Primary Prepping: LD8 House Democrats
The incumbent advantage … No mo’ Joe … And Teslas are fast.
It’s been a rough year for constituents of Legislative District 8, which covers parts of Tempe, the Salt River Indian reservation and the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix.
First, one of their longtime representatives quit. Then she was replaced with a guy who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations. The appointee doesn’t even want the job permanently.
Now, the three-way Democratic primary for this legislative district’s two House seats includes the area’s current senator and two newcomers.
But only one of those newcomers is running with the advantage of a longtime lawmaker as his running mate.
Political activist Brian Garcia is running alongside current Sen. Juan Mendez, who is seeking his seventh term in the Legislature, this time as a representative. The duo even shares a website listing their priorities.
Janeen Connolly, a community organizer, is also running.
Legislative District 8 covers part of Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Its voters lean Democratic, so the winner of the Democratic primary is basically a sure shot of winning the general election in November.
The slate of Mendez, Garcia, and the district’s Senate hopeful Lauren Kuby all have the endorsements of high-profile organizations, such as Save Our Schools Arizona, along with politicians like Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and former Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman.
The race for the district’s Senate seat took a surprising turn in April when current Rep. Melody Hernandez withdrew from the Senate race after a legal challenge to the signatures she gathered. Her withdrawal opened the door for Kuby to get a last-minute spot on the district’s primary ballot.
Rep. Deborah Nardozzi is the district’s other current representative, but she isn’t seeking permanent election to the seat. She was appointed to replace former Rep. Jevin Hodge after he resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations. Hodge was appointed to replace former Rep. Athena Salman,1 who resigned to take a different job.
Despite running for the House against the duo of running mates, Connolly has received endorsements from Nardozzi, Rep. Patty Contreras and former Congressman Harry Mitchell.
Janeen Connolly
Connolly is a longtime Tempe resident and community organizer.
Career experience: Connolly’s past job titles include an instructor at Arizona State University and a government relations representative at SRP, per her LinkedIn.
Fun fact: She was diagnosed with lymphedema in high school and was later appointed to former Arizona Governor Jane Hull's Task Force on Employment for People with Disabilities.
Campaign website: www.azjaneen.com
Brian Garcia
Garcia works for All Voting Is Local, a multistate political advocacy group trying to expand local voting access, according to his financial disclosure statement.
Career experience: He previously worked for the U.S. House, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and was a staff attorney for unaccompanied children. Garcia was also president and vice president of the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board.
Fun fact: He has a law license in Arizona, New Mexico and D.C.
Campaign website: www.briangarciaaz.com
Sen. Juan Mendez
Mendez is looking to return to his roots (and avoid term limits) by moving from the Senate to the House. He served two terms in the lower chamber starting in 2013 before getting promoted to the Senate for four terms.
Career experience: Mendez’s past experiences include working as a substitute teacher in Tempe, a voice mail manager at a nonprofit that provides 24-hour referral services to people in crisis and a customer service associate at Fry’s Electronics, per his LinkedIn.
Fun fact: Earlier this year, a video of Mendez welcoming a group of Satanists to the Senate went viral. It came before a hearing on a bill that would ban Satanic displays in the state.
Campaign website: juanmendezforarizona.com
Summer shocker: President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, supporting Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the ticket. That isn’t for sure yet, as Democrats are expected to figure out how to replace him, and the Washington Post has a handy flowchart for how that could play out. But already the speculation is turning to who will be her vice president, and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly is being mentioned by politicos who like that he doesn’t have much baggage and is a white male who may be able to deliver Arizona.
Shot in the arm: Arizona’s delegates headed home from the Republican National Convention feeling unified from four days at the grandiose and heavily secured arena in Milwaukee, Cronkite News’ Amaia J. Gavica writes. The Republic has a rundown of five key Arizona moments at the convention, like Tempe-area delegate Joe Neglia’s fake ear bandage he called "the newest fashion trend,” per Brenna Gauchat. And Bill Goodykoontz breaks down five of the strangest moments, like when Kari Lake said she loves everyone in the room except the “fake news” reporting from the rafters. And AZFamily reporter Dennis Welch shares his highlights from the event.
Noncitizens = nonvoters: Republican lawmakers scored a partial victory Thursday when an appeals court ruled Arizonans who register to vote with a state form will now have to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports. Until now, residents without citizenship documents could register through the state form but only vote in federal elections. An appeals panel of the 9th Circuit Court is scheduled to revisit the issue in September. In the meantime, county recorders could be charged with a felony if they allow a voter to register with the state form.
Old school: A global technology outage Friday shut down some Maricopa County voter centers and Pima County’s online form to request a mail-in ballot on the last day voters were able to request one, per the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington and Chelsea Curtis. Phoenix police’s 911 dispatch had a temporary outage, while dozens of flights were delayed at Sky Harbor, KJZZ’s Jill Ryan writes. The 911 center in Pima County resorted to pen and paper, the Arizona Daily Star’s Sierra Blaser reports.
Bad actors: The U.S. Justice Department sued Southwest Key Programs Inc., the largest operator of child migrant shelters in the country, over claims it allowed employees to sexually abuse children, Christina van Waasbergen writes for Courthouse News Service. The group has 29 shelters in Arizona, Texas and California and the feds are seeking monetary damages to compensate the children and a court order to require Southwest Key to prevent abuse in the future.
Not the base: Crypto bros and Donald Trump allies are going hard for Democratic Congressional District 3 hopeful and Phoenix City Councilmember Yassamin Ansari. She has received an onslaught of outside spending from a pro-crypto PAC and a PAC that endorsed Trump, which they hope will boost her chances in the Democratic primary to represent this West Valley Democratic stronghold, Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda reports.
Define abnormal: It’s already an abnormally hot summer in Phoenix, with more days at or above 110 degrees than ever before at this point, KJZZ’s Katherine Davis-Young reports.
Those liberal Tucson police and their deep state allies are politically persecuting Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack just for driving her Tesla 71 MPH in a 35 zone.
Wadsack was pulled over in March for criminal speeding, Dylan Smith reports for the Tucson Sentinel, and introduced herself as “Senator Justine Wadsack” in an attempt to get out of a ticket.
It worked. She wasn’t cited at the time because the Legislature was in session and lawmakers arguably have “legislative immunity” from speeding tickets while the session is ongoing.
But now that the session is over, Tucson Police Department is issuing the ticket. And she’s refusing to sign, saying she wasn’t speeding and they’re engaging in “political persecution.”
Oh yeah, and she was pulled over suspiciously close to the house she owns outside of her district that she claims she doesn’t live in.
Her primary opponent, Vince Leach, already cut an ad featuring footage of the traffic stop.
Who is married to Mendez.
Lauren Kuby is a great candidate. She attended a small gathering in Oracle when running for statewide office in October, 2022.. Smart, respectful, responsive. We in Oracle are not in her district but want those who are to know what a great candidate she is. (Read about Oracle in frankpierson.substack.com)
Regarding the link to Dennis Welch’s coverage of the RNC, kudos to Welch for maintaining his usual cheery, reasonably objective demeanor - and boos to Goodykoontz for showing his unwavering partisan bias by trying to get Welch to describe Republicans at the RNC as a “cult” (which Welch deftly sidestepped) - I do not care for Trump or the current crowd controlling the AZ GOP, but that is exactly the kind of narrative that further divides us instead of focusing on the issues.