Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema are engaged in a high-stakes, high-spending midterm campaign in Arizona that reflects the nation's sharp political divide.
Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema are engaged in a high-stakes, high-spending midterm campaign in Arizona that reflects the nation’s sharp political divide.

Arizona mirrors the midterm divide

The race to pick a new U.S. Senator from Arizona underscores the tenor, tactics, and tightness of the 2018 midterm elections.

Two admired congresswomen are neck and neck as they seek to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake. Martha McSally, the Republican, and Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat, are engaged in a high-stakes, high-spending campaign that reflects the nation’s sharp political divide.

Many issues that dominate debate nationally seem intensified here under the hot Arizona sun. Immigration remains a vexing problem in a state that shares a border with Mexico and has a growing Latino population. Health care is uppermost in the minds of those in Arizona’s large retirement community. The economy, booming here as it is nationally, has still left many Arizonans with low-paying jobs that have not kept pace with the cost of living.

The candidates appear to have come from Central Casting. McSally, the first female U.S. fighter pilot to have flown in combat, votes with President Trump 97 percent of the time, according to the website FiveThirtyEight. Sinema, a former Green Party activist, has moderated her views since arriving in Congress and has voted with Trump 62 percent of the time.

Sinema stresses her independence, a useful trait in a state that has not elected many Democrats but does favor mavericks such as John McCain, who cast a critical vote to save the Affordable Care Act, and Flake, who argued against his party to have the FBI conduct an additional investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

McSally, on the other hand, is straight-line conservative. She told the Arizona Republic newspaper that her philosophy centers on “a strong defense, a limited federal government, that government shouldn’t be solving every problem for you.”

Together, the two candidates are spending nearly $30 million on the campaign, with Sinema holding a slight edge in fundraising. But McSally is playing tough, in the Trump mold, as local columnist E.J. Montini noted the other day, “The entire strategy of the McSally campaign has been to portray Sinema as a wild-eyed anarchist who, in the latest and most ridiculous campaign mailing would somehow facilitate the obliteration of Phoenix by way of a nuclear bomb.”

Underscoring the importance of the race as Democrats try to flip control of the Senate are visits by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump to campaign for McSally. Yet Sinema clings to a tiny lead in polling.

Not surprisingly, the number of people newly registered to vote in Arizona this year is more than double that of the last midterm election. And the youngest voting demographic, those aged 18 to 24, has more new voters registered than all other age groups since Jan. 1.

McSally and Sinema have had only one televised debate, and it, too, mirrored national themes. In her closing remarks, seemingly out of nowhere, McSally stated she was “sexually abused by a coach as a teenager.” Sad as that may be, it’s hard to see how it constitutes a qualification for national office — except in the currency of the moment.

Arizona has a broiling Senate race in which women are in the forefront, where young voters and Latino voters could hold the keys, and where Trump and his agenda are being tested.

“There’s a lot of fights out there,” said McSally, in an ode to the obvious, “and there’s a lot at stake.”

The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.

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In print and on television, Peter Funt continues the Funt Family tradition of making people smile – while examining the human condition. After 15 years hosting the landmark TV series “Candid Camera,” Peter writes frequent op-eds for The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal as well as his weekly column distributed by the Cagle Cartoon Syndicate. His writing contains the same pointed social observations that have made “Candid Camera” so popular since its invention by Peter’s dad, Allen, back in 1947. His new book, "Cautiously Optimistic," takes America's temperature in six-dozen essays, guaranteed to make readers think and smile. It's available at Amazon.com and through CandidCamera.com. Peter is a frequent speaker before business groups and on college campuses, using the vast “Candid Camera” library to bring his points to life. His newest presentation for corporate audiences, “The Candid You,” draws upon decades of people-watching to identify factors that promote better communication and productivity. Details about Peter Funt’s speaking engagements are available at: www.CandidCamera.com. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naYXOGIktsw for video. Peter hosted the newest versions of “Candid Camera” in recent years with Suzanne Somers and Dina Eastwood, with complete collections now available on DVD. Peter Funt actually made his first appearance on “Candid Camera” when he and the legendary series were each just three years old. Peter posed as a shoeshine boy who charged $10 per shoe! Since that time he has appeared in hundreds of “Candid Camera” sequences, hosted over 200 network episodes. In addition to his hidden-camera work, Peter Funt has produced and hosted TV specials on the Arts & Entertainment and Lifetime cable networks. He also spent five years as an editor and reporter with ABC News in New York. Earlier in his career, Peter wrote dozens of articles for The New York Times and TV Guide about television and film. He was editor and publisher of the television magazine On Cable. And he authored the book "Gotcha!" for Grosset & Dunlap on the lost art of practical joking. Peter’s essay on the evolution of television is included in “The Story of American Business,” published in 2009 by Harvard Business Press. Peter also follows in his father's footsteps as President of Laughter Therapy Foundation, a non-profit organization started by Allen Funt in 1982. Drawing from the Candid Camera library, Laughter Therapy sends special videos, at no charge, to critically ill people throughout the U.S. When Peter took over as host of the CBS specials, "Variety" wrote: "The latest new 'Candid Camera' specials seem to be getting funnier. Peter Funt is as personable as his dad..." Following Candid Camera's Battle of the Sexes special, "The Hollywood Reporter" observed: "This show is great fun. Peter Funt has a remarkably effective presence." Peter Funt received his degree in journalism from the University of Denver. In 2010 he returned to the Denver campus to be honored as a Master Scholar in Arts and Humanities. He is a past winner of the annual Silurian's Award for radio news reporting, for his ABC News coverage of racial disturbances in Asbury Park, NJ. Peter is founder of the Monterey County Young Journalists program in California, which provides hands-on training for high school students pursuing careers in news. He also inaugurated the Courtroom Journalism competition in Monterey County in conjunction with the Lyceum Organization, and conducts a similar statewide event for the Constitutional Rights Foundation in Los Angeles, as part of its Mock Trial program. Peter resides in Central California with his wife, Amy, and two children, Stephanie and Danny. His favorite pastimes are golf, baseball, tennis and people-watching.

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