What we are seeing in Arizona politics is a paradigm shift. The fact that Maricopa County, where the board of supervisors is still dominated by remnants of the establishment Republican party, though that is shifting, has had enough of the futile, baseless, frivolous attempts of a Trump-endorsed right wing extremist candidate for governor, who narrowly lost, is clear evidence of the shift. They are asking the court to sanction Lake and her legal team for their most recent attempt to have the will of the people overturned by courts. The county's basis for their suit is Lake's statement prior to the election that she wouldn't accept the results unless she won. The judge in the case is proceeding with the sanctions.
Let's be clear, Lake knows that most of her support comes from a constituency that is mindlessly and hopelessly ignorant, pitiful in their fear when it comes to ridiculous conspiracy theories and suckers when it comes to handing their money over to despicable candidates for office like this. That's why she let it be known, before the election, that she wouldn't accept the results if she didn't win. That was to get her base riled up, perhaps toting their weapons to places where they might genuinely interfere in the counting of ballots or certifying the election. But, from a legal perspective, it was a pretty stupid thing to say, since it has handed the county all they need to prove their sanctions claim, and to prove that her claims of election fraud are bogus.
Republican Frustration with the Shift in Arizona Politics
In spite of Trump's endorsement, Lake trailed Democrat Katie Hobbs in virtually every reliable poll prior to the election, though the race did tighten, and some of the "fake" polls that were inserted into the data made it look like Lake might actually win by two or three points. But Arizona's explosive population growth over the past two decades, much of which has occurred in its most populous county, Maricopa, where over 60% of the state's population, and voters, live.
Outside of Maricopa County, the heavily Republican rural areas are balanced out by four heavily Democratic counties, including the state's second largest, Pima, where the 1.2 million residents of the Metro Tucson area make up 50% of the population of the state outside Maricopa County. The Republican advantage outside of Maricopa County has been, in the past three election cycles, virtually non-existent.
It's not enough to simply run as a Republican in Arizona any more and expect that to be the main focus of the campaign. Democrats and Independents who increasingly vote Democrat, now outnumber Republicans statewide, and candidates must have a viable agenda and address real issues facing the state's voters to win elections. In a state that Biden won by just over 11,000 votes in 2020, on the strength of a 45,000 vote margin in Maricopa County, it wasn't very perceptive of Lake to try to run without any prior political experience, on a similar agenda.
Hobbs not only had a coherent agenda, and a clear plan for a political path forward for Arizona, but she led the effort to protect the integrity of Arizona's vote count against attacks from the Trump campaign. The silly wastefulness exhibited by Republicans in the state senate, in securing the hugely expensive services of the unqualified auditors known as the "Cyber Ninjas" for an unofficial "audit" of Maricopa County's 2020 votes that turned into an "unmitigated disaster" according to county supervisors and election officers, probably did more than anything else to tilt the balance of the vote in Maricopa County in Hobb's favor, which led to her winning the election. Legitimately.
With the exception of the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Democrats have won control of every other executive office in state government in Arizona, an unprecedented event in state history. All of the other Republican candidates for these offices followed Lake's lead, and filed lawsuits to win their election in the courtroom, instead of among the voters expressing the will of the people. Aside from that being a demonstration of an appalling lack of patriotism, and a subversive attack against American democracy, it is also now a colossal failure. None of the other Republican candidates and their legal teams could find a shred of credible evidence that there was fraud in the election and that it was deliberately "stolen" from them. The voters of Arizona, including among the 3 million new residents who have moved there since 2000, and almost 5 million since 1990, have spoken.
Bilking "Suckers"
This is about raising money for future political ambitions. Lake knows she lost, as certainly as Trump knew he lost in 2020 once the vote tallies were finalized and certified. Her entire demeanor and approach to this whole post-election tantrum conveys a very clear understanding that she knows she lost and she also knows that her claims that she "won by 200,000 votes" are bogus. There are always glitches and equipment issues and a whole array of problems associated with elections, but there are solutions to all of them which make it possible for every voter's ballot to count accurately. The failure of a handful of printers in Maricopa County provided cover for Lake's bogus claims, but the county was right on top of that and documented the fact that every voter who chose to cast a ballot did so, and their votes were counted.
But a little bit of "cover" goes a long way among people primed to believe in advance that there is a problem. Dragging out lawsuits and keeping people believing that at some point some court is going to take a case in which there is no evidence and reverse what a previous court has done. And as long as there are believers, there will be money. Trump is collecting millions and he's selfishly hoarding it, keeping other Republican candidates from getting as much. I'm sure there were some elections at some level the party might actually have won this cycle, if their candidates had resources that Trump collected and held.
And that's what's going on here. Kari Lake will never become governor of Arizona, certainly not at all based on an election that she clearly lost. She's trying to figure out her next move, and she wants her supporters to pay for her time and effort. And that's what this is all about.
American Elections are the Most Secure in the World
Election deniers thrive on ignorance. It's not easy to admit that a majority or plurality of voters don't see things the way a specific candidate may see them. The polarization that we've seen, introduced by hostile media elements, promoted by various extremist factions including elements of the religious right, has introduced an "all or nothing" attitude into politics, which makes it difficult to make government work. So convincing people who don't really pay much attention to anything except their own self, that someone is "rigging" elections is easier than it should be.
But factually, it is virtually impossible. The scope of a conspiracy to "steal" an election, with the technology that we have available today, would be virtually impossible to achieve. Too many eyes are watching. People who are informed, and understand the process, know this.
Don't believe otherwise. And keep an eye on your checkbook.
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