John becomes Republican to win In LD14
Let’s make one thing clear. We’re all for Democrats who see the error of their ways, become conservative, and jump ship to the Republican Party. You should grow wiser as you grow older so that sort of transition should be expected with some regularity.
That is decidedly not the case with Drew John, a lifelong Democrat who spent 16 years as a left of center County Supervisor in Graham County, and then switched to the Republican Party one day before filing to run for State House as a Republican in 2016. We’re not writing “one day” like an expression or metaphor. It was literally one day before filing to run in a lopsided district where you had to be a Republican to win.
As you might expect, the establishment up in Phoenix lavished him with contributions and independent expenditures to get him elected, while Drew John played the part of a conservative Republican, talking about border security and signing a No New Taxes pledge. That message with that much money behind it edged out the under-funded and outgunned Anthony Sizer for the second House seat and Drew John was off to the State House, where he promptly repaid his moderate benefactors by breaking his word and voting for more than $13 Billion in tax hikes on everything from sales taxes to gas taxes. And no, he didn’t do anything to help border security.
Fast forward to this year and the same LD14 has an open Senate seat. Conservative former House Speaker David Gowan is running, but he’s “a Trump guy” who founded the House Liberty Caucus when he first got elected. He’s an original Tea Party kind of legislator and that’s not good news for the establishment. So they recruit Drew John to run and its back to the same playbook where Drew John acts conservative and talks about the border, while outside groups spend tens of thousands of dollars to promote John to the Senate. Think John McCain or Jeff Flake at the federal level and you’ve got Drew John at the state level. Drew John campaigns on standing up to the special interests, while those same special interest groups spend a fortune to get him elected.
How bad have the Phoenix establishment’s lies gotten? One group was forced to take down a radio ad accusing Gowan of voting for a tax hike when the bill was a tax cut. It took the threat of legal action to get the ads pulled, but the group telling the lie didn’t care that the bill was a tax cut. They knew Gowan would have an advantage over John on the tax issue so they lied and spent lots of money on the lie to try to make Gowan look bad on taxes. Another group sent out a mailer proclaiming Drew John to be “a conservative leader in the House” and “a former 4-term REPUBLICAN County Supervisor.” Unbelievable! They know voters won’t like Drew’s lifelong history as a Democrat so they lie and claim he was a Republican for 16 years even though he was a Democrat the entire time!
It’s a scam and its disgusting. Gowan has won just about every award a conservative can win, including an A+ rating from the NRA, Legislator of the Year from AZCDL, and Champion of the Taxpayer. Now he’s being attacked by the NeverTrumpers at the ironically named Arizona Public Integrity Alliance because of his support for Donald Trump, and by the swamp up in Phoenix because he’s the kind of legislator who will say “NO” to their liberal ideas.
Voters need to see through this charade and not be fooled like they were in 2016. Drew John voted for more than $13 Billion in higher taxes in just his first term. Do you really want to give him and his swamp buddies a Senate seat?
Editor’s Note: Drew John joined a handful of other legislators to kill legislation that would have leveled the playing field for independent news outlets. His effort ensured that legacy media would enjoy the benefits of arbitrary barriers to competition.