The AZ-8 special election was last night, and naive Republicans are indulging in a sigh of relief as the Republican, Debbie Lesko, defeated Democrat Hiral Tipirneni by about 5 points.
The smart ones are appalled, even panicky. As Steve Benen notes,
Arizona’s 8th congressional district is a heavily Republican area. Donald Trump won here by 21 points in his presidential race, and GOP voters enjoy a 17-point registration advantage. In yesterday’s special election. Republicans ran an experienced state lawmaker, while Democrats ran a first-time candidate. Common sense suggested the race wouldn’t be close.
No doubt the Democrats were energized and the Republicans … lethargic? Or repulsed by their own party? Hard to say.
Meanwhile, The Texas Tribune reports the Republican Governor of Texas is scheduling a special election to replace Brent Farenthold (R), who resigned from his TX-27 amidst sexual harassment and financial scandals:
Gov. Greg Abbott got the go-ahead Monday from Attorney General Ken Paxton to suspend state law so the governor can call a special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, as soon as possible.
Responding to a request from Abbott submitted Thursday, Paxton issued a nonbinding opinion saying a court would agree Abbott could set aside the election rules under a part of Texas law that lets the governor suspend certain statutes if they interfere with disaster recovery. Abbott said last week he wanted Farenthold’s former constituents to have new representation “as quickly as possible” because the Coastal Bend-area’s Congressional District 27 is still reeling from Hurricane Harvey.
As noted in an earlier post, Farenthold was the Texas representative who benefited the most from the most recent redistricting in Texas, and in fact the same Tribune article notes that SCOTUS will be hearing an appeal from the State against a lower court ruling that the redistricting amounted to illegal gerrymandering.
In any case, this election, if it does occur, is another opportunity for the Democrats to frighten the Republicans. While an excellent showing by the Democratic nominee in a TX-27 contest would be inspirational for Democratic challengers nationwide, it would also serve as a warning to the Republicans. In normal circumstances, a warning could be used to correct problems. However, these are not normal days, what with the Republicans are weighed down by the President’s exceptionally poor record, as well as the party’s many failures in Congress, and the party’s transition from a center-right governing party to a fringe-right party of extremists who just happen to have the world’s finest political marketing machine.
Quite honestly, that seems to be about all they have going for them now, and it’s nothing to scoff at. See my review of The Persuaders.
