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Arizona Republican Spends On Ads In New
Jersey To Reach Trump |
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David M. Drucker, Washington Examiner
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Jan. 2, 2021 |
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Only one vote matters in the campaign for
the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona,
which explains wealthy businessman Jim
Lamon's decision to advertise on cable
television in New Jersey, where former
President Donald Trump is summering. |
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Trump's endorsement could tip the scales in
Arizona's 2022 GOP Senate primary. To gain
the upper hand, Lamon is appealing directly
to Trump with a 30-second spot touting his
border security bona fides exclusively on
Fox News in northern New Jersey. The former
president is spending the summer on his
private golf club in Bedminster, 43 miles
west of New York City. |
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Lamon, flush enough to invest millions of
dollars of his own money on his campaign, is
spending $18,000 to run the ad for two
weeks. "I don't think there are a lot of
people from Arizona that summer in New
Jersey," Jeff Roe, who is advising Lamon's
Senate campaign, said Tuesday, confirming
his candidate's blatant strategy to outflank
his primary opponents. |
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"Chaos, crisis, children dropped alone in
the desert," Lamon says in the spot, which
uses stark black and white images and film
clips purporting to show illegal immigrants
entering the United States to criticize
incumbent Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and other
Democrats of fomenting a crisis at the
Mexican border. "Join me. Together we'll
stop drugs, gangs, and politicians." |
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Roe described Lamon as a "movement
conservative." In addition to the money the
Republican Senate contender is spending to
reach Trump in New Jersey, per current ad
purchases, he will have invested just under
$1 million from when his campaign launched
May 1 through the end of June to introduce
himself to voters in Arizona. Lamon is
advertising statewide on cable television
with a slick 30-second biographical spot. |
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Last November, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly
won a special election to complete the final
third of the six-year term won by Republican
Sen. John McCain, who died in August 2018. |
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President Joe Biden also won Arizona,
becoming the first Democratic nominee to
finish on top there since 1996. But
Republicans are lining up to challenge
Kelly, encouraged by Democrats' thin
majority and historical trends. The GOP
needs to flip one seat to recapture the
Senate majority, and the party that occupies
the White House usually loses multiple seats
in Congress in midterm elections. |
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Lamon is among the first Republicans to
announce his campaign. |
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The 65-year-old Army veteran is the CEO of
DEPCOM Power in Scottsdale, Arizona, a solar
engineering corporation. He is a longtime
donor to Republican candidates, GOP causes,
and nonpolitical charities. According to his
campaign website, Lamon recently contributed
$2 million to an effort to register more
Republican voters in Arizona — even though
he is not a regular on the major donor
circuit that, for instance, writes
seven-figure checks to GOP super PACs. |
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"I spent my career bringing power to the
people," Lamon said in his introduction ad.
"But there's another kind of power.
Political elites use it to divide, distract
and sell out our children's future. But we
have the power to take their power away." |
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Other potential candidates include Arizona
Attorney General Mark Brnovich; Michael
McGuire, the former adjutant general of the
Arizona National Guard; and Blake Masters,
who works for venture capitalist Peter Thiel,
a GOP megadonor. Should Masters run, Thiel
is expected to back him financially with a
super PAC that could spend possibly tens of
millions of dollars on his behalf. |
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