The Plight of the Independent

Like the Pearce recall, but bigger ... Let the bills fly ... And who, exactly, stole the election?

Independent Clint Smith only took about 6% of the vote in his failed 2022 attempt to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs.

The disaffected former Republican abandoned his party shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and decided to run to offer voters a center-right alternative to the MAGA hardliner Biggs in the Republican stronghold of the East Valley’s Congressional District 5. 

Last time, it was a three-way race that included Democrat Javier Ramos, who Smith calls a “spoiler.” 

A Democrat can’t beat Biggs in that district. But in a one-on-one, a center-right independent may have a chance, Smith argues.

We asked him about his motivation for running again, lessons learned and the plight of running as an independent. Here’s what he had to say.

Our art intern, ChatGPT, is pretty good at drawing guys named Clint Smith.

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Let’s start with your campaign last year. You got about 6% of the vote in the race for the Congressional District 5 seat. What happened? 

Well, what happened there was there was a Democrat in the race. And even though he didn't mount much of a campaign, didn't have much money or any staff, he had a D behind his name, and that's all it took. So we did our best to reach out to Independents and Democrats and national Republicans, that's our coalition. But the fact that there was a Democrat in the race was the end of that.

Would you say Javier Ramos was a spoiler? 

I would say that. Yeah. 

This is your second attempt to unseat Andy Biggs. Why did you decide to try in 2022? 

Well, I got recruited by some people who were with the Republicans for Biden crowd … I've been a Republican, right up until after January 6. And I also helped knock out the Senate President Russell Pearce. 

I've had a rift with the Republican Party for many years. But then when I saw what our congressman was doing with respect to January 6, and totally following Trump, no matter what he did, or said, and basically also not getting anything done, I said, ‘Well, somebody needs to run.’

How do you think your experience in the recall campaign of former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce relates to your next bid to unseat Andy Biggs?  

Yeah, it's the same principle. It's a guy with no political history, no elected office, at least, and taking on a very high-profile Republican who takes extreme positions. And there's a pathway with people who want to say, let's not be so extreme here. So it's basically the same race on a different scale.

So this time around, why are you running again? What made you decide to do that?

Well, Ramos has moved on to another district. He's running against Eli Crane. So that was the first thing and then actually, in talking to my wife about it, I was kind of surprised to have her say, 'Well, then you need to run again.' Because I thought she was totally done with this after the last time where we got treated pretty badly by some of our friends and neighbors in the conservative world. 

And so I looked around, and at that time, there wasn't anybody looking serious about being a Democrat in the race. So I said, well, I'm gonna go for this. And we'll see what happens ... There are a couple of Democrats who have filed their statement of intention, and we'll see if they get there. But nobody that's a serious threat or has any chance to win. 

So it is a three-way race again, do you think you have a shot this time?

It's a long shot. I don't know. I'm not gonna cross that bridge yet. 

Do you think running as an independent puts you at a disadvantage?

The whole system is tilted against anybody who's not a Republican or Democrat, let alone an independent. You know, we taxpayers are paying for them to have their primary and the votes and all that stuff, the voting costs millions of dollars, and we're paying for that. I have to get basically five times as many signatures as a Democrat to get on the ballot. And about four times what a Republican has to get just because of the way the statute is written on that. And I don't have the organization that comes with the party.

What else do you think is important for voters to know about you?

Well, this is not a career path for me. Presumably, if I win, I'm going to do three terms. And I want to get done what I can. And then I'm going to get back to my regular life. I think that's how the Founding Fathers envisioned this, not for people to make a career out of being in politics. 

I kind of bristle actually at the thought of being a quote, politician. I am a regular person who has a successful law practice. And I've raised my family and I have some capacity here to take on this and leave my other concerns aside for this season. 

Busy week at the Capitol: Lawmakers have been passing bills and generating headlines as they switch the deadline to hear bills in committees to “crossover week” where each chamber is voting on legislation and sending it to the other. Among the many bills that are still moving are:

• House Bill 2866, a plan to tax electric cars, but with a $135 annual fee, not based on mileage, passed its committee, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. 

• Senate Concurrent Resolution 1044 would only force judges to stand for retention if the Judicial Performance Review Commission raises red flags or if they’re convicted of a felony, the Capitol Times’ Kiera Riley reports. It’s also through committee and will soon be ready for a vote on the Senate floor. 

• HB2038, which we previously noted would make it illegal to secretly record a conversation, passed a House committee with an amendment to exclude law enforcement, but not others like reporters or victims of domestic abuse, per Fischer.  

• HB2876, which would outlaw voting centers, which let any voter in the county cast their ballots at any location, and bring back precinct-level polling locations, which can only accommodate voters from that specific neighborhood, per AZFamily’s Michael Raimondi. If the printers go down at your voting center, you can go to another one. If it happens at a polling place, you’re out of luck. 

• SB1072, which would create a sex offender-like registry for those convicted of animal abuse and require anyone selling or adopting out pets to check the list before transferring an animal, passed its committee assignments, per the Arizona Mirror’s Leah Britton. 

• Finally, SB1131, which would cancel any local election in which less than 25% of voters vote and call for a do-over election passed a Senate committee and is ready for a floor vote, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl notes. 

The “U” doesn’t stand for university accredited: The Colorado River Union High School District Governing Board may be the first district in the state to adopt the unaccredited curriculum put out by MAGA nonprofit PragerU, Mohave Valley Daily News’ Fred Mayson notes. 

Negotiate on the lawn, you cowards: Teachers sat alone at a table on the Capitol lawn Monday as a stunt to show that House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen wouldn’t show up so are “unwilling to negotiate” on their plan to raise teacher pay by extending and tweaking Prop 123. 

The SB1070 era returns: Toma, a Romanian immigrant and candidate for Congress, introduced a ballot referral that he calls “one of the toughest laws on illegal immigration ever written” and he says will close the loopholes that “illegal aliens use exploit to work illegally and receive welfare and other public benefits. If approved by lawmakers it would go to the ballot in November. Toma had a fundraising plea ready to go from his congressional campaign. 

Pollutant procrastination: Phoenix still hasn’t done anything to remediate high levels of methane on city-owned land that was once planned for a homeless shelter, the Republic’s Joan Meiners and Taylor Seely report. It’s not clear what the contamination is from, but it's similar to levels seen at oil drilling wells, and Phoenix still hasn’t hired a contractor to complete the work even though experts say the issue could be relatively easy to address. 

Slam dunk: Corporation Commissioners are set to consider another rate hike for APS this week, ABC15’s Anne Ryman reports. It wants to charge residential customers an average of 11% more, after last year’s rate hike of a roughly 9% increase last year. 

Yahoos at the Capitol, cowpies at the courthouse: Toma and Petersen want Maricopa County Judge Tim Ryan thrown off the case in their lawsuit over the elections procedures manual after Ryan’s older brother, attorney and frequent online smack-talker Tom Ryan, called Toma and Petersen “yahoos” and called their lawsuit a “cowpie” on Twitter, Fischer reports. The elder Ryan noted that he made the initial comments before the case was even assigned to his brother, then he doubled down.

“I haven’t lost my right to comment on stupid lawsuits and call politicians chucklenuts and yahoos, as far as I can tell,” Ryan told Fischer.

Appointee redo: The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors selected the five citizens who will lead the committee vetting for the next potential Democratic lawmakers from Legislative District 22 after the district’s precinct committeemen took too long to select their own potential appointees. The committee, which will be tasked with selecting three names for the supervisors to choose from, includes former lawmaker Lorenzo Sierra, LD22 PC Sandra Cole, school board member Francisca Montoya, Tolleson business owner Adan Morado, and Tolleson resident Eleanor Perez. They’re taking new applications from Democrats in the district until Wednesday at 5 p.m. Email your resume to clerkboard@maricopa.gov.

Our art intern, ChatGPT, is still cranking out “I voted” stickers ahead of the March deadline to enter Maricopa County’s competition to design the next official sticker. Leave a comment with a sticker idea or prompt and we’ll do a whole edition of stickers at some point.

U.S.Senate hopeful Kari Lake went on KTAR to interview with one of her strongest critics, conservative talk show host Barry Markson, who grilled her on abortion, foreign policy and stolen elections alongside host Bruce St. James.

The hosts repeatedly asked Lake who stole the election from you and how they did it. On the third try, they got something resembling an answer.

“I don’t know who, exactly, stole the election, but there are a lot of people who are running elections poorly,” she said.

When it comes to abortion policy, Lake said she won’t vote for a federal ban, but she left the door open to voting for a federal ban on the abortion pill.

“I don’t think women should be taking a pill at home and risking hemorrhaging. I care about women. I care about women’s health,” she said.

Is Russia our friend?

“I think when it comes to Ukraine, the people of this country are tired of pouring our hard-earned money into it,” she responded, adding Russia has already won the war.

Will she unblock them on Twitter?

“I don’t wanna really see (their tweets) and I think it’s healthier if I don’t have access to that,” she said.