Candidate cards: Legislative District 13

The battle for Chandler … We can never have enough laws … And Wonder Woman tries to save us.

Democrat-aligned groups are spending big money to flip the East Valley’s Legislative District 13, a former Republican stronghold that has been trending in Democrats’ favor over the last decade.

Democrats have long acted cautiously in this purple district, nominating only one candidate for the state House in an attempt to overcome the district’s Republican advantage. But this year, they’re playing for keeps, nominating two candidates for the two House seats — a move that could either boost their chances of taking the state House or cost them a seat in the district which covers parts of Chandler and Gilbert.

Republicans have a strong slate in the House race, having pushed aside the MAGA warriors in their party to nominate a business-centric team of Rep. Julie Willoughby and former lawmaker Jeff Weninger. Willoughby was appointed to replace former Rep. Liz Harris last year after she was expelled for inviting testimony of unfounded criminal allegations against lawmakers.

Democrats, meanwhile, nominated two newcomers to challenge the Republicans in the House race, as Democratic Rep. Jennifer Pawlik isn’t seeking reelection. Instead, Nicholas Gonzales, a community planner, and Brandy Reese, a forensic scientist, are running. Reese lost last year’s general election for a House seat in LD14.

And in the Senate race, Democrat Sharon Winters is challenging 10-year Republican legislator J.D. Mesnard.

Democratic groups are clearly fired up about the chance to flip the district. Outside spending group Chispa spent nearly $400,000 boosting Democrats in the district in the last few weeks, for example.

And while Republican outside groups have yet to make major investments in the races here, LD13 is one of their few realistic pickup opportunities, so we expect to see major investments from conservative groups in the coming weeks.

See full-size images of all the cards here.

One less law: This year’s “general effective date” — the date on which most laws go into effect — was Saturday, and the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl has a round-up of some new laws you should know, including about backyard chickens, selling tamales and the state’s official “planet” that is not a planet. Among those laws that kicked in Saturday is the repeal of the territorial-era abortion ban, the Associated Press reports. That near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864 never actually went back into effect following the fall of Roe v. Wade, but it caused a lot of chaos for abortion providers during that brief window when it looked like it would go into effect.

Important, more important: The race between Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel offers a case study about priorities for Mexican-American voters, Mexican journalist León Krauze writes in the Washington Post’s opinion pages. While traversing the southern Arizona district, Krauze found that reproductive rights are important to young Latina voters, but religion complicates the issue for many. And Ciscomani’s (and Donald Trump’s) calls for securing the border weigh heavily for a certain Latino demographic.

“Reproductive freedom is clearly an important issue for voters in the 6th District, but it is far from the only one,” Krauze writes.

He’s no (Latter Day) saint: Mormons organized a campaign stop for Ruben Gallego in Gilbert last week, highlighting the cracks in the church’s long-term alliance with the Republican Party, a divide that has been widening since Donald Trump came onto the scene, per the New York Times (with help from our own Nicole Ludden, who is stringing for the Times on the side this election season). Mormon women, especially, say they have had enough of Trump’s brand of politics, and are leaning toward Harris.

“My religion helps to guide my moral compass,” Hillary Webster, a preschool teacher who wrote in her husband’s name for president in 2016, supported Biden in 2020, and plans to vote for Kamala Harris this year, told Ludden.

Use it or lose it: Cities across the nation have to spend the remainder of their American Rescue Plan Act money by the end of this year, the Associated Press reports, and many seem nowhere near close to spending it all yet. In Gilbert, for example, the city is attempting to finalize a contract to spend its $24 million allocation on a $43 million facility for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. The site won’t break ground this year, but inking the contract now allows the city to report the funds as spent.

Local newsletters were, regrettably, not eligible for ARPA funds. But we know we can count on you to support local journalism, even if Uncle Sam won’t.

Winners don’t need runoffs: A majority of the seats on the Phoenix City Council are up for grabs this year, Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda notes. Phoenix follows a weird election calendar where the November election is actually a primary election, and candidates go to a runoff in the spring if necessary. But only west Phoenix’s District 7 race has more than two candidates anyway, so that’s the only one that could go to a runoff this year.

Don’t call it a delay: Election officials in battleground states with active early voting programs are once again attempting to warn the public that we probably won’t know who the next president is on Tuesday, November 5th, the New York Times notes. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is keeping his cool about the whole thing though.

“This gaslighting that some people are doing about the way we count — ‘Oh, it takes forever’ — it’s nonsense, that’s absolute nonsense,” Fontes told the Times. “We’ve always had 10 to 13 days till we saw some official results, and we’re still doing it that way.”

Risky bets: The crypto industry is suddenly one of the biggest spenders in Arizona’s congressional races, the Republic’s Laura Gersony reports. The industry now accounts for one out of every six outside dollars spent in Arizona’s federal races, and its spending rivals that of groups like the League of Conservation Voters. Meanwhile, political betting markets were briefly legit late last week as a federal district court allowed a company to facilitate regulated trades. An appeals court quickly halted the trades for now but the district court ruling “has essentially opened the door for legal gambling on politics,” the New York Times writes.

Political betting site PredictIt takes a dim view of Kari Lake’s chances.

A lot going on here: Chandler city councilwoman Jane Poston is threatening to sue the city for telling reporters that the FBI is investigating her for corruption, the Republic’s Sam Kmack reports. The FBI won’t confirm whether it is, in fact, investigating her. But former Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan claims they are. Poston says he made that up.

Actress Lynda Carter, AKA Wonder Woman, refuses to endorse her sister, Pamela Carter, in her race for the state House in Arizona’s competitive Legislative District 4.

“On her website, Pam claims to have her ‘family’s full support,'” Lynda Carter said in a statement to Mother Jones. “I have known Pam my entire life, which is why I sadly cannot endorse her for this or any public office.”

The Mother Jones piece goes down the rabbit hole on candidate Carter’s background, including her dubious education records, multiple bankruptcies and weirdly religious beauty product companies. It’s worth a read.