Sinema Drops Out, Lake Vs. Lamb
VIA SBINSIDER ANALYSIS| March 19th, 2024
Ruben Gallegos got a tremendous boost recently in his bid for US Senator as independent and incumbent Kirsten Sinema dropped out of the 2024 race. That leaves Gallegos free to spend all his money promoting himself and in turn, attacking the two Republicans, Lake and Lamb.
In recent campaigns, the Democrats are masterful at clearing the field for their chosen candidate. At the national level, the party quickly coalesced around Joe Biden to push Bernie Sanders (not really a Democrat) out of the 2020 race. The killing blow was in South Carolina where Congressman James Clyburn’s endorsement sealed the deal by signaling that Biden was the preferred choice for African-American voters. (Harris had dropped out in December after only getting 2% of the vote. She got the VP consolation prize.)
Sinema became anathema to the Democrats as she refused to vote for overturning the Senate filibuster and push for more progressive causes. She did vote for impeaching Trump, twice, but that was just not enough for the hyenas on her far Left. So, she became an independent and now has dropped out of the race entirely. To date, she has not endorsed Gallegos, and has a substantial war-chest of $12 million which she can use to help other campaigns.
Picking Your Opponent!
The next tactic that has worked for Democrats is to spend money trying to influence which Republican emerges for the general election. In California, the Democratic Senate nominee, Adam Schiff, poured money into the campaign of Republican Steve Garvey, the calculation being that Garvey had lost his ability to hit a fastball and will be an easy opponent to beat. Schiff is likely correct. Garvey ran and spent very little money on his own race, but he will will go head to head with Schiff in November.
Gallegos may not have the money to push Lake or Lamb, especially when Lake has the strong support of Trump and polling shows Lake with a strong lead over Lamb. If he could try to influence the race, it would likely be Lake anyway as Lamb, given the resources would be a formidable general election candidate.
(In the Senate 2022 race, the Mark Kelly campaign and PAC’s together spent $79 million and Blake Masters spent $14 million. Money usually wins elections.)
Lamb actively Campaigning
Despite his lack of funding, Lamb has been busy working the base voters, appearing at Republican meetings across the state. Putting in many hours of windshield time, he can be found most Saturdays and many weeknights at Republican gatherings and according to attendees, his message is landing well.
