The Super PACs Fighting to Keep John McCain in Office

By John Light, Moyers & Company

26 August 16

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en. John McCain, a former Republican presidential nominee whom Arizonans first sent to Congress 34 years ago, is fighting to fend off Kelli Ward, a former state senator who resigned her seat last year to focus on ousting the 79-year-old political and military veteran in Tuesday’s Republican primary. The race has attracted about $3.5 million in spending from groups not ostensibly affiliated with either campaign, and both candidates have their own sizable war chests — though McCain is clearly way ahead on that account. With six years to raise money for this race, McCain has nearly $12 million at his disposal; Kelli Ward has just over $1 million. One group supportifng McCain, the Arizona Grassroots Action PAC, has spent nearly $2 million; the US Chamber has also spent roughly $1 million on McCain’s behalf.

After at first ignoring Ward, McCain and his allied PACs went on the attack. Arizona Grassroots Action PAC — with a name that one might be tempted to find ironic, given that Ward is the tea party-aligned insurgent candidate — has gone after Ward for her “fringe” views, branding her “Chemtrail Kelli.”

The moniker stems from a 2014 town-hall meeting she organized to have state environmental staffers respond to her constituents who were concerned that the government was poisoning them and/or controlling the weather by means of airplane contrails — a popular conspiracy theory on the internet and late-night radio programs. (But Ward is not alone in channeling such concerns: McCain, it turns out, has also asked the EPA to debunk his constituents’ fears over chemtrails.)

Ward is benefiting from spending by another outside group, the National Association for Gun Rights, which has shelled out $236,000 opposing McCain. The group bills itself a conservative “alternative” to the NRA — and Ward is certainly a gun enthusiast. She even auctioned off an AR-15 rifle to donors, complete with an engraving of her signature and the words “Don’t tread on me.”