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Kari Lake Could Win in Arizona Senate Race, New Poll Shows

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Kari Lake may have come up short in her bid to become the governor of Arizona but there is good news for her. A new poll has shown that she is still loved by many in the Copper State and she could become its next Senator, Newsweek reported.

Public Policy Polling asked respondents to pick from three candidates that included Lake, Democrat Representative Ruben Gallego, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced that she is an independent.

The poll showed that by choosing between the three candidates, Lake would achieve victory.

“Fresh new Arizona numbers!” PPP, which is affiliated with the Democrat Party, said on Twitter. “In a three way race Kyrsten Sinema would get just 13% to 41% for Kari Lake and 40% for Ruben Gallego.”

“Gallego’s net favorability rating is 24 points better than Sinema’s. He’s at +8 (35/27), she’s at -16 (31/47),” it said.

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“Sinema is mostly just liked by conservatives now. She has a 43/27 favorability rating with Trump voters and only a 20/69 one with Biden voters,” the group said.

“Sinema doesn’t have a real path to victory. But she could have a spoiler effect. Gallego leads Lake 48-47 when she isn’t in the mix because her support draws slightly more from Biden than Trump voters.

“Gallego does 4 points better in a head to head against Lake than Sinema does. Conservatives might like her at the moment but they aren’t actually willing to vote for her,” it said.

“You don’t need a poll to understand why voters aren’t happy with Senator Sinema: she’s consistently voted with Wall Street bankers and big drug companies, and against the interests of Arizonans,” Gallego said. “Sinema’s values are not Arizona’s values. Writing a different letter after her name isn’t going to change that.”

Lawyers for Arizona Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs filed emergency petitions with a state court this week that sought to prevent her from having to testify in an election lawsuit brought by GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Reports noted that, on Monday, Hobbs’ attorneys filed a petition to block a subpoena forcing the declared governor-elect to testify in Lake’s lawsuit, which went to trial on Wednesday. Lake argued that, as secretary of state, one of Hobbs’ primary functions is to oversee elections.

Lake’s lawsuit argues, among other things, that there were enough problems in Maricopa County, the state’s largest, on Election Day that contributed to her 17,000-vote loss to Hobbs. Maricopa County election officials have denied the allegations.

State Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Hobbs’ motion Monday evening, noting in his order the issues at hand concern an “activity wholly within her wheelhouse: the conduct of elections,” according to the Western Journal.

Nevertheless, Hobbs’ attorneys filed another petition late Monday night, noting that the two counts Thompson ruled on to allow Lake’s lawsuit to proceed had no direct involvement of their client, making her testimony moot.

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“Though there was no good-faith basis for the Subpoena to begin with … there is absolutely no good faith basis to require the Secretary to testify now given the scope of the MTD Order,” Hobbs’ legal team noted in their second motion.

“And to the extent Plaintiff has any questions that are relevant (and there is simply no way she could), Kori Lorick, State Elections Director, has already been disclosed as a potential witness who ‘may testify regarding the Arizona Secretary of State’s election-related duties and responsibilities, or other matters related to the Secretary of State’s Office relevant to this case,’” Hobbs’ attorneys added.

That led Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers to tweet in response: “Katie Hobbs just filed a Motion to Quash. Good luck. She refused to debate and now she doesn’t want to testify?”

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On Tuesday, Lake’s attorneys withdrew their subpoena since the two counts at trial have to do with Maricopa County and not the secretary of state’s office, as noted by KNXV-TV political analyst Garrett Archer.

Lake’s lawsuit contends that widespread ballot printer problems and resulting tabulator issues occurred at 59 percent of polling locations throughout Maricopa County, or 132 in all; county election officials have admitted that about 70 sites, or one-third the country’s total, were impacted.

The suit also alleges intentional mismanagement of the balloting process on Election Day, which saw long lines at polling places caused by printers running out of ink, vote tally machines being unable to read ballots, and other issues that led to mass voter disenfranchisement.

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