Damage control expert's advice for Kari Lake: Find a 'miracle worker' to help you

The Kari Lake Rehabilitation Tour is not going so well (just ask Meghan McCain), so I decided to consult with a few people about what Lake can do to court moderate Arizona voters.

David Leibowitz is an expert in crisis communications. When a company or a team or a high-profile person — a mayor, a governor, an NBA owner — steps in deep do-do, Leibowitz is often their first call for damage control.

I asked him what advice he would give Kari Lake if she called him for help in her ongoing McCain debacle.

“You should find somebody, a witch doctor, a miracle worker or somebody else,” he replied.

Can she change? It's not looking good

Leibowitz said Lake has violated every one of the three basic rules you must follow to rehabilitate your image.

Leibo Rule No. 1: “When stuff hits the fan you have to turn off the fan. It’s pretty simple. That means that operationally, when you’ve made a mistake that is tragic or horrible or socially unacceptable, the first thing you have to do is stop making that mistake.”

Going onto KTAR to insist that you were just joking two years ago when you called the late Sen. John McCain a loser and told his supporters to “get the hell out” of a campaign event would constitute cranking up the hot air.

Kari Lake refuses to apologize

Leibo Rule No. 2: “You have to take responsibility for what you did, and you have to offer a sincere apology. You can’t fake it. You have to really mean it.”

Lake never has apologized, unless you consider taking to social media to ask fellow “mama bear” Meghan McCain out for a beer an apology. McCain certainly didn’t.

“As mothers, (both with two kiddos) I know we both agree that our children’s future is too important to let it slip away over past grudges or hurt feelings,” Lake wrote in a public plea to the justifiably offended daughter of the late senator. “That’s why I’m working hard to unite Republicans, Independents, Democrats — ALL Americans … .

“I value you. I value your family and I value the passion you have for our state. I’d love nothing more than to buy you a beer, a coffee or lunch and pick your brain about how we can work together to strengthen our state.”

McCain’s response: “NO PEACE, B----!”

Rather than a performance post, a phone call and a sincere apology might have been the better move.

Of course, you have to be willing to admit that you were wrong, and from what I’ve seen, that is not Lake’s strong suit.

She keeps talking about a stolen election

Leibo Rule No. 3: “Once you’ve stopped making the mistake and taken responsibility, the final thing is you need to take action in a new way and then communicate what you are doing to the people who are paying attention.”

On Monday, Lake said she no longer wants to talk about stolen elections because “I don’t want sit and look backwards.”

On Wednesday, she sent a fundraising appeal in which she talked about the stolen election.

Say what? Key GOP group calls Lake a 'uniter'

“After my election last year, so many people wanted me to give up," she wrote. “Just concede. Don’t take it to the courts. Let them win. You have no idea how many people, especially those ‘back east’ told me this. Well, giving up isn’t in my DNA … .”

One expert says Lake shouldn't change course

Not everybody agrees that Lake is in need of serious makeover if she wants to win.

Longtime Republican strategist Nathan Spoul says Lake should just keep doing what she’s doing.

“Once people learn how liberal and far left Ruben Gallego is, her numbers are going to improve," he told me.

“Now is not the time to be making a radical change. Now is the time to present herself as a conservative wife and mother who wants to change America. There’s a lot of concern in middle America about the direction this country is taking. And that concern is going to be on the ballot.”

So is Lake, and a whopping 49% of Arizona voters just don’t like her, according to the latest poll by Noble Predictive Insights. On the bright side, that’s improved from the 51% who didn’t like her last July.

The poll showed just 10% of the state’s voters have yet to form an opinion about her.

Lake convinced people that she is MAGA

Leibowitz says it requires discipline and authenticity to rehabilitate a bad image. But it has to start with sincerely coming to the painful conclusion that you did something wrong.

That, ultimately, may be Lake’s undoing.

“I think she’s done a tremendously effective job at convincing people, ‘This is who I am,’ ” Leibowitz said. “The problem is, she’s convinced 50% of those people that she is the standard bearer for MAGA in Arizona.

“Unfortunately, that is not the brand that is going to resonate with independents or Democrats.”

Or a fair number of moderate Republicans — the ones who helped make Democrat Katie Hobbs governor.

McCain supporter doesn't buy Lake's pivot

Late last year, Lake started privately reaching out to some of those moderate Republicans she offended during her scorched-earth run for governor.

Among them was Kathy Petsas, a lifelong Republican, former chair of her legislative district and a staunch McCain supporter.

Petsas, who met with Lake in November, said Lake certainly didn’t apologize and, in fact, didn’t seem to think she’d done anything wrong in attacking a dead man who is revered by many in Arizona and across the nation.

This week’s I-was-just-joking maneuver reinforced Petsas’ belief that Lake’s idea of unifying the party is not moving toward the center but in telling everybody else to move to the far right, where she lives.

“I’ve read all the tweets,” Petsas said, referring to the McCain dustup. “And I would say the only people who are buying that Kari is pivoting are the same people who bought and paid for her claims of election fraud.”

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerlyTwitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake can't moderate her image, damage control expert says