelled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) by an overwhelming margin this week.  However, Arizona's representatives in Congress weren't exactly unanimous in the desire to expel the oft-indicted member.

From the vote:

All Democratic members from AZ voted to expel Santos, but four GOP members from AZ voted to protect criminality -

Crane (AZ2), Biggs (AZ5), Gosar (AZ9), and Lesko (AZ8).

Not surprising: Biggs and Gosar are relentlessly partisan bigots and Crane is their ideological saddle partner.

Surprising:  Lesko.  I figured that if there was a fourth AZGOPer to vote to protect Santos, it would be David Schweikert.  He's got ethical issues of his own, thought he would vote to help one of his own.

I was wrong.

...Arizona Supreme Court Justice Bill Montgomery (R-Dougie) recused himself from a case involving Planned Parenthood, a group that he's demonized in the past.

From AZ Mirror, written by Gloria Rebecca Gomez, dated 11/30 -

Anti-abortion AZ Supreme Court Justice recuses self from abortion case

An Arizona Supreme Court judge who once accused Planned Parenthood of committing genocide has agreed to recuse himself from a case involving the organization that will determine the future legality of abortion in the state. 

In October, Planned Parenthood Arizona called for Justice Bill Montgomery to step away from the case after the resurfacing of a 2017 Facebook post in which he said its national counterpart was responsible for the “greatest generational genocide known to man.” The organization, which runs four of the state’s nine abortion clinics and is the main litigant in the case, argued that Montgomery’s vehement opposition to it threatens to jeopardize its right to a fair and impartial trial. 

There are many amicus briefs filed for this one.

It's scheduled to be heard by the AZ supes on 12/12.

..And in sad news,  Arizona icon Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, has passed away at age 93

From AZ Mirror, written by Ashley Murray, dated 12/1 -

Sandra Day O’Connor, who made history as the first woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93

The first woman to serve on the nation’s highest court is dead at 93.

Sandra Day O’Connor, a groundbreaking justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, died Friday in Phoenix, of complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory illness, according to an announcement from the court.

President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor in 1981, and she was confirmed by the full Senate, 99-0, in September of that year

I didn't always agree with her, but always thought she was a decent human being.

My deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.

Kevin McCarthy goes on Meet the Press and shows that he's a lousy human being

He may be the Jeff Bezos of the U.S. House of Representatives, just with less money.

Cheeto hates Bezos, not because Bezos, though a vile human being, is still a better one than Cheeto, but because Bezos is wealthier than Cheeto.

Similarly, McCarthy is hated by Matt Gaetz, who's pretty vile himself.

Yet McCarthy, with his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, while hated by Gaetz, proved that he is still pretty bad himself.

It's as if being despised by someone who's a lousy human being may not be a positive character reference.

Meet the Press' transcript is here.

McCarthy showed four things with his appearance:

1. While he was deposed by extremists in his own caucus (in fact, Gaetz made the motion to get rid of him), he blames Democrats for his ouster and hopes everyone else does too.  Notwithstanding the cluster-copulate that the R caucus in the House has become.

2. He may not be as pro-Putin/anti-Ukraine as Cheeto and Paul Gosar, but it's a matter of degree, not a matter of substantive difference.

3. Like most other Rs, he conflates being anti-immigrant with being anti-Hamas' attack on Israel.

4. He wants to be Speaker again; at least, he didn't rule it out.

From the transcript (emphasis added by me), though I recommend reading it in its entirety -

Actually, he showed a few other things, but those were the high points.

Lesko's out; the race is on to replace her

From Arizona Agenda -

The Daily Agenda: Congressional scramble!

Republican U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko blindsided Arizona’s political junkies yesterday when she announced she has had enough of the swamp.

“Right now, Washington D.C. is broken; it is hard to get anything done,” she wrote, declaring she won’t run for reelection next year so she can spend more time with her mother and grandchildren.

Already, the scramble is on to replace her. There are rumors that last year’s U.S. Senate GOP nominee Blake Masters might get in the race. That Mark Lamb might drop out of the Senate race and run for the West Valley district instead. That Arizona Treasurer Kim Yee could resign and run, or that any number of Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Ben Toma and Rep. Steve Montenegro, might be eyeing the soon-to-be-vacant seat. 

Kari Lake has already announced she’s backing failed Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, who made it official and jumped into the race a few hours after getting slapped with $55,000 in court sanctions for making things up in his election lawsuit. 

Two things here:

1. I'm NOT saying that the folks at AZ Agenda are wrong (they know way more about this stuff than I do) but if Lamb enters this race, he'll have an uphill battle.  While under Section II of the US Constitution, he only has to live in the state to be a Congresscritter in any district in the state, in practical terms, it's a good idea to live in the district or at least in the county of the district.

And while the Pinal County Sheriff lives in AZ, he most assuredly doesn't live in the district or even in Maricopa County.

2. The person most relieved by Lesko's decision may be...fellow Republican Congresscritter David Schweikert.  

One (or more) of the people looking Lesko's seat may have been looking at mounting a primary challenge to ethically-deprived Schweikert (his lack of ethics doesn't bother them, but lack of Gosar-esque insanity may trouble them), but that's no longer a safe R seat.

Lesko's seat is.

Shutdown delayed; McCarthy on the clock

The MSM likes to say a shutdown has been "averted," but in reality, Congress just kicked the can down the road for 45 days.

From AP --

Government shutdown averted with little time to spare as Biden signs funding before midnight

The threat of a federal government shutdown suddenly lifted late Saturday as President Joe Biden signed a temporary funding bill to keep agencies open with little time to spare after Congress rushed to approve the bipartisan deal.

The package drops aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers, but increases federal disaster assistance by $16 billion, meeting Biden’s full request. The bill funds government until Nov. 17.

[snip]

The outcome ends, for now, the threat of a shutdown, but the reprieve may be short-lived. Congress will again need to fund the government in coming weeks risking a crisis as views are hardening, particularly among the right-flank lawmakers whose demands were ultimately swept aside this time in favor of a more bipartisan approach.

Thanksgiving will be on November 23 this year; this funding will expire just before that.  So we'll going through this again during the run up to that holiday.

Of course,  Kevin McCarthy may not be Speaker of the House at that point.

From BBC (UK) -

Hardline Republicans seek to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

A hardline Republican says he will seek to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this week, after he pushed through a last-minute spending bill with support from the opposition Democrats.

Mr McCarthy submitted the bill - aimed at averting a government shutdown - in defiance of the right of his party.

They had already vowed to topple him if he tried to overcome their opposition with Democratic support.

Hardline Republicans in both houses of Congress voted against the motion.

[snip]

On Sunday, Rep Matt Gaetz vowed to oust Mr McCarthy, telling the CNN that House Republicans needed "trustworthy" leadership.

"I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week," said Mr Gaetz, long a vocal critic of the Californian congressman. "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy."

I think that McCarthy will survive the initial threat to his speakership, if only because Gaetz is so profoundly and personally unpopular.

Plus, instead of voting for Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the Rs will try to select a speaker from their caucus.

And though he may be a lousy human being and a worse public servant, the least bad R may be the one that they're intent on deposing.

The Senate vote on the measure is here.  The only surprise in it is that a certain Senator from Arizona didn't vote against the measure because it didn't contain enough money for hedge fund managers.

The House vote on the measure is here.  No surprises here. Arizona Republicans Biggs, Crane, Lesko, Schweikert, and, of course, Paul Gosar voted against it; all other members from AZ voted for it.

Congressman Paul Gosar again brings notoriety to Arizona

And again, cements his hold on the title of "Most Bigoted Member of Congress."

From Media-ite

Republican Congressman Calls For General Mark Milley to Be Executed in Shockingly Homophobic Screed

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) published a shockingly violent and homophobic tirade against General Mark Milley, suggesting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff be put to death.

Gosar’s Congressional office released a newsletter on Sunday which claimed that the FBI, the DHS, and other federal agencies allowed the U.S. Capitol to be attacked by Donald Trump’s rioting supporters on January 6. From there, the newsletter blasted Milley for speaking with Nancy Pelosi after the riot, agreeing with her that Trump was “crazy,” and assuring the former House speaker that Trump wouldn’t be able to seize control of America’s nuclear arsenal during his last days in office.

Would-be insurrectionists lose appeal and have to pay an intended victim's court costs

Evidently, objecting to being referred to as possible traitors can be the opposite of lucrative.

From KJZZ, by Greg Hahne, Jill Ryan, and Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services -

Gosar, Finchem, Kern lose appeal, ordered to pay court fees

The state Court of Appeals has ruled that Congressman Paul Gosar and two former GOP state lawmakers will have to pay the legal fees of another representative they sued for defamation.

The appellate decision was unanimous.

The story is a *little* wrong about one thing - Finchem is currently a former legislator, but was a member at the time, but Kern, while a former legislator when the suit was filed, is currently a member of the Arizona legislature.

From the court's pdf of the decision, emphasis added by me -

"Irrelevant", "groundless",  and "bad faith"?

Sounds like Gosar, Finchem, and Kern learned something from Cheeto, and their lawyers learned from his.

Paul Gosar update: Kevin McCarthy is threatening to impeach Joe Biden, but he's going after the wrong person

The threat:

From Forbes -

McCarthy Threatened Biden With An Impeachment Inquiry—Here’s What That Is

KEY FACTS

There is no “explicit definition of what constitutes an impeachment investigation,” according to the Congressional Research Service, which prepares reports for Congress, so all that’s known about the inquiries is based on how they’ve been historically done.

Launching an impeachment inquiry—or impeachment investigation—is not a required step in the impeachment process, as it’s not outlined in the Constitution, but it’s usually the first step toward bringing articles of impeachment, according to the research group.

Yet, McCarthy seems to be OK with Nazi sympathizers being part of his caucus/base of support:

From Media Matters for America -

Rep. Paul Gosar promotes another antisemitic site that praises Hitler and denies the Holocaust

Rep. Paul Gosar yesterday used his House.gov newsletter to promote USSA News, a fringe site that has posted content calling the Holocaust “the Holohoax” and telling readers to “stand up for Hitler.” Gosar’s promotion of the antisemitic outlet comes just months after he sent followers to a different site that has also denied the Holocaust and praised Adolf Hitler. 

Gosar has frequently promoted antisemitic media in recent years. He has met with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and repeatedly spoke at his conferences; and he’s promoted virulent antisemite Vincent James Foxx.

Oh, and George Santos is still part of McCarthy's caucus.

It appears that Eli Crane is trying to unseat Paul Gosar as being considered AZ's most bigoted member of Congress

He's got a long way to go, even with this utterance, but this is a good start.

At the very least, he's staked out the "more bigoted than thou" turf in any R primary in his district.

From NBCNews -

Arizona Republican refers to Black Americans as 'colored people' in House floor debate

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz. referred to Black people as "colored people" Thursday in floor debate over his proposed amendment to an annual defense policy bill, prompting a stern rebuke from the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve,” said Crane, who is in his first term. “It has nothing to do with any of that stuff.”

The Phoenix City Council finds a way to appease the NRA and piss off Paul Gosar at the same time

While appeasing criminals is a bad thing, pissing off Gosar is a good thing.  

Always.

From AZFamily (this is the entire article as it is just three paragraphs/six sentences long) -

Phoenix City Council approves plan to send hundreds of unclaimed guns to Ukrainian police force

The City of Phoenix has unanimously approved a plan to send hundreds of unclaimed firearms to the National Police of Ukraine.

During the meeting on Wednesday, the City Council approved a plan allowing 500 to 600 guns to be transferred to a private company, which will then give them to the Ukrainian police force. According to the transfer request published in the City Council agenda, “only 9mm, 45mm, 39mm and 12 gauge firearms will be sent.” No city or taxpayer funds will be used to transport the weapons, the council agenda item said.

State law says guns are unclaimed when no owner comes forward after a 30-day notice. At that point, law enforcement, cities and towns can dispose of or sell them. In 2022, the Miami New Times reported that the City of Miami passed a gun buyback resolution to ship firearms to Ukraine.

The agenda item from the City of Phoenix -

From the results of the meeting -

The NRA never wants guns destroyed, no matter how many people have been killed by them.  And Paul Gosar is so pro-Vlad he never wants any there to be any support for Ukraine.

Throwing bombs is sexier than actually governing...just ask the shameless bomb throwers

Gotta wonder if certain folks realize that the debt ceiling deal, while bad, is spoken well of when it's so thoroughly opposed by those who hate America.

From KJZZ, written by Kirsten Dorman -

Congressman Andy Biggs says debt ceiling deal is an 'abomination'

Congress is considering an agreement to avoid a government default and raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Both President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have said it’s a compromise that includes GOP demands, like cuts in spending. But Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs said the proposal is an “abomination.”

“I had no idea that we would see a plan as ephemeral and malodorous as this plan,” Biggs said. “I’m gonna vote ‘no.’ I urge my colleagues to vote ‘no.’”

Biggs didn't confine his spouting off to reporters' mics, either.

Social media served as an outlet for his bile.  From Twitter -

The bile-spewing wasn't limited to members of Congress.

While he hasn't yet weighed in on the topic, I expect that Biggs' saddle partner, Paul Gosar, will oppose the debt ceiling deal.

He may just be waiting for Vlad to make his pronouncement on the deal.

Someone should tell Paul Gosar that he's no longer a dentist

Even though he likes to present himself as one.

(Snippys taken today):

From Twitter -

From his official website -

He may like to present himself as a dentist (the "D.D.S" part), but the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners seems to have a different opinion on the subject.

From their license lookup page -

Gotta love taxpayer-funded propaganda sessions

Even though the Arizona Legislature is on vacation until next month, there will still be scads of BS spewed at the state capitol next week.

This time, it will be about spewing anti-Covid response BS.

On Thursday and Friday next week, an informal committee will meet, with infamous pandemic deniers such as state legislators Rep. Janae Shamp, Sen. TJ Shope, and Rep. Steve Montenegro and Congresscritters Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Eli Crane on it.

The committee will go by the (relatively) innocuous-sounding name of "Novel Coronavirus Southwestern Intergovernmental Committee."

The spewers-in-chief will listen to "testimony" from a veritable rogues' gallery.

First up (at least, he's first on the agenda):

Dr. Peter McCullough.  When I Googled his name, this came up (emphasis added by me) -

Next up: Dr. Lionel Lee, a Kari Lake supporter, and Dr. George Fareed, someone who's testified to the US Senate in support of giving Hydroxychloroquine to Covid patients.

Then:  Aaron Siri, an anti-mask lawyer.

Closing the first day's "testimony": Kurtis Bay, someone who blames (behind a paywall) the FDA for his wife's death from Covid.

The second day starts off with McCullough again.

Next up: Dr. Richard Urso, someone who has notably lied about Covid boosters.

Then: Dr. Pierre Kory, known for promoting Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid.

Next to speak: Dr. Lela Lewis, a religiously devout doctor who is the head of an anti-Covid vaccine group.

Last up: Anne Teixeira.  Can't find much about her.  I'm not sure, but she seems to be a Phoenix-area speech-language pathologist, which wouldn't qualify her to pontificate on Covid

Except in front of a committee like this one.