Right now in Arizona there is a three-way race. None of the choices are great conservative choices but there is definitely one that is less bad than the other. The best choice, in my opinion, is Representative Martha McSally. McSally is an anodyne Republican with a great biography. The wild card in the pack is former Sheriff and convicted felon Joe Arpaio. Arpaio is a sad story of a guy who started out doing the right thing for the right reasons and then he started reading his own press clippings and went off the rails. He trails the field but it is thought that he doesn’t draw votes from McSally but he does cut into the base of the third candidate, former state senator Kelli Ward.

Kelli Ward is a populist who, in a different year, might not be a bad candidate (No, she actually doesn’t believe in chem trails and the fact that conservatives continue to spread that story tells you much about the state of conservatism). Mitch McConnell hates her and that, in and of itself, is worth a million or so dollars in free advertising. Unfortunately, she is also endorsed and supported by Steve Bannon.

Belatedly, Ward realized what kind of a drag on her candidacy Bannon was going to be and tried to distance herself, particularly after the Michael Wolff (again look at the conservatives who repeated every breathless detail of this noxious screed for an idea of the state of conservatism). Now she has an ally. She’s being endorsed by Rand Paul:

Rand Paul campaigning with Kelli Ward pic.twitter.com/CZS7Wt6taY

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) February 9, 2018

With Rand Paul weighing in and Steve Bannon nearly a non-person, Ward, I think, becomes a favorite. The budget deal is going to add fire to conservatives and McSally was a “yes” vote. With Democrat Kyrsten Sinema running a campaign that is trying to ignore Trump, War becomes very competitive.