Arizona PAC Discovers Progressivism Is Terrible Until It Needs To Send A Text

An Arizona PAC run by conservative operative Merissa Caldwell has urged voters to support Green Party gubernatorial candidate Risa Lombardo as a true progressive. Caldwell has repeatedly attacked progressive politics, including calling Governor Katie Hobbs a radical left progressive two months earlier. The PAC’s new message attacks Hobbs for not being progressive enough.

Progressivism has apparently gone from public menace to quality certification. Please check the packaging before discarding it; this afternoon we may be using it as a selling point.

Caldwell says she supports Lombardo over opposition to Flock cameras and a shared commitment to election integrity. She describes herself as libertarian and primarily nonpartisan. People can agree across party lines on particular issues. That part is not difficult to understand.

The harder part is the message her PAC actually sent, which pitches Lombardo on social justice and environmental protection while presenting Hobbs as a sellout to billionaires. The campaign language has put on a different outfit from the explanation and is now asking whether anyone has seen its reusable bag.

I’m imagining the messaging calendar. Monday: progressive policies are destroying the country. Tuesday: our candidate is the genuine progressive. Wednesday: please do not place Monday and Tuesday next to each other; that is irresponsible graphic design.

The Strong Communities Action PAC spent $8,500 on text messages in October, paying DAME America, a business Caldwell owns. That payment is reported in campaign-finance records; it does not by itself establish an improper transaction. It does mean the ideological flexibility came with a remarkably convenient billing address.

The PAC received contributions from Turning Point’s federal PAC and the Republican Party of East Mesa during that period. Caldwell says neither contribution was specifically earmarked to support Lombardo. The donors did not respond to the Arizona Mirror’s requests for comment. Their support is not proof that every sender had approved every subsequent adjective.

Still, imagine the invoice description. Messaging services: progressive excellence. Supporting public commentary: progressive catastrophe. Please remit payment to the same office. We offer a full range of mutually incompatible assessments.

Lombardo’s own political status is contested. The Arizona Green Party has disavowed her as a sham candidate intended to help Republican Andy Biggs. Lombardo denies that label and says she switched parties because she aligned with the Green platform. The party’s accusation is not a finding that she is a fraudulent candidate.

Separate civil and criminal campaign-finance investigations also remain unresolved. Caldwell initially told the Mirror that the candidates had been investigated and cleared. They had not. She later said the investigation should continue and expressed confidence that Lombardo would not intentionally do something wrong.

That is quite a journey for an election-integrity endorsement. First the matter was cleared. Then it was not cleared but should continue. The certainty arrived early and is now waiting for the facts to catch up with its itinerary.

None of this requires pretending the investigations have proved guilt. They have not. It requires distinguishing “I trust this person” from “the authorities cleared this person,” two sentences that should not share a fake moustache and take turns at the microphone.

But the most immediately available evidence here is not hidden in an investigative file. It is the PAC’s own sales pitch sitting beside its operator’s public attacks on the thing being sold.

If progressive politics are disastrous, why advertise the authentic version? If authenticity is the attraction, why spend the rest of the time describing the entire category as a threat? I would ask for the manager, but the manager appears to be running both counters.

One counter tells you the product will ruin the country. The other says accept no substitutes.

Before anyone presses send again, perhaps conduct a small internal test.

Text the endorsement to Caldwell’s own feed.

See whether it replies “stop” or sends itself a fucking invoice.