Republicans in the Southeast Valley’s 5th Congressional District are picking a new nominee — the incumbent, Congressman Andy Biggs, is leaving the seat to run for governor.
But the race has taken a sharp turn over the past several weeks, after a series of allegations against the perceived frontrunner.
KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky from the Politics Desk has been reporting on this. He joined The Show to talk more about it.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Wayne, good morning.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Good morning.
MARK BRODIE: So let’s describe the seat and who the contenders are. Who are the candidates in this Southeast Valley district?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yes, this is Congressional District 5. Like you said, a lot of the Southeast Valley going into Pinal County. Very Republican district. The two candidates in the Republican primary, who whoever wins will likely win that seat, are former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, very popular name, a lot of people know who he is. You know, he kind of had that America’s sheriff persona, did a lot of YouTube videos, a "COPS"-style television shows. So what, very well known, has the Trump endorsement.
He’s running against Daniel Keenan, who’s a local product, homebuilder — not well-known, but says he’s very connected to the community. Grew up there, was born in Gilbert, I believe. Now lives in Queen Creek. And, you know, he’s he’s running saying that, "I’m closer to the roots here. I know what the people want," and trying to unseat that frontrunner.
MARK BRODIE: And given sort of the political makeup of this district, for a while, it seemed like the the race was about like who could be closer to Donald Trump, right?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: That’s right. Yeah. Like I said, Andy Biggs has represented this district for years. And basically, the Republican primary winner wins the general because of the partisan splits. Democrats just don’t really have a good shot.
And ... with that Trump endorsement — Trump’s endorsement is still, as we’ve seen in recent history in a lot of other states, is still a golden ticket in Republican primaries, by and large. So between his public persona, his name recognition and then that Trump endorsement, you know, we all kind of assumed that Lamb was going to run away with this thing.
MARK BRODIE: OK. So things started to change maybe a few weeks ago or so when there was some reporting by the Arizona Republic about some maybe not-so-savory parts of Mark Lamb’s life. And I don’t want to get into all the details, but can you sort of summarize what these were about?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah. Broadly, again, yeah, Republic did a lot of deep-dive reporting into this. Broadly, they they spoke with some women, some friends of the Lambs or former friends of the Lambs. They had a lot of text messages, things like that, that showed basically that Lamb allegedly had participated in a lot of extramarital type of relationships, whether they were physical or via text message and sending photos that I won’t get into detail here, that type of thing.
Maybe involved also sending photos of his wife to friends of his and his wife being involved. Again, not going to get into the details on the radio, but what we’ll call unsavory things, things that don’t line up with his image as an active member of the LDS Church. And, you know, running on a family values type of platform. And so those kind of undermined that persona he’s built for himself in the district.
MARK BRODIE: And there’s also now an issue, and you’ve reported on this, about his — like does he actually spend time in in this district or in the state?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah. At the same time, him and his wife have — again, YouTube videos — showing that they’ve opened up this ranch in Tennessee. And they’re saying that this is a way to supplement the family’s income now that he’s going to be in Congress, they think. Had to end his his consulting business. And, you know, there’s there’s cabins you can rent, there’s event space. And they’re saying that their family is going to be running the place while they live here.
But he’s posting an awful lot of videos of him on the ranch working on it, so again, questions about whether he actually lives not just in the district, but the state that he wants to represent in Congress.
MARK BRODIE: The timing of that seems kind of interesting as he’s running a congressional race in Arizona to be opening a business on the other side of the country.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah. And again, he hasn’t really ... he’s kind of fallen out of the public spotlight, has not done any interviews. You know, ended up canceling an interview with me after some of these Republic reports came out.
So he hasn’t answered questions about, you know, ranches very popular in Pinal County. Why couldn’t you open up a ranch in Pinal County? Why did you have to go, you know, thousands of miles away to start this business? Plenty of people have run for Congress in Arizona and been able to sustain themselves by living in Arizona. So, yeah, it probably would have been the top controversy in this race had all of this other reporting not happened.
MARK BRODIE: OK. So Keenan, his opponent, has been talking about a lot of this. Like what is he saying? How is he trying to use all of this to to boost himself?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah, he basically, you know, during a "debate" that Lamb didn’t show up to, so it was just Keenan. He basically just said ... "This guy is not, you know, he he’s going to sully the reputation of our of our Republican Party."
Now depending on what your partisan leaning is, you might say it’s already happened, but he, yeah, he basically says "This guy isn’t the right guy to represent our community," Because, again, this is a East Valley heavily Republican community, also heavily religious community, very conservative. So a lot of the allegations against Lamb kind of fly in the face of of the perceived values of that district.
MARK BRODIE: Has any of that mattered? I mean, I would imagine polling is fairly sparse in a in a primary like this, but like when you talk to voters, like is this something that’s on their mind?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah, like you said, haven’t really seen any polling since late last year before all this controversy broke. Unsurprisingly, that showed Lamb with a sizable lead. But again, also people ... don’t really campaign like they used to anymore. Lamb has disappeared, so I can’t go to Lamb rallies and see what his supporters think.
Daniel Keenan has done a few public events, and I did make it out to one of those. And one of the gentlemen I spoke with, who was there just kind of feeling out Keenan and seeing whether he liked him, did say he’s read the Lamb allegations, and that, you know, they basically if what you say you are and what your behavior shows you are don’t line up, that’s a problem for him, was basically what that guy said.
MARK BRODIE: I mean, is there reason to believe that Lamb might not win this primary?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Again, without any polling to show otherwise, it’s ... with that Trump endorsement, it’s it really depends on whether the voters in the district believe these these allegations. Again, the Republican reporting is very heavily sourced. There’s a lot of evidence backing up what they’re reporting there, but everyday voters, you know, I'll say these days with politics, we see we see Republicans, we see Democrats, anyone who has a smear campaign against them, they say it’s a smear campaign. They say this, you know, they don’t have to refute the specific allegations, which Lamb hasn’t, but they just say we’re being smeared. And then if their supporters believe them and that’s enough to get them 50 plus one, then they can win.
MARK BRODIE: And has the president or anyone on his team suggested that the endorsement could be taken away?
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: No ... I have not heard a single thing from most of the groups endorsing Lamb. ... Somewhat surprisingly, given some of the values they say that they they have in this district and some of the people backing him. Turning Point USA is a major backer, has not pulled that endorsement. The president has not pulled his endorsement.
I think the Republic reported today that Club for Growth is, which is another conservative organization, is putting a bunch of money behind Lamb’s campaign in a last-minute push. So it doesn’t seem like it’s hurt him on the political donor side. And, again, with donors, we’ll have to wait until we see those results start coming.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah, and we’ll have to see how if it hurts him or not with the voters. We’ll see that at the end of the month. All right, Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ’s Politics Desk. Thanks.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yeah. Thank you.
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