They said that it didn’t happen, it couldn’t happen, and that anyone who even dared to mention fraud in reference to the past election was a “conspiracy theorist” propagating “The Big Lie.” They began asserting and endlessly repeating that this was the “safest and most secure” election in U.S. history, ironically implying that past elections were actually not safe and secure? And they produced no objective measure as to why the claim is valid and not simply rhetoric regurgitated to stifle free discussion and common-sense reforms.
What’s the saying? The difference between conspiracy theory and truth is about 6-12 months? Just as the “conspiracy theory” about the origins of COVID, which was censored by Big Tech and suppressed by the corporate media, has now become accepted as likely true, a Grand Jury just indicted an Arizona voter of voter fraud.
Current Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and former Phoenix-area television news anchor Kari Lake are nearly even in a favorability, according to a survey released Monday by Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights (OHPI) about the top 8 candidates for the 2022 gubernatorial race.
The six-day Arizona Public Opinion Pulse survey of Arizona registered voters started July 6 and revealed Hobbs, a Democrat, rated a combined 40 percent for very or somewhat favorable. Lake, a Republican, came in at 39 percent very or somewhat favorable.
The next closest was Kimberly Lee, Arizona’s Treasurer and a Republican, with a 32 percent very or somewhat favorable rating.
In a head-to-head rating of the 5 Republican gubernatorial candidates, Lake topped Salmon with 60 percent to 51 in the very and somewhat favorable, with Yee coming in at 39 percent. Robson garnered 37 percent and Gaynor at 34 percent.
However, all 8 announced candidate have ample opportunity to generate favorable opinions among voters, according to the survey. Hobbs had a 34 percent rating for “no opinion / never heard of” while those surveyed gave Lake a 39 percent no opinion / never heard of (NHO).
The survey also shows the other 6 candidates had ratings which broke down into three groups, starting with Republicans Kimberly Yee and Matt Salmon closely matched up at 32 percent very or somewhat favorable for Yee and 31 percent for Salmon. The no opinion / NHO ratings for the two came out at 48 percent Yee and 46 percent Salmon.
The next group, Democrats Aaron Liberman and Marco Lopez, both rated at 25 percent in the favorable categories, with Lieberman at 53 percent no opinion / NHO and Lopez at 54 percent.
The last group, both Republicans, was not all that far behind, with Karrin Taylor Robson at 23 percent favorable, edging Steve Gaynor by one percentage point. Both also rated at 57 percent no opinion / NHO.
On the flip side, AZPOP found Hobbs with the highest percent of very or somewhat unfavorable rating at 27, while all 7 other candidates were at only 20 to 22 percent.
Arizona’s governor-hopeful and household-name anchorwoman, Kari Lake, received some backlash for criticizing the Olympics and largely ignoring Arizona’s 9 current champions. Lake retweeted a question from Students for Trump Founder Ryan Fournier asking why Olympians who hate America aren’t giving up their passports.
“Am I the only one who hasn’t watched ANY of the Olympics?” wrote Lake. “How did we end up with athletes who hate our country representing it in competition and in very public display of disrespect to the U.S.A.?”
Am I the only one who hasn’t watched ANY of the Olympics?
How did we end up with athletes who hate our country representing it in competition and in very public displays of disrespect to the U.S.A.? https://t.co/BcRr1qVZaS
In response, Twitter users asked Lake why she was focusing on the few Olympians disrespecting the country versus the many representing the nation proudly. Lake issued the tweet after one Arizona Olympian – Phoenix gymnast Jade Carey – won gold. The day before, Lake retweeted a congratulatory post for Gilbert gymnast MyKayla Skinner, who secured the silver medal on vault after receiving a Cinderella opportunity to compete once teammate Simone Biles withdrew from several events.
In a statement to AZ Free News, Lake said that she stood by her statements because elected officials aren’t standing up against athletes who denounce America.
“I’m leading in the polls because I will NEVER back down from doing what’s right. Arizonans are tired of weak, recycled politicians that sit on the sidelines and say NOTHING while others trash this country,” said Lake. “The behavior of these ‘woke’ athletes hurts the other Olympians and hurts our country. For every veteran who’s ever fought to protect our freedoms and every service member that has given their life on this battlefield – I promise you this: I will never kneel to the Marxist mob that seeks to destroy our great nation.”
Lake’s spokespersons added that she’s happy to see Arizonans are making a big splash, but believes strongly that the wokeness in sports is causing a big turnoff.
9 Arizonans have received Olympic medals thus far: 1 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze.
Arizona took home several medals over the past week alone. In addition to wins from Carey and Skinner, Mesa skateboarder Jagger Eaton took home bronze.
Lake’s comment reflected some of the viral incidents in which American Olympians have expressed shame or derision for the country publicly.
In the Olympic trials last month, hammer thrower Gwen Berry captured national attention for turning away and draping her head with an “Activist Athlete” shirt while the National Anthem played.
The other two qualifiers, Missouri’s DeAnna Price and California’s Brooke Andersen, received significantly less attention – though the pair both paid respect to the national anthem and Price had a record-breaking throw nearly 7 feet longer than Berry’s.
All three of the American hammer throwers are in Tuesday’s final.
Then this past week, South Carolina’s Raven Saunders gave a lengthy speech on social justice activism and held her arms overhead in an “X” to signify the oppressed during the medal ceremony. Saunders received silver for her shot put performance.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is investigating Saunders’ actions. Conversely, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has already declared that Saunders didn’t break any conduct rules.
Taxpayer-funded League of Arizona Cities and Towns (League) apparently penned two opinion pieces on behalf of Pinal County mayors and supervisors praising Representative David Cook (R-Globe), email records reveal. What’s more, the League asked Cook to offer any edits and approve at least one of the pieces before they ran.
It appears the League’s primary lobbyist, Nick Ponder, contacted Cook about two opinion pieces for Pinal County officials: one on behalf of their supervisors, and one on behalf of their mayors. In emails obtained by AZ Free News, Ponder reached out to Cook for the final say on one of the pieces concerning Pinal County mayors. The subject line for some of the emails concerning that piece read: “Mayor’s Letter for Cook[.]”
The mayors’ opinion piece lionized Cook as a “brave legislator” who stood up against tax cuts and supported water sustainability.
“Thankfully, we have State Representative David Cook representing us in the Arizona state legislature. He is one of a handful of brave legislators with enough courage to stand up to the power brokers at the State Capitol in Phoenix. Rep. Cook is forcefully speaking out about the destructive impact the proposed tax cut will have on our rural communities and he is fighting to protect us. […] Equally important, Rep. Cook joins us in supporting policies which address our water challenges here in Pinal County. Securing long-term sustainable water solutions will ultimately cost the state billions of dollars. Considering Arizona’s water future and its pending costs, Rep. Cook is right to stand up and fight a permanent tax cut valued at nearly $20 billion over the next decade. Those are dollars the state will sorely need to fund future water solutions. We wish to make it perfectly clear to all our municipal residents: We stand with Rep. Cook in protecting our public safety budgets and bringing funding to Pinal County to help mitigate our state’s long term water shortage.” (emphasis added)
The League is funded principally by taxpayers. Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland, Coolidge Mayor Jon Thompson, Eloy Mayor Micah Powell, Florence Mayor Tara Walter, Globe Mayor Al Gameros, Hayden Mayor Dean Hetrick, Kearny Mayor Jamie Ramsey, Mammoth Mayor Patsy Armenta, Miami Mayor Sammy Gonzales, Queen Creek Mayor Gail Barney, Superior Mayor Mila Besich, and Winkelman Mayor Louis Bracamonte were signed onto the letter.
Email records show that Ponder reached out to Copper Area News Publishers for publication in the Superior Sun, Copper Basin News, and San Manuel Miner. Arizona Capitol Times published the opinion piece.
In another email, Ponder forwarded Cook an email chain about the Pinal County supervisors’ opinion piece. Pinal County Communications and Marketing Director James Daniels had submitted the piece to the managing editor of the Casa Grande Valley Newspapers.
After that, Daniels forwarded the correspondence to others, including County Supervisors Association of Arizona Executive Director Craig Sullivan – he shared it with Ponder, who then shared it with Cook.
The piece focused on how much the Pinal County supervisors supported Cook.
“Representative David Cook has always fought to protect the interests of the residents of Pinal and Gila counties, whether by securing resources to build roads or to develop water supplies, and we are very grateful to see his hard work to ensure that any tax reduction package passed by the legislature is designed so that the state remains on solid financial footing going into the future,” read the letter. “We are very concerned that in the legislature’s desire to do something ‘big and bold,’ what will get lost is doing things right. Therefore, we applaud Representative Cook’s leadership to shape a tax package that strikes a wise balance – providing meaningful tax relief, reducing state debt, and ensuring the state has the resources to meet its obligations to Arizonans into the future.”
Pinal County Supervisor Steve Miller and Gila County Supervisor Tim Humphrey signed onto the letter.
The piece appeared in The Arizona Republic, Pinal Central, Copper Basin News,and Superior Sun.
AZ Free News inquired with the League about their involvement in the writing of these opinion pieces, as well as who initiated the idea to create them. The League’s administrative assistant confirmed that the appropriate staff members received our inquiries, but they didn’t respond by press time.
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar hopes a bill he has introduced will add some transparency to the murky bureaucratic process used to shape environmental policy.
Gosar says his NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Data Transparency and Accountability Act, “would empower Americans to see and understand the full bureaucratic costs of NEPA by requiring each federal agency to report to Congress on its NEPA activity every year.”
“Over the last 50 years, NEPA has become weaponized by those who oppose projects and want to stop economic development. Endless delays and lawsuits are used to prevent infrastructure projects and job creation throughout the country. The increasingly complex bureaucratic process has also dramatically increased the cost and timeline to complete projects. Today, on average, the NEPA process takes 5.2 years for completion,” said Gosar. “By requiring clear transparency, this bill will allow Americans to analyze the costs of our expensive and burdensome NEPA system.”
NEPA requires environmental review prior to authorizing actions such as the permitting of infrastructure projects. During the Trump administration, it was revised to exempt a large class of projects from environmental review and eliminates the requirement to analyze a project’s indirect and cumulative effects, among other things.
The Biden administration is reversing the Trump revision, an act the Montana governor called a “job-killing decision.”
