Choice for McCain’s successor lays bare struggle within GOP

Bloomberg

The selection of John McCain’s replacement in the Senate sets up a potentially defining struggle between competing factions within the Republican party—the old guard represented by the late Arizona senator, and the iconoclastic wing led by President Donald Trump.
The state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, won’t make an announcement about the seat until McCain is laid to rest next Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Under Arizona law, McCain’s successor must be a member of his party.
Although McCain’s successor will be in office through 2020, the choice could send ripple effects through this November’s election: Ducey will be on the ballot and could find himself judged sharply within his own party on his pick. Meanwhile, the state’s other Senate seat will be settled in what independent analysts say will be a close contest, and the choice could color the outcome.
The selection will spill over into 2020, with both parties competing to hold McCain’s former seat for a full term and put Arizona—which Trump won by three percentage points in 2016—into their column in the presidential race.

Caretaker or Candidate
While McCain battled the brain cancer that was diagnosed last year, Ducey and other Republicans have steered clear of any talk about replacing him. Among the choices the governor will now have to weigh is whether to name a caretaker or someone who will be a candidate to keep the seat two years from now.
Among the names mentioned to hold the seat temporarily are McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, and former Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl. “Governor Ducey has an awesome responsibility there,” Kyl said on Fox News when asked what he wants to see happen with the seat. Whoever Ducey names should “continue representation for all the people of the United States on the most critical international issues. John had the experience to do that and he had the instincts, in my view, to make the right kinds of decisions, and I hope whoever the governor appoints can work in that vein.”
Cindy McCain had previously given the governor some indication of interest in holding the seat in a caretaker role had he died before the end of May—but it isn’t clear if that’s still the case, said Jennifer Duffy, Senate editor of the independent Cook Political Report.