Arizona
GOP leaders warn Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters to raise more money — or risk losing to Democrat Mark Kelly
Republican leaders and megadonors are warning Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters to enhance his fundraising, or else be doomed in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in November’s election, in keeping with folks aware of the matter.
Masters has obtained pressing non-public calls in latest weeks from GOP leaders similar to Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the top of the Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee, these folks defined. The NRSC is the official marketing campaign arm for Senate Republicans, and has spent over $6 million taking over Masters’ rival Kelly, in keeping with information from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.
Kelly’s seat has lengthy been thought-about a possible pickup alternative for Republicans, as forecaster Cook dinner Political Report labels the race a toss up. Latest polling, nonetheless, means that Masters is falling behind. A Fox Information ballot taken in August exhibits Kelly main Masters by 8 factors. An Arizona Republican pollster informed NBC Information that his personal surveys confirmed Masters trailing Kelly by 10 factors.
Longtime GOP megadonors, who wish to assist Masters overtake Kelly however haven’t heard from him since he gained the get together’s major, have inundated the Republican candidate with calls, these folks defined.
An individual aware of one of many latest calls to Masters stated a veteran GOP financier “learn him the riot act” and informed him, partly, that he should begin elevating cash from extra rich Republican donors and cease counting on billionaire tech govt Peter Thiel, his longtime colleague and pal, to assist him like he did within the major. These folks declined to be named with a purpose to converse freely about non-public conversations.
Kelly has massively outraised Masters, who gained a Republican major in Arizona this month. The incumbent’s marketing campaign has introduced in additional than $54 million through the 2022 election cycle, in contrast with simply over $4 million for Masters’ marketing campaign, in keeping with the newest Federal Election Fee information.
Thiel contributed $15 million through the major to a pro-Masters tremendous PAC, Saving Arizona. He donated $1.5 million to the committee as just lately as July. Masters was the chief working officer at Thiel Capital, an funding agency based by Thiel.
The calls to Masters come as even some Republican leaders appear to be questioning their Senate candidates. When requested about his predictions for the midterms, Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated “candidate high quality” has loads to do with profitable Senate elections. He added that he believes there can be an “extraordinarily shut Senate” after November’s elections.
The Senate is at present break up 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.
In an announcement to CNBC, NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline didn’t deny that Scott known as Masters to induce him to enhance his fundraising operation.
“Mark Kelly votes with Joe Biden virtually 100% of the time. Whereas he claims to be a average, he is supported reckless Washington spending and executed nothing to handle the border disaster that is raging in Arizona. The NRSC will proceed to remind Arizona voters of Mark Kelly’s radical agenda and Blake Masters’ plans to combat for Arizona households,” Hartline stated in response to questions on Scott’s contact with Masters.
Knowledge from advert tracker AdImpact exhibits that the NRSC has booked simply over $3.8 million in adverts in Arizona for September, however nothing but for October or November. The advert tracker additionally exhibits that Masters’ marketing campaign has not but booked airtime for the autumn, whereas Kelly’s workforce has reserved over $10 million in advert area from September by November.
AdImpact says it has not but seen information exhibiting the Thiel-backed Saving Arizona reserve airtime for the autumn. The final spending it noticed from the tremendous PAC was on Aug. 2, the day of the Arizona Senate Republican major. The tremendous PAC spent over $10 million through the major, together with virtually $8.5 million backing Masters, in keeping with OpenSecrets.
Masters and his marketing campaign didn’t return requests for remark. A spokesman for Saving Arizona didn’t return requests for remark. Thiel and his spokesman didn’t return requests for remark, together with about whether or not the billionaire GOP donor plans to assist Masters additional.
The candidates and outdoors teams from either side of the aisle have mixed to spend over $90 million within the common election Senate race in Arizona. But, Democratic organizations look like outspending their Republican rivals within the Grand Canyon State on adverts within the coming months.
AdImpact’s information present Democratic exterior teams are reserving almost $28 million value of advert time in Arizona over the following three months. Republican committees have thus far spent simply over $16 million on advert buys throughout the similar time span attempting to assist Masters overtake Kelly, in keeping with the info.
Arizona
Tommy Lloyd Giving Arizona Wildcats Mandatory Break During Holidays
This season has not gone as many expected for Arizona.
After coming into the year ranked No. 10 in preseason polls, the Wildcats quickly dropped out of the picture following losses to Wisconsin and Duke which were a precursor of what was to come.
Arizona went into the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament as one of the favorites, and after beating Davidson in their first-round matchup by over 30 points, it looked like they had gotten things back on track and were ready to play like the team many expected them to be.
But, alarm bells went off when they lost back-to-back games against Oklahoma and West Virginia that pushed them under .500 for the first time in the Tommy Lloyd era, and also the first time in 14 years.
Since then, Arizona has taken care of business against the lesser opponents on their schedule but failed to win against UCLA despite being in control for the majority of that contest.
The Wildcats closed out their non-conference schedule in style following that loss, bludgeoning Samford and Central Michigan to head into the holiday break feeling more positive about what they can accomplish going forward, while also having a lot to think about.
Lloyd and the players know this wasn’t the early-season stretch they wanted, but he gave his team a clear directive during this break; take time away from basketball.
“Rest, relax, love your family, hang out. That’s the homework,” the head coach said per Bruce Pascoe of The Arizona Daily Star.
That’s probably a good approach.
There’s nothing anyone can do about what has already taken place, but they can certainly get burned out if they’re not careful and lose confidence if they dwell on mistakes.
“I mean, this nonconference was rough. I think we all need a little break and a reset,” KJ Lewis said.
Lloyd is giving his players that time to reset, sending everyone home for the holidays or somewhere with either friends or family.
This time away should hopefully allow Arizona to put the non-conference schedule in the past and get ready for the daunting challenge that will come by playing Big 12 opponents until Selection Sunday.
Lloyd is also hoping this let’s his team get motivated for their return to the court.
“Get hungry. Get hungry because we know when we come back — we’re excited to be starting this Big 12 thing we’ve been talking about for about 20 months. We’re fired up,” he added.
Arizona welcomes TCU into the McKale Center on Dec. 30.
Arizona
Instant Grades: Cardinals Sabotage Playoff Hopes
The story since the bye week has largely been the same game after game. The Arizona Cardinals had two chances to beat the Seattle Seahawks and fight for first place in the division. They failed both times.
Today, they needed to beat the Carolina Panthers to stay in the hunt with the LA Rams beating the New York Jets. They failed.
The underlying issues of why this is happening is another issue for another article, but the fact is that the Arizona Cardinals are out of the playoff hunt and already looking forward to 2025.
In the meantime, what happened today and how did the various position groups perform? Let’s take a look.
Quarterback – C-
No, Kyler Murray didn’t put the entire team on his back today to force a win, but it also can not be argued that he had much help from the team around him other than James Conner. That is not an excuse though for a player in his sixth NFL season with a massive contract that comes with high performance expectations.
Still, Murray is supposed to be a special player and he did not look special today. There was a flash of the special quarterback in the fourth quarter with a 20-yard rushing touchdown, but it was too little too late.
Most concerning, late in the fourth quarter Murray made a boneheaded mistake throwing to a spot of the field without an obvious receiver and the Panthers picked off the floater and held the ball till the very end, effectively ending Arizona’s season. There has not been a game since the bye in which Murray has not made a similarly mind-bogglingly bad play.
Offensive Line – B-
There were certainly concerns about the offensive line going into this game with left tackle Paris Johnson Jr. out with a knee injury and center Hjalte Froholdt suffering from an illness.
Thankfully, Froholdt was able to play through illness and Kelvin Beachum plugged in at left tackle and played another decent game.
Overall, the offensive line played a fine game and were one of the few position groups that showed up and simply did their job althought their performance was noticeably impacted after Jonah Williams went to locker room with a knee issue in the third quarter.
Tight End – C
Hard to really grade this position since, in a major switch from previous weeks, Trey McBride did not feature heavily for the Cardinals offense.
McBride caught three of the four balls that came his way, but only for a gain of 20 yards and once again was kept out of the end zone to extend his scoreless streak.
Running Back – A
James Conner is every coaches dream power back. After Petzing belatedly figured out that the Panthers possess the worst run defense in the league, Conner truly took over the offense.
Sadly, Conner hurt his knee in the third quarter and did not reenter the game leaving Michael Carter and DeeJay Dallas as the remaining active running backs.
Without Conner’s special gifts the Cardinals offense was not the same and the Panthers took advantage of that fact.
Wide Receiver – C-
The reader would be excused for not believing the Cardinals have any wide receivers on the roster considering the lack of impact they have had in several games this season.
Petzing has faced severe backlash for not finding ways to get the ball to the No. 4 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft, Marvin Harrison, Jr, and for good reason. Still, trying to force the ball to Harrison, Jr. has not worked out and the connection between Murray and his rookie receiver is still not there.
Michael Wilson has shown up in big moments several times this year and did have a major 38-yard grab in the third quarter that gave the Cardinals some life.
Defensive Line – C-
The Cardinals defensive line failed in the two areas that were criticial to helping their team succeed this afternoon; contain Chuba Hubbard and put pressure on Bryce Young.
Naquan Jones was the only defensive lineman to actually get to Young but otherwise the young, second-year quarterback had time to do what he wanted and even saw multiple gaps open up through the defensive line and broke off some major runs that put the Cardinals in a hole early.
Hubbard really started to have his way in the second half and on several drives basically controlled the entire Panthers offense, often getting through the first line of defense untouched.
Linebacker – C+
The most that can really be said for this group is that Baron Browning flashes occasionally and did manage to get Young on the ground today for a sack.
Otherwise, the linebackers did not have a significant impact on this game after being one of the most consistent position groups all season. That being said, Kyzir White’s sack in overtime gave the Cardinals much needed hope and forced a punt, but again, too little too late.
The problems containing Panthers running back Hubbard might have started with the defensive line but the linebackers are supposed to stem the bleeding and they failed consistently in that effort in the second half.
Secondary – B-
Young did not have an inspired passing game today at all, and that is largely thanks to a sticky Cardinals secondary that did not allow him many easy downfield passes.
Rookie Max Melton had some rookie moments, but he continues to show some flashes that indicate a bright future in the league. It was second-year cornerback Garrett Williams that had some coverage issues.
Budda Baker did Budda Baker things but a big coverage whiff in the fourth quarter put the Cardinals in tough position. Fellow safety Jalen Thompson teamed up with Baker to clean up a lot of mistakes.
Sean Murphy-Bunting has struggled in big moments all season and today was not an exception. Needing a big stop early in the fourth quarter he allowed a corner of the end zone touchdown that put the Panthers up by ten and effectively ended the Cardinals season. A bad individual performance but not necessarily indicative of the entire position group’s performance.
Arizona
Arizona Cardinals vs Carolina Panthers live score updates for NFL Week 16 game today
Arizona Cardinals beat New England Patriots in season-critical win
Sports writers Theo Mackie and Bob McManaman discuss the Cardinals 30-17 win over the Patriots and the long odds on a future playoff spot
The Arizona Cardinals continue their 2024 NFL regular season schedule with an NFL Week 16 game against the Carolina Panthers today.
The Cardinals are coming off a 30-17 win against the New England Patriots at home in NFL Week 15.
The Panthers lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-14.
The Cardinals are 7-7 on the season. The Panthers are 3-11.
Follow our live updates of the game, which is being played at Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium, for the latest score, news, notes and analysis of the Week 16 NFL game Sunday.
Watch Cardinals at Panthers with FUBO (free trial)
Cardinals vs Panthers schedule: What time is NFL Week 16 game?
The game is on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 11 a.m. MST, 1 p.m. ET.
Cardinals vs Panthers TV: What channel is NFL Week 16 game on?
The game can be seen on FOX.
Cardinals vs Panthers streaming: How do I watch NFL Week 16 game on livestream?
Streaming options for the Cardinals at Panthers game include FUBO and other streaming services that carry FOX.
Cardinals vs Panthers announcers: Who is calling the NFL Week 16 game?
Chris Myers (play-by-play) and Mark Schlereth (analyst) are scheduled to be the announcers for the Cardinals-Panthers Week 16 NFL game.
Cardinals vs Panthers game odds: Who is favored in NFL Week 16?
The Cardinals are a four-point favorite over the Panthers in NFL Week 16 odds for the game, courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook.
Arizona is -225 on the moneyline, while Carolina is +180.
The over/under (point total) is set at 47 points.
Pregame reading for Cardinals at Panthers game today
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