It is clear that the incompetence of our current county recorder contributes to the belief among all of our voters that things aren’t going well.
HighGround Consulting Group CEO and Republican consultant Chuck Coughlin compared Heap’s candidacy to other attempts from ultraconservative Republicans to unseat more moderately viewed Republicans, such as former Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers and former Sen. Tyler Pace, both of whom represented Mesa. He said he expects a highly competitive primary but doesn’t think Heap could win the general election.
“It’s going to be a tough fight. Roughly half of the Republican electorate believes the (2020) election was stolen. He’s living in that space of conspiracy theories, which dominate Republican primary politics, so it’s a challenging space to be in,” Coughlin said.
Noble Predictive Insights CEO and pollster Mike Noble said he could see a victory for Heap in a general election with less media coverage and spending from outside groups compared to other more high-profile races. But he gave Richer a primary advantage because of his name recognition and fundraising efforts for an office that he said historically has had difficulty raising money for candidates.
Jakob Thorington Arizona Capitol Times//February 28, 2024