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On the Ground at the Arizona Primary
My ballot. (Unlike in other states where the First Amendment is viewed with suspicion, it’s legal for Arizona voters to photograph their own ballot.)
Voting in the Arizona primary is usually a simple affair. Pop in at the neighborhood polling place, mark the ballot, feed it into the reader, and you’re off in a minute or two. But in the protracted battle of 2016, my state’s vote actually matters.
After dropping off the kids at school, I encountered a traffic jam outside of the church where the vote was being held. Once I made it into the parking lot, there were no spaces left so I parked nearby and hoofed it.
I estimate there were about 100 people in the line in front of me, everyone commenting that they had never seen a wait this long for a primary vote. Others complained that they would be late for work (the guy behind me risked missing a flight) but no one left.
One loud older woman politicked for Trump after casting her vote, but several people in line shouted her down. The only campaigning I saw other than that was my would-be city councilman shaking hands and two smiling teenage girls promoting Sen. McCain’s primary opponent, Kelli Ward. One half-bent Bernie sign was seen just outside the 75-foot legal limit.
It took me about 45 minutes to get into the polling area itself where I dutifully voted for Ted Cruz in his winner-takes-all battle with Donald Trump. As I walked back to my car, the line had only grown longer.
“Look at all that Donald Trump has accomplished!” shouted that elderly Trump fan as she worked the line on her way out. We’ll see in a few hours whether The Donald inspired the record number of voters to support him or oppose him.
Published in General
But he’s not quite doing it as it needs to be done. It’s sort of coming across as “you’re stuck with me if you don’t want Trump.” Which has the virtue of being true, but isn’t inspiring. I don’t really know how to explain how he should do this better, because I can’t quite nail it down.
Looking broader, though, this is partly what I mean. You saw that story about how John Cornyn wants Cruz to make nice with McConnell? I’m sorry, but this response is going to rub a certain kind of voter in precisely the wrong way:
That kind of rhetoric is how he loses votes to John Kasich — votes he badly needs. It’s not like the only other option is to grovel. It is possible to refuse to back down graciously.
Here’s another… a while back, Cruz refused to call Paul Ryan a conservative. (He didn’t say otherwise, just ducked the answer the question.) Piece of trivia for Team Cruz: Scott Walker actually isn’t the most popular conservative in Wisconsin these days. Paul Ryan is. Keep this in mind.
Regarding Cruz’s previous praise and/or lack of criticism of Trump. When Trump first announced he wasn’t as out of it, so to speak, as now. His initial speeches hit broad, general high points that addressed our contmporary issues. The policy papers he published in his website were reasonable. As the campaign has progressed Trump’s pending Alzheimer’s and/or dementia, or just plain inability to maintain consistent, coherent thoughts and policy prescriptions have exposed him to much more criticism.
As Trump has slipped mentally while increasing his delegate count Cruz has ratcheted up the criticism.
I understand that, but he was far enough out there that I could see right through him. Enough that Scott Walker, in a serious if reserved way, called him out as a serious threat to the party. And I knew Cruz knew better. It didn’t sit well with me to have him legitimizing as a Republican and a conservative someone who praised socialized medicine and allied himself with the Wisconsin left and gloried in rude coarseness under the cover of anti-PC.
I don’t think Cruz imagined it would go this far, and I don’t associate him with all the most repellent things Trump has said or done by this juncture. But Clinton will do her best. And I do think, because of things he said before, Cruz has a greater need to repudiate some aspects of Trump’s campaign fully — not just as a disagreement in the primary, but as something that has no place in the party.
Good lord, this is annoying to see:
Just swung by my poling place in downtown Phoenix; line is abut 3/16 of a mile – perhaps 600 people – long at 7:55, close to an hour after the polls close.
Although people who vote for candidates who have by now dropped out deserve to not have their votes counted, it doesn’t seem quite fair or something to vote on a ballot listing the names of so many candidates who have dropped out. I suppose the ballot matches the early-voting ballots in other states, and we know that many people ended up voting for candidates who dropped out in between the time the early voters sent in their ballots to the day the ballots were counted.
But it casts doubt on how accurate a polling of Republican sentiment the primaries actually are.
I don’t know how to fix this, but in these computerized times, it seems to be possible to give people accurate ballots.
It only comes across as “you’re stuck with me” if you don’t like Cruz. A lot of people just don’t like him. Try focusing on his substance.
Cruz ducked the question because it was relevant to a house leadership fight because he said he would stay out of that fight. And, Paul Ryan and other members in leadership probably saw him meeting with House members as meddling, so they probably don’t like each other. It’s time to swallow petty rivalries, realize what we have in common, and unify around an actual conservative.
We are through the looking glass. People have decided to turn off their brains and just feel their way through elections. Oh well.
Any hope those folks are there to vote Cruz?
Trump has taken az, Cruz takes Utah. The path for Cruz gets steeper. I still don’t trust Trump as far as I could throw one of his gold plated toilets so I’m hoping for a miraculously strong finish for Cruz. I really can’t decide which would be worse as president, Hillary or the Donald.
Bucky, you’re lecturing the electorate here. That won’t work. I know the context of Cruz’s statement on Ryan. The fact is he ducked the question for political reasons, and the politics are now different.
This is the “dutiful” case. I fully accept the dutiful case. But that wasn’t your original question, and it won’t win Wisconsin. I don’t know how I can say this any more starkly. Ted Cruz is still setting himself up to bleed thousands of crucial voters to John Kasich, and that is how Trump wins a plurality in WI and with it the nomination.
Leigh, you will have to forgive the rest of us knuckle draggers that didn’t immediately condemn Trump for being born.
Huh. I thought you were a Pataki man through and through, Jon.
Brent, that’s ridiculous.
Yes, I found praise for the Scottish health care system quite a sufficient disqualifier and found it more than ironic that people who held out over Romneycare (which also troubled me) were just fine with it. And I don’t apologize for that.
I’m quite willing to forgive Cruz. But I can’t make other people.