Republican Rep. Matt Gress represents one of the state’s most competitive legislative districts — and in a year when Democrats are hoping political headwinds will favor them, he’s likely facing his most serious challenge yet.
Perhaps that’s why Gress, via a new ad, is taking credit for a Democrat’s bill.
In an impressively produced, 30-second spot called “Gretchen’s Story” — which was uploaded to YouTube just two weeks ago but has already been viewed more than 31,000 times — a mom named Gretchen recounts a heartfelt story of how Gress helped children with special needs, like her daughter, Ava.
“When Ava was sexually abused at school, Matt passed legislation to increase background checks,” Gretchen says in the ad.
But the word “passed” is doing a lot of lifting.
The bill that created “Ava’s Law” — 2025’s Senate Bill 1106 — was actually sponsored by Democratic Sen. Catherine Miranda.
Gress was a co-sponsor — but so were 24 other lawmakers from both parties, more than a quarter of the Legislature.
And Gress wasn’t on the House Judiciary Committee that approved the bill before it went on to pass by a 58-0 vote in the House and a 27-0 vote in the Senate.
Needless to say, the actual sponsor of that law was not pleased to see Gress taking credit for her work.
Sooooo… what does it mean that Gress “passed” Ava’s Law?
He told us he was “proud to co-sponsor and vote for” Ava’s Law and offered the following explanation for the language:
“My role was helping advance it in the House, including working with Gretchen, House Judiciary Chairman Quang Nguyen (I highlighted the bill and encouraged him to place it on his agenda) and legislative leadership (Leader (Michael) Carbone and Speaker (Steve) Montenegro), and helping build support within the House Republican caucus,” Gress said.
We’ll leave it up to you whether that passes the smell test.
And, notably, what the ad doesn’t mention is that Gretchen is prominent Capitol lobbyist Gretchen Jacobs. She also declined to talk about the ad.
“Gretchen Jacobs has been named one of the Arizona’s most effective lobbyists by her peers,” her website states. “She has been named one of the ‘Legislative Leaders of the Year’ by the Arizona Capitol Times.”
A screenshot from the website of Jacobs’ firm, Arizona Governmental Affairs
It’s true that Jacobs is a mom and made a Herculean effort to get the bill passed after her daughter was sexually abused at Chaparral High School, as we wrote in our coverage of it at the beginning of the 2025 legislative session.
It was a good bill that will help other families who don’t have the resources to fight for justice in the courts as she did.
But it’s also true that Jacobs has been a prolific donor to Republican lawmakers’ campaigns. And that’s not a knock on Jacobs — it’s just something the Gress ad doesn’t portray.
According to the Arizona Secretary of State’s campaign finance records, Jacobs made 98 contributions to lawmakers, candidates and PACs since 2021 — and while the recipients include both Republicans and Democrats, the vast majority are GOP politicians.
Her activity this year can be observed as a case study. She made 13 donations worth about $12,500 — about $11,250 to Republicans — to lawmakers like Sens. John Kavanagh, David Farnsworth, Jake Hoffman and Janae Shamp, as well as Reps. David Livingston, Michael Carbone, Laurin Hendrix and Chris Lopez.
Since 2021, Jacobs has only made one donation to Gress: $520 in 2024.
But Jacobs also donated $20,000 to the GOP’s Senate Victory Fund and House Victory Fund PACs in 2024, the latter of which focused on helping reelect vulnerable Republicans, like Gress, in the House.
That’s not an abnormal amount for a lobbyist to donate to get on politicians’ good side.
But the whole situation doesn’t help Gress’ case when it comes to criticism about whom he meets with and serves.
Democrats have also taken aim at Gress, the former budget director for former GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, for making a living as a registered lobbyist in other states, which we reported in April.
In his side hustle as a lobbyist, he lobbied for anti-union bills similar to ones that he has promoted or voted on in the Legislature.
In fairness, part of the ad is indisputably accurate.
As Jacobs notes, Gress “sponsored legislation to fast-track services for children with special needs and better trained school safety officers” in the form of 2026’s HB2621 and 2025’s HB2074, both of which were signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
The snazzy ad — which looks more like something produced for someone seeking a seat in Congress than at the Legislature — reflects the fact that Gress has quite a bit of funding in his war chest.
As of his campaign’s last filing, which covered a period ending on July 21, he had about $258,000 in cash on hand for his reelection in Legislative District 4, which covers the Phoenix-Scottsdale border and the Biltmore neighborhood and runs between State Route 51 and the 101 Freeway in Scottsdale. It is one of Arizona’s most politically competitive districts.
Gress and his seatmate, Republican Rep. Pamela Carter, are facing two formidable challengers in Democrats Karen Gresham and Tammy Caputi for the district’s two House seats.
And the Democrats’ own fundraising numbers have been competitive. On the same July 21 date, Gresham had $145,000 and Caputi had more than $171,000 in cash on hand.
Meanwhile, Carter is lagging. She has only $27,000 left in the bank as her campaign heads into the final stretch.
While the Republicans held both seats last cycle, an expected shift in political tailwinds — especially among independent voters — is putting more pressure on them.
The latest voter registration numbers show that Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by a 3-2 ratio (66,000 to 44,000). But independents account for roughly a third of all voters in the area.
And in their quest to unseat Gress, Democrats have also been bending the truth in their political messaging.
A mailer that claims Gress “voted to throw our teachers in jail for teaching the classics” references 2025’s vague SB1099 — which was sponsored by Hoffman and would have banned schools from “exposing minors to sexually explicit materials.”
But since there was never a vote on it in either chamber or in a committee he served on, Gress didn’t have the chance to vote on it.
Nor did Gress get to vote on two similar Hoffman bills — SB1435 and SB1567 — that ran this year, since neither made it to the House floor for a vote.
And it’s not just the candidates getting desperate in their messaging.
The GOP’s House Victory Fund released a poorly doctored photo in an attempt to make it look like Gresham and Caputi were campaigning to “cut police funding.”
It seems everyone is trying to be sneaky in this tight race — and the result is everyone is looking rather sloppy.
Carpetbagging 101: Carrying on a strong tradition of Arizona politicians, Peoria Council member Jennifer Crawford refuses to say where she actually lives, saying she fears for her safety if her constituents knew. The question came up after she sold her home in the Acacia District, where she is required to live per the city charter, the Republic’s Elena Santa Cruz reports. Crawford has repeatedly refused to answer questions from constituents and from Santa Cruz, who visited another house Crawford owns in another district and found the council member’s husband, who threatened to call the police.
“What is truly mind-boggling to me is not one person has come to me and simply asked about my residency. Not one. Instead, assumptions and rumors have been circulated publicly,” Crawford claimed at a recent council meeting.
Water, hold the ICE: The private immigration detention facility in Eloy has water that “smells bad,” leaves stains and contains worms, according to an Iranian doctor detained there who spoke with the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram. Detainees can buy water for $2 per six-ounce bottle. Also, air conditioning is broken on two of the cell blocks, per Democratic U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who calls the situation an “outrage” and a “moral failure.”
Still waiting on our White House ban: President Donald Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House on Friday, and hinted that more “fake news” organizations like the New York Times and Washington Post could also be banned. The move is “a threat to media everywhere, including local media,” the Republic’s Bill Goodykoontz writes, and it’s almost certainly unconstitutional. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission officials signed onto an amicus brief supporting ABC’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s attempt to put the network’s broadcast license up for review, per Protect Democracy.
“Licensing power was never intended to serve as a political weapon against a network for coverage the administration dislikes,” former Republican FCC chairman Al Sikes said.
A few rare wins: The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that public agencies can be held liable if they destroy public records to avoid releasing them, and said that trial court judges don’t have to believe public agencies when they say records are not public, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. The ruling came out of a case by former University of Arizona professor Matthew Abraham, who was rejected for jobs and suspects the university is violating a provision of the state Constitution that bars hiring based on race. Meanwhile, 12News has $100,000 coming its way after suing the Department of Education for school voucher records and winning. Now the news station is getting its attorney fees back, the Beam’s Katie Wilcox reports.
Rest in peace: Condolences poured in over the weekend for former Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 84. Kyl, who was a congressman for four terms and spent three terms in the Senate (plus a partial term to fill in after John McCain’s death), was widely remembered as a “workhorse” and a warrior for Arizona’s water.
“The U.S. Senate isn’t what it used to be, and one reason is that there are fewer Members like Jon Kyl,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote.
We’ve loled several times at Gov. Katie Hobbs using her dog, Harley, to try to drum up donations.
He has all the best dog puns, like that Hobbs is “working her tail off” for Arizona and that you should “lend a paw” to help her get through the “ruff fundraising” months.
Now, Hobbs’ would-be lieutenant governor and his furry babies are getting in on the spam.
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