What's the deal with Martin Quezada?

[wackadoo wabbit]

All of the other Democrats in the big ticket races have either been consistently leading or at least going back and forth with the Republican for the lead. Quezada, on the other hand, has been consistently behind.

I'm hoping that someone here can explain to me what's going on. Is there something in particular about him that caused voters for the other candidates to vote against him?

Thanks in advance for explaining this to me!

[msongs]

1. who is he nt

[wackadoo wabbit]

4. He's the Democrat running for AZ State Treasurer

He's behind by nearly twice the votes that Mark Kelly (running for Senate) and Adrian Fontes (running for Secretary of State) are ahead. He's the only Democrat in the AZ big ticket races who's consistently been behind. To me, it makes no sense. There must be some explanation that I just don't know about.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

2. Hmm.. 🤔 interesting. Inquiring minds want to know..will search a bit and see what

..I find. Perhaps he's frm republikkklan-- quein sabes, who knows ..pero, but something seems off.

[wackadoo wabbit]

5. Yes, please let me know if you find something ... n/t

[Kali]

3. I am curious too

only thing I can tell is the repuke is an incumbent and perhaps some racist stereotyping might be at play? She is Asian.

[wackadoo wabbit]

6. Yeah, the racism angle is the only thing that I could come up with, too

But wow, to be behind by nearly twice the margin that Fontes is ahead is some serious racism!

[msongs]

7. there's 3 others who might described as POC who are winning. just he is not nt

[wackadoo wabbit]

9. But why? If it's not racism, then what is it about *him* in particular?

Honestly, this has been nagging at me since Tuesday night.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. You mean, the racism where Asians, especially females, are good at math, making them a good fit for

being a Treasurer?

[wackadoo wabbit]

10. I assume, and also anti-Hispanic racism

Arizona has a history of being surprisingly racist against Hispanics.

[Kali]

11. that was all I was coming up with

although she is the incumbent. who pays attention to the treasurer position? the numbers seem to indicate a lot of Dems voted for her too. I don't know what the advertising or signage has been up in the Valley. I honestly didn't know anything about her or Quezada and just voted Dem as reflex.

[wackadoo wabbit]

12. Yeah, that was me, too

He had " (DEM)" after his name; that was good enough for me.

Since I knew nothing about him and just voted for him because of his political affiliation, I've been wondering if maybe there was something about him that I didn't know and that might explain why he's losing so badly in what otherwise is a blue sweep (in the major races; knock on wood!).

I agree; the numbers do seem to indicate that a number of Democrats didn't vote for him.

[Kali]

13. Yee may have some name recognition because she started out

trying to run for governor - https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/10/26/arizona-treasurer-race-what-to-know-about-kimberly-yee-martin-quezada/8124017001/

CoC favors her of course but here is a bit they provided on a debate - https://chamberbusinessnews.com/2022/10/18/candidates-for-state-treasurer-make-their-case-to-arizona-voters/

[wackadoo wabbit]

16. Thank you for the links!

They explain his losing better than anything else I've seen or thought of.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. My guess

And Although I live here, it's not a contest I watching with much interest. Yes, I voted for Quezada.

The Treasurer's office is not one that has anything to do with voting and reproductive rights. So independents and some Republicans that were rejected the other GOP candidates on those issues stuck with the magic (R).

[wackadoo wabbit]

17. Yeah, but from the numbers, it looks as if some Democrats might have voted against him

I wasn't watching this race at all before Tuesday night. Then, that night, when the results started coming in and were so positive for the other big ticket races, I couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't caught up in our little AZ blue wave along with the rest of our candidates.

Thanks to the links that Kali kindly provided (post #13), I'm now wondering if perhaps his stance on not divesting from companies that support Israel (which, regardless of how one might feel about it, is mandated by state law) might have had something to do with it.

That, and the fact that Yee has significantly greater name recognition (although she didn't to me).

[LogicFirst]

15. Kimberly Yee has been high profile in AZ for a long time. She was majority leader of the senate

from 2017 to 2019. Martin Quezada is unknown. Although he has been in the AZ senate for 7 years, no one has ever heard his name. Name recognition is important.

[wackadoo wabbit]

18. You're absolutely right; perhaps that's the reason why he did so poorly

Name recognition can be very important, especially in lesser races like treasurer.

I think the reason I didn't recognize that Yee had name recognition is because I wasn't familiar with her. Both candidates were equally unknown to me. I voted for party, not because I was familiar with one of the candidates, and I mistakenly assumed that that was the case with other voters.

[FlyingPiggy]

19. Did he even campaign? I didn't see signs for him. I didn't know who he was.

At the very least, put up signs.

[wackadoo wabbit]

20. Maybe he had no money for campaign materials?

I can't imagine that the treasurer's race gets a lot of donations.