MAGA comedian Rob Schneider repeatedly offered the microphone to an empty podium during a 14-minute fake gubernatorial debate last week.
The actor paused expectantly for Gov. Katie Hobbs to answer his questions as a soundtrack of chirping crickets played. After Hobbs’ Republican challenger, Andy Biggs, gave his answers, a sitcom-style applause track kicked in, even though he was standing in front of a live audience of Grand Canyon University students.
Schneider capped the performance with his famous “Waterboy” line: “Andy Biggs, you can do it.”
The production amounted to a lowbrow, Schneiderian way of calling the governor chicken for refusing to debate.
Nobody expected Hobbs to show up for the campaign stunt. But she was invited to tonight’s actual Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission gubernatorial debate, and she declined to attend.
Strategically, there’s no question it’s a smart move. Hobbs is leading in the polls, and few political strategists (outside of Biggs’ employ) see any viable path to victory for him.
The governor’s campaign team has clearly made a calculation that absorbing the ridicule that comes with staying offstage is safer than accepting the risks that come with getting on it.
But by playing it safe, Hobbs is robbing the general public of the rare side-by-side comparison of candidates that only debates offer.
Four years ago, Hobbs was campaigning as a defender of democracy against the likes of Kari Lake, and she framed her refusal to debate Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial race in that light.
Hobbs argued that Lake was so far outside the mainstream that she didn’t deserve a spot on the debate stage. But Hobbs also refused to debate her 2022 Democratic primary opponent, former Nogales Mayor Marco López (her campaign chalked it up to a scheduling conflict, even though Clean Elections routinely moves debate dates to accommodate candidates).
These days, facing a sitting congressman whom she used to debate regularly on the state Senate floor, Hobbs has shifted the message to, essentially, debates aren’t worthwhile.
That may be true for Hobbs’ campaign, but it’s not true for the voters who tune into debates hoping to inform themselves about their options in November.
And sure, debates are often a mess of baseless allegations, juvenile name-calling and theatrics.
But even politically theatrical debates can be valuable.
This year’s messy attorney general and secretary of state debates, for example, still gave voters a side-by-side look at candidates’ personalities and priorities.
While the fake Biggs debate provided less civic value, it made a valid point beneath the shtick: Voters deserve to hear directly from the candidates asking to represent them.
But the tension between what may serve voters and what best protects a candidate is hardly unique to Hobbs.
An ABC News analysis found 21 of 36 gubernatorial races this year won’t feature a general election debate, and that gubernatorial debate dodging has become more common over the past two midterm cycles.
Because Hobbs is clearly leading in the polls, the potential downsides of debating far outweigh the upsides, veteran political consultant Chuck Coughlin said.
Nobody wants a viral moment that could tank their otherwise winning campaign.
And Coughlin knows a thing or two about viral moments.
Back in 2010, Coughlin was running then-Gov. Jan Brewer’s reelection campaign when she blanked out during a debate for an excruciating 10 seconds, which the Associated Press described at the time as “one of the most painful openings to a political debate in recent memory.”
It wasn’t painful enough to cost Brewer the election. But Coughlin said candidates today have more reason to fear the same kind of mistake.
“That’s the kind of thing you want to avoid, particularly in this day and age. That was 16 years ago, before you could really say there was a viral internet story,” he said. “It would have been much more consequential had this media age been in place at that point in time.”
So while Schneider is offering Biggs some motivation in the form of his recycled “you can do it” line, the Hobbs camp has embraced the less inspirational corollary.
You can also just not do it.
If you can’t beat them, copy their tactics: As two justices on the U.S. Supreme Court get way past their prime and Senate Democrats grow increasingly hopeful about flipping the chamber this election cycle, Democratic U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego and others are considering a blockade on any potential new SCOTUS nominees until 2029, NBC reports. While approving nominees for lame-duck presidents used to be the norm in the Senate, that changed in 2016, when former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to confirm Merrick Garland for 10 months while awaiting a new president.
“No, we’ve got to do exactly what McConnell did to us,” Gallego said.
The Happiest Place on Earth (TM): The U.S. Department of Justice is subpoenaing records from Gallego’s PAC about his trip to Disneyland in an “ongoing criminal investigation” of his PAC’s spending to support Gallego’s “luxurious lifestyle,” Politico reports. The Senate Ethics Committee has already investigated and dismissed a complaint about the potential presidential candidate’s PAC spending money on trips, including to Disney Land and Disney World and tickets to the Super Bowl with Gallego’s one-time buddy, disgraced former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Another ‘oopsies’ for Heap: Republican Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap's ballot vendor, Runbeck Election Services, mistakenly sent 3,100 ballots to voters about a week before ballots were supposed to be sent, Fox10’s Irene Snyder reports. Officials didn’t say what caused the mix-up, but said the ballots are still valid and voters who received them can fill them out. While both President Donald Trump and Kari Lake used the opportunity to cast doubt on Arizona’s elections, Heap critic and Republican former Recorder Stephen Richer conversely said the accident “isn’t a big deal” and “doesn’t mean fraud.”
SLAPPing democracy in the face: Arizona’s fake electors want to block Attorney General Kris Mayes from reviving her case against them by leaning on Arizona’s “anti-SLAPP” law, which prohibits prosecutions that attempt to retaliate against, deter or prevent political speech, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Fake elector and former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon was the first, but likely not the last, fake elector to file an appeal, citing Arizona’s unique anti-SLAPP law, which applies not only to civil cases, but criminal ones too. He’ll have to prove that the prosecution was substantially motivated by a desire to chill his constitutionally protected free speech, which might not be too hard considering a trial court already found Mayes’ talking points on the campaign trail in 2022 established some evidence of bias.
Let the trial begin: Last month, a grand jury indicted Attorney General’s Office investigator Dulance Morin on one count of negligent homicide for shooting and killing a woman who was “banging on the front door” of his home, 12News reports. The AG’s office said that it plans to keep Morin employed in an administrative role because Mayes believes Morin is not guilty of the charge. Documents suggest that Morin warned the woman he was armed and witnesses heard the woman respond that she also had a gun.
Beyond the Ballot AZ is a weekly show about legendary Arizonans, notable — and sometimes notorious — political events, and the social movements still shaping the arguments we’re having today.
A resource of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, hosted by Executive Director Tom Collins and Director of Voter Education Gina Roberts, who break down what’s happening and how you can actually get involved in it. Same state you’ve been reading about all morning, with a lot more context.
If you don’t have Friday night plans, might we suggest attending one of the strangest concerts Phoenix has seen in some time?
While polls and betting platform Kalshi show the odds are stacked against Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs, his campaign appears to be making increasingly unconventional moves — the latest of which is planning a musical performance for Biggs at Phoenix music venue The Duce.
You can’t make this up.
The show, billed as “Biggstock,” is free to attend. And what’s even stranger is that the performance might not be a complete flop, a video posted by 12News’ Brahm Resnik suggests.
We are as surprised as anyone that Biggs actually has some vocal chops.
The show seems inspired by the same kind of right-wing whimsy that President Donald Trump, who was once a political underdog, has channeled at campaign events.
If he loses, the campaign might just be Biggs’ warm-up for a venture into music and a shot at eclipsing Kid Rock’s waning status as the foremost performer of the MAGA movement.