Elections (don’t) have consequences

Just call a do-over … Nukes away … And this button angers Trump.

An election was held. The results were tallied and announced. There was a clear victor.

But half of the voters argued the election was illegitimate.

The losing side called for a new election.

The winners said that’s not allowed.

The losers re-voted anyway.

A new leader was crowned.

No, this isn’t some revisionist version of the 2020 election where Donald Trump got his way.

It’s a summary of the last week for the Arizona Legislature’s Latino Caucus.

In case you missed it, we told you earlier this week about the drama brewing behind the scenes in the Capitol’s Latino Caucus — a group of lawmakers of Latino descent or who represent majority-Latino districts who work together on Latino-specific issues.

The TLDR version is, essentially, moderate Democratic Rep. Lydia Hernandez won the House chairman position by one vote after a few Republican Latinos showed up to support her and a Democrat was barred from voting.

But when members of the caucus realized that Democratic Rep. Quantá Crews hadn’t been allowed to vote, they called for a do-over of the election. Crews is Black but represents a majority Latino district and is therefore eligible to be in the caucus and vote for its leaders under the caucus’ bylaws.

The Latino Caucus had always been a pretty Democratic club, and Republican Latinos like TJ Shope, who had backed Hernandez for chair, argued that Democrats were simply unhappy with the results. Shope accused them of election denialism and disenfranchising him, since he and others couldn’t show up for Thursday’s do-over election.

And that’s where we left things in Wednesday’s edition…

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On Thursday, the Latino Caucus held its do-over election.

Hernandez lost her position. Progressive Democratic Rep. Mariana Sandoval was elected as the House’s co-chair of the caucus.

The vote was unanimous. There wasn’t a single dissenting Democrat or any Republicans in the room.

In fact, as of Thursday, the Latino Caucus no longer includes any Republicans at all.

That’s because they never filled out the form to register as members of the caucus as required by caucus bylaws, Latino Caucus’ Senate co-chair Catherine Miranda told us. Actually, nobody had until yesterday.

Those same bylaws say Crews should have been allowed to vote, and the caucus must stick to them, she said.

“It's not about being fair, or this is not fair. It's about recognizing that a bylaw that's currently in place was violated,” Miranda told us after the re-vote. “And the bylaw that was violated was that we did disenfranchise a member. We did not allow her to vote in the first reorganization meeting, and that's all that this re-vote is about, period.”

Anyone who fits the qualifications is still welcome to join, but they won’t be an official member unless they fill out the form.

Hernandez didn’t bother showing up for the vote. She sent out an email saying there would be no re-vote, but Miranda, the Senate co-chair, fired off her own email saying the re-vote was still on.

Hernandez told us she felt bullied by members of her caucus because she’s not a “progressive” and Republicans had supported her for the position. She wants to work more closely with Republicans — if only to hear their side and get a chance to argue hers, she said.

“It’s an ugly scheme. If you don’t align with the way (they) see it, then some people are just vindictive. You see it all over,” she said. “At the end of the day, guys, we're all Latinos, let's work together. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to disagree with you. It just means that perhaps, because I don't know it all, I might learn something different.”

Shope laughed it off, asking if they would want to check his ID before they allowed him to vote or show papers to prove he’s Latino.

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And yes, this is a relatively low-stakes fight.

The Latino Caucus doesn’t hold a lot of power at the Legislature — like any “caucus,” they mostly just strategize on messaging and organize lunches to hear from guest speakers.

But the approach that Arizona’s Latino leaders take matters.

As Trump threatens to do away with bedrock constitutional protections like the idea of birthright citizenship, and has started sending undocumented criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay, he’s also winning over more Latinos, raising questions about what it means to fight for Latino interests.

Should Arizona’s Latino leaders organize as a collaborative bipartisan group that welcomes Republicans and organizes around areas of agreement, like economic issues?

Or are they more effective as a group of mostly progressive Democrats using their power to oppose threats to their communities, like the Republicans’ immigration agenda?

Is there a way for the Latino Caucus to be both things?

Given the two wildly different election results in the last month, it doesn’t seem lawmakers have figured it out yet.

The state Capitol is home to a lot of caucuses — or groups of lawmakers who have banded together based on shared identities and ideologies.

Here’s a sampling of some of the others.

Freedom Caucus: Led by Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman and Rep. Joseph Chaplik, this subset of MAGA Republicans have flexed their power to obstruct in recent years. It’s never exactly clear who all is or isn’t in the Freedom Caucus, since they’re semi-secretive and even their website notes “some members are anonymous.”

Black Caucus: Democrat Sen. Catherine Miranda founded this caucus in 2023 amid a lack of Black representation in the Legislature. Democrat Rep. Quantá Crews, the only Black woman in the Legislature, chairs the group.

Indigenous Peoples Caucus: Chair Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales and Vice Chair Rep. Brian Garcia, both Democrats, lead the caucus. They’re both members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and comprise two of the five current Indigenous state lawmakers.

LGBTQIA Caucus: New lawmakers and Democratic Reps. Anna Abeytia and Garcia co-chair this group, which has already had a lot of work to do this session pushing back on anti-transgender bills.

Going nuclear: Arizona’s three biggest utility companies announced they’d like to build another nuclear power plant, 12News’ William Pitts reports. They’re not sure whether to build another large plant, like the Palo Verde Generating Station, or go for smaller, pre-made reactors that could replace existing plants, like the coal-burning facilities that are on their way out. Either way, the process would take at least a decade.

He wouldn’t miss them: As the Trump administration tries to weaken the U.S. Department of Education, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says he doesn’t think the federal agency is really needed, AZFamily’s Steven Sarabia reports. School advocates, on the other hand, worry about what would happen to federal education grants in Arizona if federal officials didn’t oversee how they’re used, such as ending up going to private school vouchers. The Republic’s Alexandra Hardle breaks down what the federal agency does for Arizona schools, and why Trump can’t just wave a wand and dismantle it — only Congress can do that.

“They don’t really do anything for us,” Horne said. “They monitor us. They come out, they look at things, they have different requirements. I don’t think we would miss them if they were gone. We could have more money for teacher salaries if we’re not wasting money on the federal bureaucracy.”

Also on the chopping block: Another agency under threat is the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs introduced the Nullify OSHA Act to abolish the agency, the Republic’s Rey Covarrubias Jr. reports. Biggs, who also is running for governor, said during a hearing Wednesday that states should be the ones regulating workplace safety.

The other side of the coin: Much of the press about the deal between President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum focused on immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., but a third part of the deal is also key: stopping high-powered firearms being smuggled into Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“If you want to stop the trafficking of fentanyl to the U.S., if you want to stop the violence that’s leading to a lot of migration across the border, you’re going to need to stop the flow of guns to Mexico because that’s what’s leading to all these problems,” said Jonathan Lowy, an attorney representing the Mexican government in a lawsuit filed against firearms manufacturers.

Church and state: A bill to allow chaplains in public schools is moving through the Legislature, the Republic’s Madeleine Parrish reports. Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers introduced the bill, which would open the door for volunteer chaplains to provide “support, services or programs” to students. The Senate Education Committee approved the bill along party lines on Wednesday.

This is us passing the digital collection plate.

Tough time to be trans: Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen was at the White House this week to celebrate Trump signing an executive order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, Arizona Public Media’s Christopher Conover reports. Arizona is one of 10 states where legislatures are targeting transgender people this year, the Washington Post reports.

Our three new weekly publications dedicated to major Arizona policy topics — artificial intelligence, education and water — covered a lot of ground this week.

If you’re interested in why politicians are obsessed with crypto, how one school district bailed another out of a financial crisis and what all the hubbub over the Rural Groundwater Management Act is about, check out this week’s coverage throughout the Agendaverse.

Earlier this week, we laughed at some fake news about government waste.

Today, it’s actual government spending. But it’s not waste!

Online sleuths started digging into how much the federal government spends on Politico Pro subscriptions. It’s somewhere around $8 million. Which is a lot, though Politico Pro delivers some of the best insider knowledge in DC.

Now, DOGE enthusiasts want to defund all the media by no longer paying for the news.

"The eye of Sauron is on more than just Politico," one White House adviser told Axios. "It's all the media."

Anyway, please support the Eye of Sauron and pay for local news.