Kari Lake Gonna Send Her Stock Footage Russian Troops To The Arizona Border, We Guess

She could still win this race.

PTA mom-presenting Republican Christine Drazan might snag an upset victory in Oregon’s gubernatorial race, while election-denying MAGA kook Kari Lake could become Arizona’s next governor. This is a significantly less pleasant "step to the right." 

Lake has averaged a slim but consistent lead against Democratic secretary of state and normal person Katie Hobbs. It helps that Arizona is a dark purple state and Lake enjoys full support from the Republican establishment, even though she’s utterly repulsive and amoral. We guess that’s not a huge contradiction.

PREVIOUSLY:

 Doug Ducey Endorses Bananapants Kari Lake For Arizona Gov Because There Are No ‘Good’ Republicans 

   Kari Lake Victory Proves Republicans Need No Help Electing Kooks 

Last month, Lake proudly repeated Donald Trump’s gross smear about how Mexican immigrants are “rapists.” She’s not afraid to recycle the racist classics. She’s vowed to send the National Guard to secure the Arizona border, and a recent campaign commercial supposedly showed the National Guard in immigrant-thumping action. However, the soldiers featured were from old Shutterstock footage , and they weren’t even American. According to Heartland Signal, the troops were Russian soldiers marching in a victory parade. This obviously wasn’t very recent footage.

“NEW: Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake uses footage of Russian soldiers marching in her campaign ad, claiming (incorrectly) that they are the Arizona National Guard. https://t.co/EmaoWstXtG”

— Heartland Signal (@Heartland Signal) 1665075039 

Hobbs clapped back in an email:  "If Kari Lake can’t identify a uniformed member of the Arizona National Guard from a Russian soldier, she has no business leading our brave men and women as governor."

Yes, Lake is incredibly unqualified to govern, but the only qualification that matters to Republicans is whether you can defeat a Democrat. Politico recently raved about Lake’s unconventional campaign, like she’s an innovative TV series on Hulu instead of an unhinged fascist.

She doesn’t surround herself with bland, decrepit Washington insiders — which admittedly is a good thing. She’s aware that people under 40 exist and she even gives them jobs! She boasted to Politico that she didn’t have “big, high-priced DC consultants,” but instead a team of eager true believers, "many of them pro-Donald Trump 20-somethings who are new to politics." As a visual aid, she had one of her "young lieutenants" show off his MAGA tattoo on the inside of his lower lip.

Politico generously suggests Lake has “ripped out almost every page in the well-worn playbook on how to wage a campaign.“ Again, this is the same woman who’s covering Trump’s 2016 racist chart-toppers. She’s not unique. She’s parroting an established MAGA routine.

Only a quarter of Arizona voters are self-identified Democrats. The rest are Republicans and independents. Katie Hobbs won her 2018 secretary of state race by just a little more than 6,000 votes . She has the uphill battle.

Although Hobbs is outspending Lake seven to one, Lake is crafty at leveraging the outrage cycle to her advantage.

From Politico:  

Lake has used her well-honed skills as a TV communicator to focus on generating free media coverage for herself — sometimes by holding combative press conferences where she rails against reporters. After her husband records the exchanges, the footage is distributed to Lake’s allies in the social media world, such as the prominent far-right commentator Jack Posobiec. Her team believes the viral videos have drawn more attention to the candidate than traditional TV ads would have.

That's evil, but also maybe kinda smart. She's even willing to pose for photos like this. 

“This is a real photo of Kari Lake vacuuming the red carpet before meeting Donald Trump. A member of Kari team told us she insisted on personally making sure the carpet was spotless out of “respect for the office of the President of the United States.” This is servant leadership”

— Benny Johnson (@Benny Johnson) 1665360070 

Lake's also not wasting campaign cash on fancy polling data. She hasn’t commissioned a single private survey since she won the primary. Instead, she’s going with her “instinct” and her gut feelings from the campaign trail. I guess that works if she just plans to claim the race was rigged if she loses.

Let's hope Hobbs can pull this one out. A Big Lie-promoting Gov. Kari Lake would practically ensure that Arizona is off the board for Democrats in 2024.

[ Politico / Heartland Signal ]

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