Live to fight another day

Branscomb survives — for now … A new anti-mask mandate … And the Parkinggate tapes.

Morning, readers!

Tucson Agenda superstar reporter Joe Ferguson spent Saturday with a crowd of rowdy Democrats as they attempted to take out — or defend — the leader of their party. (So we made Joe pull double duty for the Arizona Agenda, too.)

Yes, Arizona Democratic Party Chair Robert Branscomb is still in the hot seat — for now.

He survived this weekend’s attempts to dethrone him. But something tells us, there’s more trouble on the horizon.

Anyway, if you like today’s top, sign up for the Tucson Agenda, where you can catch Joe’s reporting on everything political in Southern Arizona.

A glitchy phone-based voting system, fiery audience outbursts, and drawn-out debates set the tone for a chaotic Arizona State Democratic Party Committee meeting in Tucson on Saturday.

But the real drama? It never made it to the floor.

Despite growing speculation about Arizona Democratic state party Chairman Robert Branscomb’s future, Democratic leaders dodged the issue entirely. His ouster wasn’t technically on the agenda for Saturday's meeting of Democratic state committeemen, but many expected a surprise showdown during the new business section.

Instead, party officials sped through the final items, racing against a hard 6 p.m. deadline to clear out of the University of Arizona auditorium before another group that had rented the space arrived.

Steven Jackson, chairman of the Legislative District 8 Democrats, filed a petition to hold a state party committee meeting later this month to discuss removing Branscomb as chair. He asked Branscomb if he planned to oppose the petition.

Branscomb pivoted, saying the secretary — who was elected earlier in the day after the previous secretary resigned — would still need to verify Jackson’s petition signatures before the meeting could be scheduled. Most Democratic insiders expect a formal vote on Branscomb’s future by the end of the month.

But the delay was met with anger from some of the roughly 540 Democrats in the room, who noted that the party continues to operate without an approved annual budget. They argued the lack of a secretary should not have been a bureaucratic hurdle delaying a vote on Branscomb’s future.

The secretary for the Arizona Democratic Party resigned on April 16, blaming Branscomb and party executives for a lack of strategic planning, a lack of a budget, and the failure to hire new staffers for key roles in the organization.

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Branscomb’s supporters made signs ahead of the State Party Committee Meeting on Saturday as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” plays in the background.

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Her resignation roughly coincides with a very public letter penned by Branscomb accusing both of Arizona’s U.S. senators and various other party leaders of bullying, intimidating, and threatening him in an attempt to sabotage his leadership.

That letter sparked a public war between Branscomb and all of Arizona’s top elected Democrats — including Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Attorney General Kris Mayes — all of whom responded in a joint letter accusing Branscomb of lying.

Demanding Branscomb's resignation is one of the few things that Arizona's notoriously bickering faction of Democratic leaders agree on.

Branscomb has made it clear he would not resign.

And he and some of his supporters have argued that the only reason he's facing so much blowback for the letter and scrutiny of his job so far is because he's the first Black leader the Arizona Democratic Party has ever had.

Kaycee Campbell, the vice president of the Maricopa County Young Democrats, reached out to Democrats after hearing whispers of pushing out Branscomb. In the end, she found consensus that the push was not about personalities, but racism.

“I've talked to dozens and dozens of people. I wish I could give you a number. But all of them said, yes, it is racism. There is racism in politics on both sides,” she said,

But the political fights are only one front in the growing conflict.

Democrats are clearly concerned about the party’s finances, which took a hit when the annual Hall of Fame dinner was abruptly canceled earlier this year.

Arizona Democratic state party Chairman Robert Branscomb speaks at the state committee meeting in Tucson.

Branscomb — who oversees the entire party, including its budget — was repeatedly criticized by the crowd for failing to adopt a budget. His first proposed budget was rejected by the state committee, though he has promised that a new version will be completed in the coming weeks.

He faltered at times from the podium, struggling to pronounce Greenlee County, the Tohono O'odham Nation, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, blaming the verbal slip-ups on not using his glasses.

Democratic Party Treasurer Greg Freeman gave a brief overview of the budget, noting the state party was losing about $27,000 per week and had just over $1 million in cash on hand. New figures are expected to be posted in a few weeks.¹

In his address to the roughly 540 Democrats in the room, Branscomb acknowledged making mistakes in his first few months on the job.

“We are building something new. And when you take on that kind of work, that road is never smooth. I've made mistakes along the way. I own that,” he said.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero asked the audience to focus on the real enemy — the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. She said the party needs to be cohesive.

“We're so good at those circular firing squads. ‘They're not pure enough.’ ‘They're not pure enough for my taste.’ Well, I'll tell you what. The Trumpers and his minions, they're devastating our democracy. They're devastating our working class. They're devastating our workers. They're dismantling our public education systems,” Romero said.

Many Democrats left the meeting dissatisfied that they were not given a forum to discuss Branscomb’s actions since taking over the Arizona Democratic Party.

While not on the agenda, state party members would have been able to discuss it under the “New Business” agenda item. But Democrats spent roughly 40 minutes helping members vote for a new secretary via an online portal, ultimately not leaving enough time for the showdown over Branscomb's future.

Another meeting — this time with a petition to vote to dismiss Branscomb specifically on the agenda — is expected in the next few weeks.

Ousting him will require a two-thirds vote from the state committeemen.

This could be a problem as the Tucson meeting was held only in-person (no Zoom calls allowed), and it is unclear whether the Arizona Democratic Party will allow people to phone it in at the next meeting.

No thanks: President Donald Trump sent 300 National Guard troops to Los Angeles after protesters clashed with masked immigration officers who had been conducting mass raids across the city, marking the first time since the 1960s that National Guard troops have been sent to a state that didn’t want them, the Associated Press reports. Trump invoked a provision allowing him to deploy the guard if there’s ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States,” and his administration has threatened to send active duty Marines next “if violence continues.” The administration has also requested 20,000 troops to conduct immigration raids, but the Pentagon hasn’t yet approved that request, per NPR.

What was the “general description”?: At the immigration court in Tucson, ICE detained a U.S. Marshal who “fit the general description” of someone ICE was searching for, the Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. And at the Phoenix immigration court, ICE is now barring reporters and protesters from standing outside, claiming the courthouse is private property because it’s housed in a private office building, the Republic’s Taylor Seely writes.

Always an Arizona angle: One of the sparks that ignited the explosion between Trump and Elon Musk was a few small-time donations by Musk’s preferred NASA head, Jared Isaacman, to Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and other Democrats, the New York Times reports in its autopsy of the breakup. Meanwhile, Trump is trying to cut NASA’s budget, which would be a big hit to Arizona’s research industry, which receives about $120 million per year from the organization, per Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda.

“Mr. Musk’s allies have argued privately that Mr. Isaacman’s recent donations to Democrats were nonideological and made at the encouragement of Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona and a former astronaut. A spokesman for Mr. Kelly declined to comment,” the Times writes.

Congratulations?: Michael Sullivan, the former acting chief of Phoenix Police, will be sworn in at the end of the month as the new head of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger writes. Phoenix Police Department still doesn’t have a chief.

New recorder just dropped: The Gila County Board of Supervisors tapped real estate agent Wendy Mannigel-Smith as the new county recorder after longtime Recorder Sadie Jo Bingham retired, the Payson Roundup’s Alexis Bechman writes.

Change of heart?: Turning Point USA and MAGA Republicans successfully filed signatures to force a recall election of Mesa City Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury, the Republic’s Maritza Dominguez writes. She was part of a group of Mormon Republican women supporting Kamala Harris, and she won reelection last August with 65% of the vote.

Busking with dead snakes: The City of Sedona is looking into an ordinance to ban public displays of exotic pets after a man was arrested for street busking in 2023 and charged with “eight felony counts of cruelty to animals and three misdemeanor charges of animal abuse, with police confiscating 54 snakes, eight of which were deceased, four geckos, one lizard, three tarantulas and two rats,” per the Red Rock News’ Tim Perry.

Don’t make us turn to street busking while holding dead reptiles — upgrade to a paid subscription today!

They’re called suicide lanes for a reason: The drama continues over Phoenix’s crash-inducing “reverse lanes” on 7th Avenue and 7th Street, as the Phoenix New Times runs an oped by local activist (and disc golf enthusiast) Jeremy Thacker accusing City Council member Laura Pastor of dragging her feet on ending them. (Pastor wrote an oped in the Republic last week saying we need to keep studying the idea.) Plus, New Times rounds up a bunch of comments from readers who understandably hate the lanes.

“Conspicuously absent from Pastor’s op-ed was any mention of the extensive, current crash data, or an engagement with the analyses that clearly debunk the 2021 study’s AADT figures. This isn't due diligence; it's deferral,” Thacker writes.

$6 is a steal: Our fellow indie Substacker news outlet, The Border Chronicle, needs your help. They received a grant to support their reporting, but it got cut.

Good man leaves bad industry: Sad news for residents of Nogales and fans of strong local news: Manuel Coppola, the longtime publisher of the Nogales International, got the axe on the newspaper’s 100th anniversary. The paper is moving to a “regional business model,” meaning the publisher of the Green Valley News and the Sahuarita Sun will add another paper under their title, and Green Valley News’ Dan Shearer will take over as editorial director. Coppola worked for the company for 28 years, and said one of his great achievements was tutoring countless (incredibly talented) young reporters, including Hank and Curt Prendergast from our sister sletter, the Tucson Agenda. We’ll always remember watching him grab the only newsroom camera and sprint out the door every time there was a car crash on I-19. He may have held the title of publisher, but he was a reporter at heart.

“Our vibrant border community with its unending news developments makes the NI a perfect training ground for young reporters. The mentorships we have provided have helped these youths become award-winning reporters who move on to larger news organizations and other exciting careers. They’ve gone on to such organizations as the LA Times, NPR, Arizona Capitol Times, Arizona Republic, Univision, two of them produce daily Substack news platforms, one became a successful trial attorney, and another is now an Associate Director of the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona,” he wrote in his adios note.

Like any good scandal named after Watergate, Scottsdale’s Parkinggate apparently has secret tapes.

We’ve mentioned parkinggate a few times in this space, but for a quick recap: A developer and donor to Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky submitted an alternate plan for a parking garage in Old Town Scottsdale, and Borowsky may or may not have pressured city staff to give him the contract to build it, depending on who you believe.

Three city council members — Jan Dubauskas, Adam Kwasman and Barry Graham — filed a criminal complaint against the mayor.

And they were interviewed by detectives — on tape.

The tapes are pretty wild, as the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon reports.

“Lisa’s always the bitch,” Dubauskas told detectives, adding, “We have done a lot of research – can we just … vote her out?”

“This is – this crosses the line,” Kwasman told detectives. “You don't just bring your buddy, the developer in on a project.”

“(Borowsky’s chief of staff), said verbatim, ‘Come on and work with me.’ … He stated that Lisa was pressuring him about the parking garage and delivering for donors,” Graham told detectives.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said it found no evidence that state or local laws were broken and that the case is now closed.

But not for Borowsky — she says she’s considering suing the three for defamation for their comments on the tapes, which only became public after Borowsky fought in court to obtain them.

1. Freeman declared that the report — which was the most public discussion yet about the party’s finances this year — “confidential” during the meeting. However, since Joe isn’t bound by Democratic Party bylaws, nor did he sign a confidentiality agreement, we are publishing these numbers — secret or not.