Martha McSally kicks reporter (read: you) out of campaign event
Opinion: Martha McSally kicked a reporter out of a business roundable discussion. What was the big secret she didn't want us to know?
Laurie Roberts
Attention Martha McSally: What, exactly, are you saying that you don’t want us to hear?
Once upon a time, we thought we knew you. You were that rare politician who spanned the disappearing ground in this country – middle ground, that is.
A fighter pilot turned moderate Republican who fought for moderate ideas and looked to work across the aisle in search of solutions.
Now you’re more stealth bomber than fighter jet.
Erasing your name from a bill carving out a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. Eliminating a YouTube video in which you call for compassion and compromise.
And now … kicking a reporter out of a chamber of commerce roundtable discussion.
This, because you don’t want people to know what it is that you are saying?
Teresa McQuerrey of the Payson Roundup reports that she got the old heave-ho out of a Tuesday meeting when McSally met with various Republicans and members of the Rim Country Regional Chamber of Commerce.
It seems the Roundup’s general manager, Gary Tackett, is a member of the board and forwarded his invitation to the event to the newsroom.
There was no indication, after all, that the meeting was a closed session and usually candidates delight in having local reporters cover their campaign.
Here comes the bum's rush
The invitation, from Gila County Republican chairman Gary Morris, simply said that McSally “has requested to conduct a round table with business leadership and elected officials. She asked me to extend invitations to the Chamber to see if there are members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors that may want to attend. I’ve already extended an invitation to County and local elected officials.”
In other words, a typical campaign event.
Except that when McQuerrey showed up, she was promptly given the bum’s rush from the room.
Cue McQuerrey:
“Immediately after I introduced myself to the Congresswoman, McSally went to one of her staff and then spoke to Morris. Morris in turn came to me and said McSally wanted me to leave. It was a closed meeting.
“I pointed out the chamber had sent an email blast about the meeting. Morris said the Republicans had wanted chamber members to attend. I told him the Roundup is a member of the chamber. Morris still asked me to leave.
“Later, McSally’s communications manager called the Roundup and said the candidate could ‘give’ me a few minutes at 9 a.m. I rejected the offer and told the staffer if the congresswoman didn’t want coverage of a meeting with the public (select as it was), I was not interested in interviewing her.”
Good move. Because that “few minutes” McSally was so generously offering to “give” the reporter would have been a total waste of time.
Trying to out-MAGA the competition
McSally has spent this year remaking her image to be pleasing to the Republican base. At every turn, she seems to be trying to out-MAGA her chief opponent, Kelli Ward.
As if that was even possible.
But McSally also must know that every giant step to the right is one step farther from a position in which she can win the November election, when she’ll face Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
So what, exactly, did she tell those Republican business leaders after kicking out the public, as represented by a Payson reporter? What was the big secret she didn't want us to know?
I’d ask, but I wouldn’t trust that I'd get anything more than prepackaged campaign pap.
Voters want to know who you really are, Rep. McSally, and what you really stand for.
Thus far, tragically, that seems to be … whatever will get you elected.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.
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