Rebranding a scandal
What a wild ride … The fairest election ever … And Stephanie don’t work here no more.
Our reporting last Thursday on Arizona tourism director Lisa Urias’ involvement in a $700,000 state rebrand set off a domino chain of wild events culminating in her rapid resignation.
Urias quit on Friday afternoon, about 30 hours after we pointed out how she had steered the contract to design the new logo to her business partner’s brother. Not to mention a separate contract between her business, Urias Communications, and the state.
Urias wasn’t expected to be a hard sell to Republicans as the head of tourism. Heads of potentially politically divisive departments like corrections or health and human services were way more inclined to draw heat from Republicans.
Until lawmakers read the Agenda.
After we published Thursday, Republican lawmakers pounced.
Senate President Warren Petersen said Urias’ chances of being officially confirmed as the tourism head were “zero.”1
Rep. Teresa Martinez called on Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to launch formal investigations into Urias’ “potential conflicts of interest.”
Some Republicans, like Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman2 misconstrued the facts, either intentionally or unintentionally implying the entire $700,000 contract went to Urias’ own brother.
To be clear, that’s not true and it’s not what we wrote. The story is more complicated. But the short version is:
Urias decided the state needed a rebrand, which included other promotional materials along with the logo, and she spent $700,000 total from pandemic relief funds to get it done.3
Urias suggested to the contractor that her business partner’s brother could help out on the logo portion. The contractor paid him $27,500 for his design.
Urias’ company also won a no-bid contract earlier this year with the state Department of Education for work with the Office of Indian Education.4
The story traveled far and wide on Thursday, and details aside, people generally found it offensive that the state would spend $700,000 on rebranding. It’s worth noting that people were equally snarky and outraged when Gov. Doug Ducey spent $250,000 for a state rebrand in 2016.
Before we published, Urias didn’t speak to us directly, instead having her spokesman explain that “Lisa remains the owner of Urias Communications but has no role in the firm’s day-to-day decisions or operations.”
Her business filings with the state Corporation Commission show she’s the sole owner.
After the story broke, Urias told the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger that she cut financial ties with Urias Communications four years ago.
Simultaneously, she told the Republic’s Laurie Roberts that she still receives a monthly stipend from the company5 that was set before she joined the governor’s cabinet.
And her denials were carefully worded to avoid the issues we raised by pointing to the fake accusations some lawmakers lobbed.
"Urias Communications nor I have ever financially benefited from any Arizona Office of Tourism contracts since I took a position with the State of Arizona," she told the Republic. "Never."
After the story broke, the tourism department never asked us for a correction or clarification. The Governor’s Office, which we reached out to before publishing, never called to say we had our facts wrong.
Her spokesman didn’t return our calls on Friday.
Regardless of Urias’ involvement in Urias Communications, she financially benefits from its success — including any state contracts it’s awarded. As several consultants with political firms of their own pointed out, the valuation of her company increases with every contract, and state contracts in particular give a higher multiplier, as they’re considered safe.
Urias said she resigned because it became clear the Senate wouldn’t confirm her for the position, but she maintained there’s no conflict.
“Anyone who has the privilege of serving the public needs to be above reproach, and that’s why I accepted her resignation this morning,” Hobbs said at a press conference Friday. “This appearance of conflict is not acceptable.”
And after that fallout, Urias’ name and bio that previously appeared on the homepage of Urias Communications was taken down.
As all this was going down, State Superintendent Tom Horne joined Urias on the defense, claiming his office never had a $250,000 contract with Urias Communications.
His office sent out a media advisory demanding we retract our reporting about that $250,000 contract with Urias Communications. The Department of Education only paid Urias’ firm $15,225 for “meeting planning services,” they said.
After dozens of emails, several calls with lawyers and reading many pages of the state’s procurement code, we have a better understanding of where that $250,000 figure comes into play.
In simple terms, the “competition impractical authorization form” that his office filled out appears to give the Department of Education the go-ahead to work with Urias Communications over a 5-year period at a rate of $145 per hour. The estimated cost is $250,000.
Education Department spokesperson Doug Nick said the form “allows us the possibility to engage in a contract should we choose to do so.”
And they did choose to. But so far, the office has only paid about $15,225 through one contract.
We’re still awaiting a response from the state procurement department on the actionable legal effect of that document, though any reasonable person — and several attorneys we contacted — would draw the same conclusion we reported: The education department intended to pay Urias Communications up to $250,000 through 2029.
But Horne’s demand for retraction specifically claims that the competition impracticable document “was never approved.”
It very clearly was.
So why would Horne — whose office presumably did nothing wrong by approving the contract — be so quick to downplay his office’s involvement?
Well, just like Urias, Horne found himself in the crosshairs of Hoffman and the Freedom Caucus, who are now calling him a RINO and threatening to find a candidate to run a GOP primary campaign against him in 2026.
No conspiracies?: Counties certified the results of their 2024 election ahead of Friday’s deadline, and state officials are set to sign off on the statewide canvass today at 10 a.m. You can watch it here. Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman noted that the activists who usually show up to “bitch and scream” at Maricopa County supervisors about election conspiracies were nowhere to be found on Thursday as the board certified the results of the election that Donald Trump actually won, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka reports.
A moment of reflection: Outgoing Cochise County Supervisor and former state lawmaker Peggy Judd, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for initially refusing to certify the results of the 2022 election, is leaving the Republican Party “soon,” she tells Votebeat’s Jen Fifield, because Trump supporters turned on her for not going further with her quest to investigate election fraud.
“When I was behaving, they were very kind to me,” she told Fifield. “But the minute I was saying ‘No, wait, whoa,’ then they hated me, like immediately. And that’s why I don’t want to be a Republican anymore.”
Franchising school choice: As the cost of Arizona’s universal school voucher program balloons far beyond initial projections and other states look to adopt similar policies, Politico profiles Arizona ESA mom Jenny Clark, a powerful organizer in the school choice movement who is taking her organization, Love Your School, on the road to advocate for voucher policies in other states.
Promoting his gun biz on taxpayer dime: Cities have wildly varying policies about how and whether to seek reimbursements for the cost of providing police at presidential campaign events, the Daily Independent’s Philip Haldiman explains. But generally, taxpayers end up footing at least most of the bill. Bonus points to Haldiman for pointing out that Peoria Mayor Jason Beck actually owns Tyr Tactical, which hosted vice presidential candidate JD Vance in October. Beck didn’t answer questions about it.
Unlike politicians, we can’t just bill the taxpayers for our work and travels. Maybe you can pitch in?
And then there were eight: A judge-vetting commission whittled down the list of 17 applicants to just eight candidates who they’ll interview for the Arizona Supreme Court seat that became vacant when Justice Robert Brutinel resigned last month, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. They’ll start interviews in two weeks, and they must send at least three names to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who will make the final decision.
Thanks?: After Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew as Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Republic columnist Laurie Roberts jumped on the bandwagon for Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs to be the next AG. She noted Biggs is a MAGA Trump loyalist who tried to overturn Arizona’s 2020 election, and “less importantly” for Trump, he’s not prone to sex scandals.
“In fact, he’d probably be the last guy you’d expect to see at a sex party, doing the dirty with a 17-year-old girl,” Roberts writes.
We counted no fewer than eight local news stories over the weekend about former ABC15 news anchor Stephanie Hockridge-Reis’ indictment for alleged pandemic loan fraud.
All of the headlines except one mentioned her old job as an anchor.
Guess which station didn’t mention it.
To be fair, the scam had nothing to do with her job as a news anchor.
But the story also wouldn’t be newsworthy if not for the fact that she’s a former news anchor.
Urias hasn’t been officially given “department head” status, as Gov. Katie Hobbs stopped putting her nominees through contentious hearings. But the governor made an agreement with Senate leadership to start going through the official nomination confirmation process next year after a court found her circumvention of the confirmation process illegal.
Hoffman is the chairman of the Senate Director Nomination Committee, which has relentlessly investigated and rejected Hobbs’ nominees for state department directors, so he has plenty of motivation to trump up and distort accusations against agency directors.
That’s a totally legal use of the federal funds, which is slightly absurd but not Urias’ fault.
The contract is also legal, as far as we can tell, though obviously it’s not a good look for a gubernatorial nominee.
She didn’t say how much that stipend is.
"Doing the dirty" also known as "sex with a minor" also known as a felony. Way to downplay a serious sex crime against a minor Laurie.
Well done. Thanks.