Primary Prepping: LD11 House Dems
Primary Prepping: LD11 House Dems
The incumbents take on a newbie … Hobbs’ shady ties to a group home … And Jan who?
South Phoenix is a Democratic stronghold, so Republicans basically don’t stand a chance in the heavily Democratic Legislative District 11, where the real fight to represent voters is in the primary.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Miranda is seeking reelection unchallenged in the primary, and she should have no problem dispatching her Republican challenger in November. That race is pretty much over for the voters of LD11.
But in the three-way Democratic primary for the district’s two House seats, anything could happen.
Democratic Reps. Oscar De Los Santos and Junelle Cavero are both seeking reelection. But they’ll have to fend off a challenge from Democrat Izaak Ruiz to keep their seats.
Usually, incumbency would be a very strong indicator of who will win.
But voters have actually only chosen one of the lawmakers before — Cavero was appointed this year to replace Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez. And history has shown that appointed incumbents don’t quite hold the same power of incumbency.
And while Santos is an up-and-comer in the Democratic caucus, he’s also facing an ethics complaint for his outburst on the House floor. The House Ethics Committee unanimously agreed he deserved some sort of discipline from the full House, which could give ammunition to the challenger.
Democratic Rep. Junelle Cavero
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Cavero to take over for Quiñonez in April. She lost in the Democratic primary for the LD11 Senate seat in 2022, placing a distant second to Miranda.
What else does she do?: Cavero is an executive at a multicultural media company, My Code, and has worked on presidential campaigns for Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.
Fun fact: She used to be the deputy director of the Arizona Fair Housing Center, which helps minorities combat discriminatory housing practices.
Campaign website: www.caveroforaz.com
Democratic Rep. Oscar De Los Santos
De Los Santos was elected as assistant majority leader despite still being in his freshman term, and rumor has it he has his eye on the speakership should Democrats win a majority of the chamber this year.
Career experience: He is a former public school teacher and head of public policy at the Association of Arizona Food Banks.
Fun fact: De Los Santos was invited to a private meeting with Obama.
Campaign Website: www.oscarforaz.com
Democratic challenger Izaak Ruiz
Challenger Ruiz is the son of former Arizona Rep. Armando Ruiz, who he said “advised me to be a public servant, not a politician,” according to his campaign flier.
Some more about him: Ruiz studied global economics in Washington, D.C, and co-established Teacher Town, an affordable housing initiative for teachers in South Phoenix. He’s also big on the idea of term limits, which already exist for Arizona lawmakers.1
Fun fact: Ruiz helped remove a biker bar 500 feet away from a school “that brought drugs and violence,” per his candidate bio on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website.2
We don’t know much more about him, as he skipped out on the district’s Clean Elections Debate and doesn’t have a clear online presence.
Shady, Sunshine: The Arizona Department of Child Safety increased payments to Sunshine Residential Homes by 60% throughout the last year, while no other group homes have received rate increases amid budget constraints in the child welfare agency, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. Could it be because Sunshine donated $100,000 to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ dark-money fund for her inauguration? Or because the group’s CEO, Simon Kottoor, was part of Hobbs’ inaugural committee and hosted Hobbs and her husband at his Paradise Valley mansion? Maybe! Also, Kottoor and his wife donated $5,000 each to Hobbs’ campaign, while Sunshine gave the Arizona Democratic Party $200,000 in 2022. Republican Rep. David Livingston, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, calculated that the company could pull in an additional $4 million per year from its state contract after spending the $400,000 in political contributions.
"This is one of the worst things possibly that I've seen in my 12 years… I mean, it looks that bad," Livingston told Barchenger.
Mo’ money: Phoenix voters will decide in November whether to bump Mayor Kate Gallego’s pay from $88,000 to $103,840 and councilmembers’ pay from $61,600 to $77,000, per the Republic’sTaylor Seely. The council hasn’t received a raise since 2006, and a commission of residents recommended the pay increases that would make Gallego the highest-paid mayor in Arizona, earning more than Hobbs’ $95,000 salary.
Can we please have a raise, too?
Cafe clash: A skirmish erupted between Mohave County Supervisor Jean Bishop and supervisor candidate Marianne Salem after a debate at a local cafe that resulted in police presence, though no criminal charges were filed, Chelsea McDonough reports for the Kingman Miner. A verbal back-and-forth spilled out into the parking lot, and Salem said she attempted to record it but “later realized that her phone was only displaying the camera.” Both claim the other party was the aggressor, and Bishop said Salem grabbed her, forcing the two women nose-to-nose.
Polling puzzles: Some Mexican citizens in Santa Cruz County were unable to cast a vote for Mexico’s president and the mayor of Nogales, Sonora, after widespread confusion about where to vote when the local Mexican Consulate was closed, the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña writes. Voters were referred to far away voting centers in Nogales, Sonora, or the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix. Ultimately, Juan Francisco Gim won the mayor’s seat by wide margins, while Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico’s first female president with about 58% of the votes.
It’s hot: While climate change-related measures aren’t on Arizona ballots this year, voters are increasingly concerned about extreme heat and drought here, Marcus Baram writes for Capital & Main. Meanwhile, the state Senate could pass a bill from Rep. Austin Smith that would ban cities and universities from adopting climate mitigation measures like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging mass transit. The politically marked divide is apparent in the Senate race, where Ruben Gallego helped add extreme heat to FEMA’s list of major disasters while his competitor Kari Lake called the effort “pushing mass hysteria in an effort to declare a climate emergency.” Meanwhile, Phoenix narrowly missed its 110-degree day of the year yesterday – we usually hit 110 around June 11, per ABC15.
No more lone wolves: A record number of Mexican wolf pups were fostered this spring in an attempt to save the species from extinction, per the Arizona Daily Sun. Nearly 30 pups were placed across eight wild dens in Arizona and New Mexico, and 22 released wolves need to survive to breeding age to achieve recovery.3
In the Democratic primary for Arizona’s Congressional District 1, much of the debate has been about who is a real Democrat – two of the six candidates are former Republicans.
That includes Marlene Galán-Woods, the widow of former Republican Attorney General Grant Woods. The two were big in Republican circles back in the day, so her claim at last month’s Clean Elections debate that she didn’t remember ever donating to former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer and her emphatic insistence that she “never backed (Brewer)” was a bit odd.
She did. There are records.
But the video that Conor O’Callaghan dug up of Woods standing directly behind Brewer during her 2010 election night victory speech after signing SB1070 is just *chef's kiss*
Don’t get us started on what a scam and bad idea it is.
Though we found this archive that seems to indicate it was mostly his dad’s project.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post stated that only two fostered wolf pups made it to breeding age, based on The Daily Sun’s reporting. Game and Fish says that is not accurate and that at least 10 have produced litters.
Marlene: “I never backed Brewer.”
Also Marlene: Smiles for the camera while *literally* backing Brewer.
By the way, you aren’t just a little two bit donor or little league volunteer to be placed behind the winning candidate as they give their victory speech after winning the race for governor. You are VERY important to the candidate to gain that status. The fact that Marlene has, on record, LIED about her association with Brewer is 100% disqualifying. Change your mind and party all you like. The fact that Marlene has seen the light is great. But, her inability to articulate why and when she changed her views and values and her complete lack of honesty about it all is deeply suss.
CD1 wants to be rid of Schweikert but it doesn’t help a whole lot if they just replace him with Sinema 2.0.
Marlene declined 9 of the 10 local forums. Have we not learned from Sinema!