Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democrat running against former TV news anchor Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial race, is making a mistake by employing President Joe Biden's "strategy" of campaigning from "the basement" because the public must hear where she stands on the issues, state Rep. Mark Finchem, the state's GOP candidate for secretary of state, said on Newsmax Thursday.
"You can't stay out of the public eye," Finchem told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "You need to be engaged, and that's one of the things that I think Arizona voters have really taken notice of. She's just not willing to tell Arizona voters where she stands on anything."
Hobbs, he added, "stands for unrestricted abortion, but that's a losing issue. It's not what people are caring about."
Voters care about jobs, the economy, employment, and election integrity, "and many other things that are part of the package that Republicans represent," Finchem said. "Certainly, Kari Lake is carrying that staff."
The three issues Arizonans care about most, he also said, are the border and the increased flow of fentanyl and people; the economy; and election security and integrity.
"People are dying out here, I mean, literally, because they don't have the money for food and fuel," Finchem said. "People are losing their jobs."
The race for Arizona's U.S. Senate seat, meanwhile, is in a dead heat, according to a new poll, but Finchem said he thinks GOP candidate Blake Masters will defeat incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly.
"He's demonstrated very clearly that he has a command of the subject," said Finchem. "He's caught Mark Kelly in several well, I'll be kind, misstatements. Some people would call them lies."
For example, Kelly is "not a border guy," Finchem said. "He disdains the Border Patrol. But Blake Masters has a very solid command of the subjects that matter to Arizona residents."
Finchem also addressed concerns that debates, such as the one this week in Pennsylvania between Dr. Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman for the U.S. Senate seat, are coming too late and after many people have started casting early ballots.
"I think it's problematic, but many of the candidates have been campaigning now for at least six months, so voters have had an opportunity to review both individuals separately," he said. "Sometimes the debates are helpful.
"That is one problem, though, with early voting. We are now two weeks into the early voting period in Arizona, and traditionally about 51-52% of the ballots have been returned through the mail by now."
But still, Finchem said there is a significant number of people who want to wait until Election Day to vote, as they want to see all the information they can get first.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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