Here’s the latest out of Arizona:
Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is also a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, appeared to cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines in an audio recording obtained by Arizona's Family.
"If you can get COVID after you've had the vaccine and you can still spread it, then what's the point of the vaccine," Brnovich told a packed room of Republicans last week.
Brnovich did not respond to requests to further explain what he said in the recording, but his office issued a statement.
“As General Brnovich has consistently said, the COVID-19 vaccine cannot be mandated by the government. It must be a choice and Americans deserve all information and transparency from public officials and pharmaceutical companies to make the best decision for themselves and their families," his office said in that statement.
And yes, this moron is the leading candidate in the GOP primary:
Mark Brnovich holds a commanding lead in the race for the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona, according to a new poll conducted for the super PAC supporting the state attorney general’s campaign.
Brnovich leads a crowded field with 41%, followed by Blake Masters, a top lieutenant to venture capitalist and Republican donor Peter Thiel, with 6%; businessman Jim Lamon with 5%; and former adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard Mick McGuire with 4%. The Arizona attorney general’s early advantage comes despite having been criticized by former President Donald Trump over his handling of Trump's narrow loss to President Joe Biden in the state last November.
“Mark is the conservative fighter trusted by Arizona Republicans — and this survey proves it,” Scott Will, a senior adviser to Advancing Arizona Forward, the Brnovich super PAC, said in a statement.
The poll, from Republican firm OnMessage Inc., was conducted Sept. 9–12 for Advancing Arizona Forward. The margin of error was 4.4 percentage points. The data was shared first with the Washington Examiner.
The survey had additional good news for Brnovich, per the polling memorandum prepared by OnMessage:
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“Ideologically, Brnovich’s strongest lead comes from 'Very Conservatives' (45%).”
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“Geographically, Brnovich’s strongest lead comes from Maricopa County (48%).”
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Brnovich’s “name ID is 50% Favorable / 8% Unfavorable."
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Brnovich’s “job approval as Attorney General is 68% Approve / 11% Disapprove.”
It’s because he does stupid shit like this:
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is showing no signs of backing down from a threat to potentially withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from Maricopa County. The threat stems from county supervisors refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Republican-controlled state Senate to hand over equipment to the auditors of the partisan election review. Last month, Brnovich gave the county a Sept. 27 deadline to comply with the order or risk losing money it receives in the form of state shared revenue.
That deadline is now less than two weeks away and the county has yet to say how it will respond to the Senate's demands. But if the state's largest county doesn't comply, it risks losing nearly $700 million in state funding.
A big chunk of that lost revenue will hurt funding for public safety, law enforcement and the court system.
And this:
"Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced his office (AGO) is suing President Biden and other officials in his administration over their unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees, federal contractors, and private businesses with more than 100 employees. This is the first lawsuit in the country to be filed against the Biden Administration's radical actions requiring COVID-19 vaccines," the news release said.
In a call with reporters, Brnovich, who's a Republican and
running for a US Senate seat, said that "there is an uncertainty, a confusion, as to what the president can or can't do" and that he would protect the Constitution against "federal overreach."
CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the rush to file a lawsuit could cause problems for Arizona, since federal agencies have not yet written the specific rules for the vaccine mandate.
"It's a complex question about whether the regulation for the 100-plus-employee companies is permissible, but you can't answer that question until you see the actual regulation," said Toobin. "I don't think that this issue is a slam dunk either way. But it is a slam dunk that you can't file a lawsuit against a regulation that doesn't exist yet."
Democracy and Health are on the ballot next year and we need to get ready to keep Arizona Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D. AZ) and his fellow Arizona Democrats campaigns: