Campaigning from the Capitol

Doing the job is just theater for getting the job.

Arizona’s lawmakers are up for a performance review, and every floor speech they give, bill they introduce and vote they cast for or against legislation is inherently marked by the upcoming election. 

Voters will decide if most of the state’s lawmakers can serve another term as soon as the July 30 primary election. Lawmakers typically try to wrap up at the Capitol quickly during an election year, so they can hit the campaign trail, press palms with constituents and earn votes. 

Plus, lawmakers can’t collect campaign contributions from lobbyists while the Legislature is in session, and they have to fill those campaign coffers for the battles ahead. 

Coming off of a record-length, record-veto session last year and a budget shortfall that has yet to be worked out this year, an early sine die doesn’t seem likely. Budget negotiations could easily drag on until the end of June — days before early ballots will start landing in mailboxes for the primary. 

That means this year, more than ever, the campaign trail is running straight through the Capitol.

Our art intern, ChatGPT, took the idea of lawmakers running for reelection quite literally.

You can see it in the long, impassioned speeches to nobody in particular except the cameras. Or in the press conferences for “statement bills” that have no chance of getting a hearing, or no chance of being signed into law. Or in the subtle but sharp barbs lawmakers throw at their electoral opponents. 

But there’s nothing inherently wrong with campaigning from the Capitol. 

Of course, there are laws against using public resources to benefit your political campaign¹ — but that’s not what we’re talking about here. When we say “campaigning from the Capitol,” we mean it in the mostly innocent sense — lawmakers are using the public platform to do what they think voters want them to do and making sure they know it. 

The elections that mark the second year of lawmakers’ two-year terms bring a sense of heightened urgency to the Capitol.

The second year, when lawmakers are gearing up for reelection campaigns, “has a certain fog of war about it,” according to former Arizona state legislator and current lobbyist Stan Barnes. 

“There is a heightened sense of everything done is eligible to be used against the member, or to promote the member who's casting the vote or making the speech,” Barnes said. “The second session feels like everything we do here is going to be under a microscope.” 

The stakes are particularly high given Democrats’ potential to take over Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House and Senate next year, and the likelihood this legislative session will bleed into the election season. 

But do voters even notice those reasoned arguments and impassioned floor speeches that lawmakers work so hard on? Could the average citizen name a single bill their lawmaker passed? Could they even name their lawmaker?

According to Democratic Sen. Christine Marsh, who’s seeking reelection in Republican-leaning Legislative District 4, constituents never ask her about her success rate at the Legislature. Instead, she hopes voters’ perception is shaped by the “good policy” in her bills that don’t get a hearing in Republican-led committees. 

Those who vote for Marsh this year probably won’t remember some of her bills trying to expand transparency for the school voucher program that didn’t get a hearing, but they might remember that she’s a high school teacher and staunch advocate for education funding. 

That is, if they’ve even heard of her at all.

It used to be that you make an educated guess about a lawmaker’s chance of success on the campaign trail based on their performance at the Capitol, said Garrick Taylor, a political consultant. But these days, “everything has been so overwhelmed by national politics that I'm growing increasingly dubious.” 

Each side’s brand is determined by forces outside the control of Arizona legislators, and voters often make their choices not on the performance of their lawmaker, but on the letter after their names. 

But there are ways for even state lawmakers, stuffed away in obscurity near the bottom of the ballot, to break through the noise. Aligning with a caucus or faction of their party can allow lawmakers to send a signal to primary voters about their priorities, beliefs and approach. 

For example, members of the legislature’s Freedom Caucus have sponsored bills to make Arizona’s votes go to the GOP nominee for president in 2024 and ban publicly funded diversity, equity and inclusion training, epitomizing the far-right, MAGA brand that got them elected. 

Rep. Rachel Jones’ campaign website has a tab dedicated to bills she sponsored that make her “a fighter for the people” not “out-of-state interests.” 

By promoting issues like “election transparency,” lawmakers can attempt to attach themselves to the coattails of their party’s most popular member in a crowded election year where the presidential and U.S. Senate races overshadow the campaigns of state lawmakers.

And riding the coattails of more famous politicians is a bipartisan tactic. 

Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton and Sen. Priya Sundareshan held a press conference with Gov. Katie Hobbs yesterday calling on the Legislature to pass the Arizona Right to Contraception Act to make the right to obtain birth control products state law. 

Neither the House nor Senate version of the bill has received a committee hearing, but the topic is a crucial issue for Democratic voters. And holding a press conference with the governor about them is a good way to ensure voters know where their lawmakers stand. 

But it’s rare to see bills like SB1070, or what lobbyist Kathy Senseman calls “lighting-in-a-bottle bills,” that draw enough media attention and consequences to drive elections. 

“Jan Brewer … she kind of seemed like a lame duck, and then 1070 happens. And it was a national-level bill that I think many would argue propelled her into a second term, essentially, to be governor,” Senseman said. 

Instead, the lawmakers often focus on broad policy areas that are most important to their specific constituencies. 

Republican Rep. Matt Gress, who represents LD4 in Paradise Valley and north Phoenix, has introduced legislation like HB2782 to increase penalties for using drugs in homeless service zones while adding money to the Housing Trust fund. Phoenix’s constituents care about solutions to homelessness, and the half carceral, half aid-giving approach seems to be tailored to Gress’ competitive, though right-leaning, district. 

Matt Gress’ campaign video mentions a busload of his accomplishments.

Most Arizonans don’t pay attention to the arduous comings and goings of bills at the Capitol. It takes a lot of money to let voters know what a lawmaker has done for them, or what an opponent hasn’t done. 

It also takes tact to get voters' attention. 

Gress has launched a campaign ad with cinematic views of Arizona cut with quick inserts about him hosting a forum to discuss homelessness and media clips of his push to raise teacher wages. At the end, he joins his supporters on a bus brandishing the words “Gress express.” 

Those on the bus holding Gress’ campaign signs may not be watching his every move at the Capitol, but they know enough about what he’s doing to be on board.

1. We’re looking at you, Tom Horne, David Gowan and the like.