Townsend, spurned by Cheeto, quits race for Congress

From KJZZ -

Townsend, not endorsed by Trump, quits House race in Arizona

Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend announced Friday she is withdrawing from the race for the Republican nomination for Arizona's new 6th Congressional District because former President Donald Trump hasn't endorsed her.

Despite encouragement and repeated assurances, “the promised formal endorsement has still not materialized," leaving her unable to unify the conservative vote in the August primary, Townsend said in a statement.

[snip]

Redistricting put (state senator Wendy) Rogers and Townsend in the same legislative district and they avoided a head-to-head matchup when Townsend decided to seek the congressional seat.

Townsend's statement said she would “happily” focus on the state Capitol rather than the nation's Capitol, which left open a race against Rogers for the Senate.

Responding to an inquiry from the Associated Press, Townsend said that was indeed a possibility. She also said she could return to the private sector or return to college to get a doctorate. She is a doula, a trained professional who assists mothers giving birth.

What "possibility"?

She's running.  The only question remaining is if it will be against Rogers.

From Twitter -

Just a guess: The Republicans aren't learning the right lessons from Gosar's, Greene's, and Rogers' ties to a white nationalist group

There are two lessons here:

1. Don't be a white supremacist.

2. Don't be SEEN as being a white supremacist.

Guess which one the Rs are taking to heart?

First, from NBC (emphasis added by me) -

GOP leaders denounce Greene, Gosar for speaking at white nationalist event

GOP leaders in the House and the Senate on Monday denounced a pair of far-right Trump allies — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. — for speaking at a gathering of white nationalists in Florida over the weekend.

“There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a terse statement.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters for CNN and Punchbowl News that it was “appalling and wrong” for the two lawmakers to attend the meeting in Florida and that he plans to discuss the matter with them.

Second, from Jeremy Duda at the AZ Mirror -

Senate votes to censure Wendy Rogers for threatening her colleagues

Her ties to white nationalists and antisemitic statements were removed from the censure

In the wake of her speech to a white nationalist conference and a string of offensive and inflammatory social media posts, the Arizona Senate voted to censure Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers. 

The Senate voted 24-3 in a rare censure of one of its own, with 11 of the chamber’s 16 Republicans siding with the chamber’s 13 Democratic members who were in attendance. Rogers voted no, as did GOP Sens. Nancy Barto and Warren Petersen.

The censure, which has no practical effect, was for comments calling for people she perceived as enemies to be hanged from gallows, and for social media postings Rogers made threatening to “personally destroy” fellow Republicans who sought to punish her. The censure resolution was silent on her embrace of white nationalists and a string of antisemitic and racist things she had posted online in recent days. 

The vote on the censure motion -

The motion passed overwhelmingly, with 24 members voting for it, 3 voting against it (Rogers herself {of course} Warren Petersen {not really a surprise}, and Nancy Barto {a bit of a surprise}) and 3 not voting (Gowan, Steele, and Townsend).

Another guess: Rogers will do it again.  Not only is she not penitent about this, she believes she's a victim. (pics of tweets taken today) -

I had to look hard but I DO agree with Rogers on one thing -

Though I expect that we have very different reason for arriving at this conclusion. :)

State Sen. Wendy Rogers brings moral equivalency to a new low

Pic taken of Twitter on 2/27/2022

Maybe her post made more sense in its original Russian.

Cheeto's habit of using demeaning nicknames comes to Arizona

And while it was hardly a good look for him, his habit has been enthusiastically embraced and continued by...wait for it...the gift that keeps on giving...state Sen. Wendy Rogers.

Pic taken on Twitter, 2/26/2022

I'll say this about her - Rogers appears to be an accomplished multitasker.  Not only did she spout nicknames for Jeremy Duda of the AZ Mirror and Brahm Resnik of channel 12, she threw in a conspiracy theory about George Soros (as an aside, where do I sign up for a paycheck? :) )

Of course, she loses points for vocabulary usage - unless "sweet" is her term for "nutty", and "gaslighting" is her term for "telling the truth".

Ducey goes full-throated in his embrace of his inner partisan hack

Not that his "inner partisan hack" was buried too deeply.

From Jeremy Duda at the AZ Mirror -

Ducey: A GOP senator with white nationalist ties is ‘still better than’ a Democrat

Gov. Doug Ducey said he has no regrets about spending $500,000 to elect a Republican state senator with open ties to the white nationalist movement because it’s still better than having a Democrat in her seat.

“I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. And she’s still better than her opponent, Felicia French,” he said Thursday.

Ducey’s political action committee, Arizonans for Strong Leadership, spent millions in 2020 to help the GOP maintain control of the legislature, including nearly $500,000 to help Republican Wendy Rogers win the race for the District 6 Senate seat in northern Arizona. Rogers won nearly 55% of the vote against Democrat Felicia French, a victory that kept the Senate in GOP hands by a single vote.

Rogers in action, also from the AZ Mirror.

From one of the reports filed by Ducey's PAC -

Ducey supports a bigoted white nationalist like Rogers over her 2020 opponent, Felicia French, a nurse and veteran.

Really?

Hey, Arizona may not be perfect, but at least it isn't Texas

Of course - we're a LONG way from perfect.  

We elect people like Doug Ducey, Wendy Rogers, Kelly Townsend, Paul Gosar, and many others, but Texas elects people like Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Sid Miller, Louie Gohmert (and others).

And then there's this.

From Business Insider -

A Texas parent demanded a Michelle Obama biography be pulled from schools because they said it would make white girls feel 'ashamed'

A parent in Texas called for a children's biography about former first lady Michelle Obama to be pulled from school libraries because they viewed it as unfair to former President Donald Trump.

The Katy, Texas, parent took issue with a book titled "Michelle Obama: Political Icon" by Heather E. Schwartz, saying it "unfairly" depicted Trump "as a bully," according to NBC News, which on Wednesday published a list of 50 books that parents in Texas have asked schools to remove.

The request came as books depicting race, sexuality, and gender have faced heightened scrutiny from conservatives in the US, with many demanding certain titles be pulled from school libraries.

Nope, AZ isn't perfect, and maybe we shouldn't be talking smack about anyone, but TX could give us lessons in nuttiness, and that's saying something.

It's time for speculation on the horse races season

Apparently, there's a lot of crazy in rural Arizona and voters there either try to get rid of some of it by sending it to the Capitol or they feel truly represented by it.

From the Payson Roundup -

State House District 7 race may turn into Republican civil war

Redistricting has handed Republicans a safe seat that includes all of Rim Country and the White Mountains.

So get ready for a civil war.

The redrawn State Legislative District 7 seat may pit two incumbent state senators and three incumbent state representatives against one another in the upcoming Republican primary.

[snip]

Currently, both state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) and state Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Apache Junction) could seek the seat in the redrawn District 7.

Sen. Rogers’ office did not respond to an email message asking whether she planned to run for re-election in the redrawn district. Her current official address is actually in the redrawn District 6, which is solidly Democratic and includes the Navajo, Hopi, White Mountain Apache and San Carlos Apache reservations. However, shifting her address by about half a mile would put her in the Republican District 7.

Sen. Townsend’s office responded to a message by saying she had not yet decided whether to seek re-election or what district she would run in. She lives in the new District 7, but her address is just half a mile from a Mesa-based district, so she could easily move into another district.

[snip]

Walt Blackman (R-Snowflake) has said he will not seek another term so he can challenge Democratic Congressman Tom O’Halleran (R-Oak Creek) in the redrawn Congressional District 2 — where Republicans have a registration and vote history advantage.

Brenda Barton (R-Payson) did not respond to an email asking about her future plans. She’s a conservative Republican who represented the old District 6 for several terms, before sitting out two election cycles due to term limits — before her re-election in 2020.

Rep. David Cook (R-Globe) says he will run in the redrawn District 7, which now includes all of Gila County except for the San Carlos Apache Reservation. 

Blackman is anti-choice; supports taxation without representation; is anti-consumer and is an anti-vaxxer.

Barton wants to pay high schoolers less than the minimum wage; is anti-democracy; and is a less than ethical gun nut.

From her 2014 legislative bio -

Cook is pro-developer/anti-water; wants non-LEOs/correction officers (and related types) and anyone else who works for society to rot in their retirements; and is a fave of wingnut religious group The Center for Arizona Policy.

From Cook's legislative bio -

As for Townsend and Rogers?

They're just nuts.

David Gordon of Blog for Arizona has a piece up wherein he, and Kirsten Engel (a Democratic candidate for Congress), state a belief that Townsend will run for Congress in AZ6.

Note: As of this writing, there's no "Townsend" committee listed on the website of the FEC.

Wherever she runs, she may find that winning a general election in Pima County (or part of it) to be "problematical."

She demanded an AG investigation into Pima County's vaccine mandate for its employees.

She's since dropped it, but not because she suddenly started liking vaccines.  Because the AG ran out of time.

If she does run for Congress, one good thing will come out of it.  With her (possibly) running for Congress, and state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita running for Secretary of State, two of the most anti-voter members of this year's legislature won't be in next year's legislature.  They may famously dislike each other, but they share a hatred of society.

My guess is that this won't be the last time that Pima County hears from Townsend.

Sen. Wendy Rogers - another contender for the Legislative Loon Award

State Sen. Wendy Rogers has proposed a lot of bills that make her eligible for the award.  She's been busy. 

To be fair, I thought she was nuts when she lived in Tempe; her move north into LD6 hasn't improved things in that regard.

Among her proposals:

SB1027, Establishing a Bureau of Elections in the Governor's office and appropriating $5 million for it.

It would have a mandate "to investigate allegations of fraud in any state, county or local government election...any qualified elector may submit a complaint to the bureau".

SB1028, Having to do with vendors of ballot paper.  Not sure what this one does, as it repeals ARS section 16-504...and replaces it with the same language.

SB1030, stating that if someone is acquitted on homicide charge, the state/public has to pay their legal fees.

SB1032, Appropriating $700 million from the state's general fund to build a border wall.  She doesn't specify what she wants to cut to pay for her scheme, but I'm guessing that she will happily sacrifice public education on the altar of her hatred.

SCR1006, a memorial/meaningless letter to the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame to urge the removal of Margaret Sanger from that hall.  She is the founder of Planned Parenthood, and Rogers wants her removed based on Republican talking points/propaganda.

SB1033, Escalating the penalty for what she terms as a riot or unlawful assembly; creating a crime called "mob intimidation"; and imposing something on cities and towns.

Apparently, she *really* hates BLM protesters and sanctuary city policies.

SB1037, legalizing silencers and other sound suppressors for firearms

SB1038, Creating a tax credit for tuition paid to a "non-govermental" (aka- private) school

SB1039, Related to SB1038, this one would reduce adjusted gross income on a taxpayer's state taxes by the amount of tuition paid to a "non-govermental" (aka- private) school

SB1042, Declaring June 14 to be "President Donald J. Trump Day".  June 14 is already Flag Day.

SB1044, Barring contracts with organizations that "provide or promote abortion" to administer personal responsibility education programs

SB1045, Barring health or school professionals from treating gender dysphoria or from informing parents or guardians about their minor child's affliction

SB1046, Related to SB1045.  This one would bar students at any level from participating in sports as other than their birth gender

SB1048, Barring local and county governments from ordering that a business close during a declared emergency

SCR1007, A proposal to change the state's constitution to allow for homeowners to redirect taxes levied by public school districts to private schools; and

SCR1008, A memorial/meaningless letter to Congress urging it to declare Antifa to be a "domestic terrorist organization."

The last time I checked, Antifa is not a real organization such as National Alliance, the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) and the Aryan Nations.

Many of Rogers' proposals seem to be out of the Cathi Herrod/religious nut playbook, but to be sure, some also seem to be out of the Cathi Herrod/grifter playbook - in her bio, Rogers admits to running a charter school.