Journalists’ Roundtable: New voter polls, Clean Elections investigation and more

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for the Journalists’ Roundtable where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, Jeremy Duda from Axios Phoenix and Dennis Welch of CBS5 and 3TV.

The topics discussed this week:

• New Highground poll reveals who’s ahead in Arizona Governor’s race
• Maricopa County Recorder’s allies found financial support for legislative candidates
• Clean Elections Commission’s investigation

Arizona Governor’s race

Howie Fischer: “It’s not surprising. Incumbency helps; money helps. I think that Katie is going to spend something like $20 million. She’s flooded the airwaves, flooded the internet with five-minute commercials. She’s also found some things to attack [Andy Biggs] on: the whole issue of Colorado City. Andy has not come across well. People don’t know him; he’s a Congressman from a district here, and he doesn’t have the money to get his out. Maybe that’s partly our fault as reporters, but still, you have to have something to sell other than ‘Katie’s bad.'”

Jeremy Duda: “We feel like, and every poll we’ve seen shows, Hobbs is leading by 13%. I have a hard time seeing that kind of lead when the dust really settles in November. We have such a political climate that looks so good for Democrats right now. People are very upset with President Trump. A lot of Republicans are very unenthusiastic, and Democrats are unenthusiastic about going to the polls. Howie mentioned Andy Biggs isn’t coming across well, and in some ways isn’t coming across at all. [Howie] talked about the money gap: Hobbs had all this money; it’s not just hers, it’s the Democratic Governors Association’s, the national party; they threw $10 million into the state the second the primary ended. We have not seen the same thing from the Republican counterpart in D.C. It seems like they’re reading the tea leaves and perhaps saying, ‘Maybe our money is better spent elsewhere in other states.'”

Dennis Welch: “In this race, it’s going to get closer, 15-point lead. I would not expect that to continue until November. That would be the good news if you’re a Republican looking at this. The bad news is that what this poll is showing, when you look underneath the hood, is that Democrats like Katie Hobbs are siphoning off a larger percentage of Republicans than Republicans are getting Democrats, to the point where you start looking at the Republican registration advantage; a lot of talk has been about that over the past year. Over 300,000 more Republicans registered in Arizona than Democrats, but if you start pulling those numbers for Democrats, you are going to neutralize that advantage that the Republicans have going into this.”