As Chandler Republicans are in Disarray, the Far Left Wins

BLM-adjacent leftist OD Harris came in first. In a sign of complete disintegration, he was endorsed by Chandler's GOP mayor. Jennifer Hawkins second. Run-off for third.

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In the July 2024 Chandler City Council primaries, City Council Member and candidate for re-election OD Harris, a BLM-adjacent leftist radical who appears to have strongly embellished his military record of uncharacterized dicharge with restrictions for re-enlisting, was supported by Phoenix based police and firefighter unions as well as the Democrat-run Chamber of Commerce. He hence had the Democrat vote sown up and was generously funded.

Possibly to give the middle finger to his own Party, Chandler's GOP mayor endorsed OD Harris for re-election. Although Hartke at this stage is ill liked by most in his party - keep reading to find out why - he still holds some sway, giving OD Harris a small part of the Republican vote as well. A small number of Chandler Republicans who presumably didn't know any better apparently took the mayor by his word and voted their political opposition into office. Hartke had also endorsed current council member Christine Ellis, as well as fellow Republican Jennifer Hawkins.

Harris and Hawkins won enough votes to avoid a run-off in the general election in November, Harris won re-election to another 4 year term, Hawkins won election to her first 4 year term on the Chandler City Council.

Council Member Christine Ellis came in third but just missed the threshold for an outright re-election win and so will face off against fourth placed political newcomer Jospeh Yang in the November general election. AJ Kurdoglu, Michael Simon and Cicely Rocha-Miller were eleminated from the race in the primaries. We will report on the upcoming choice between Yang and Ellis in the near future.

Due to his destructive policies Hartke is so unpopular that in 2022 he was challenged by fellow Republican and political newcomer Ruth Jones. Jones mainly ran on opposing Hartke's policies of bringing hordes of homeless people into Chandler. Jones did very well considering the circumstances combining an open primary, being a hate figure for the radical left, facing an incumbent, being relatively unknown, and being vastly outspent.

Since Hartke, a pastor, became mayor in 2018, the City Council has turned from solidly red to solidly blue, with extremists like OD Harris and Angel Encinas being elected due to Hartke's feckless lack of political leadership and basic common sense.

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A worrying trend

Republicans are sometimes referred to as the stupid party (Democrats as the power party). This is not because their ideas or their people are stupid, but because as an organization they often snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by being strategically unwise, and then utter comments like "we tried" or "better to lose with dignity than win dirty".

In Arizona things have been especially bad. On the state and federal level in the last few years the GOP has lost the governorship and both Senate Seats to the Democrats. This is in part because of an ongoing civil war between the old guard John McCain allies, and the emerging MAGA faction supporting Donald Trump.

This civil war is especially vicious in Arizona because McCain viscerally hated Trump to such a degree that he decreed that Trump may not attend his funeral (but Obama did), continuing the feud even after death. Trump on his part had very unwisely taken a shot at McCain's military record by stating that he prefers people who have not been taken prisoner of war. McCain was the deciding vote that blocked the abolition of Obama-care in the US Senate, ignoring the wishes of his voters, most likely in order to to spite then President Donald Trump.

While Arizona Democrats have mostly been disciplined, sorting out their differences internally, the Arizona GOP is in an out in the open civil war. This is evidenced by a huge number of candidates running in primaries.

In Congressional District 8, encompassing Scottsdale, 6 Republicans ran in the primary including heavyweights Abe Hamadeh and Blake Masters, as well as Ben Toma. Hamadeh won, barely.

It may have been wiser if the Arizona GOP would perhaps not have Masters, who lives in Tucson, run in Scottsdale, but have him move to Chandler, to run in District 4 in order to challenge Greg Stanton. Stanton is well known and needs a stronger challenge than businessman and Marine Corps veteran Kelly Cooper can provide due to Cooper not being well known. Cooper would perhaps be better suited to run for the Arizona House. In LD12, the GOP only fielded one candidate, thereby giving up one seat without a fight. Cooper may have been successful in winning an Arizona House seat in LD12.

Arizona Democrats on the other hand successfully pushed aside former Democrat and current senior US Senator Kyrsten Sinema, thereby creating a non-incumbent election in which their choice, the far left radical Ruben Gallego, ran unopposed in the primary, keeping his war chest untouched and his skin free of bruises. Just like Kamala Harris, the communist Ruben Gallego is currently attempting to dress up as a moderate, pretending to favor secure borders and market-based economics.

Republicans on their part fought with each other out in the open with 3 candidates running in the primary. Kari Lake ended up winning with just over half the votes. Mark Lamb came in second.

Tearing each other apart like that in public leaves the field open for the real opponent, Democrats, who in Arizona are a fairly disciplined and cohesive political fighting force and have made impressive in-roads in turning a state with a purple to red leaning electorate much more blue in terms of who holds political office.