Summer chill sessions
Let’s hang out … Katie’s in trouble … And who does Kari blame?
Hey readers!
We’re super excited about tomorrow’s event with Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman and former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers at Valley Bar in downtown Phoenix.
If you don’t know Bowers and Hickman, well, the two old-school Republicans stood up to Rudy Giuliani and the mob and are a big part of the reason Donald Trump was unable to steal the presidency. And they’ve got the scars to prove it…
We’re gonna talk about all that and a whole lot more.
This is our first attempt to do a large-ish live event, so we hope to see a bunch of you there. In fact, bring a friend! It’s free and open to all ages.
As a reminder, doors open at 6:30 p.m. for drinks and mingling. The event will start at 7 p.m. and run around an hour.
This will be an interactive event so bring your burning questions.
See you tomorrow!
Speaking of summer events, we spent Saturday afternoon at Boycott Bar talking about the past, present and future of queer politics with our friends at LOOKOUT, a panel of experts and a rowdy crowd of day-drinking gays and allies.
Thanks to everyone who came out, especially the members of our panel, which included:
Former Republican lawmaker Steve May, who was the crowd’s favorite panelist (made clear by the number of people surrounding him afterward).
Former Democratic lawmaker Daniel Hernandez, who offered some insightful advice on how to make political progress while the odds are stacked against you.
Progressive lobbyist Jeanne Woodbury, who was hands-down the funniest panelist even though she put us in danger of summoning She Who Shall Not Be Named to the community.
And Daniel Scarpinato, the former Chief of Staff to Doug Ducey, who took the most shit from the crowd and noted that he often feels more comfortable as a gay man in a Republican crowd than as a Republican man in a gay crowd. He was, as always, a great sport.
Saturday’s event is the first of a “summer solutions” series that LOOKOUT, Arizona’s only LGBTQ+ accountability journalism outfit, is putting on, with topics ranging from politics to navigating anti-gay rhetoric in schools. Check out their lineup and RSVP for future events here.
Finally, we’re applying for a grant, and we could really use your help.
Press Forward is awarding grants of up to $100,000 (over two years) to 100 small newsrooms across the U.S.
They want to know: How does the Agenda fill a hole in the local media landscape?
But the truth is, we’re not big on grants.1 And we’re not very good at writing applications for them.2
So we’re hoping you can make our case for us.
Winning the grant would speed up our plan to hire an additional reporter this year. Without it, we’re going to be stretched to the bone trying to make that happen quickly and sustainably.
No need to write an opus, but a few words about what the Agenda is doing differently and why we deserve the grant award would be incredibly helpful. Bonus points if the Agenda helped you get informed and active in local politics.
You can drop them in the comments section, or just reply to this email.
Thanks so much for your support! Wish us luck!
Calling dibs on the investigation: Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating Gov. Katie Hobbs over the payments her campaign and dark money fund received from a children’s group home provider that later saw its state contract favorably amended, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. Republican lawmakers had already asked Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to dig into the potential crime. And after declining to comment before the original story ran, Team Hobbs is now attempting to discredit it, noting one of the checks actually came in before Sunshine Residential Homes was denied a rate increase.
Vacation interruption: Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting ditched his office while state officials executed a search warrant on it and Whiting’s home. The Arizona Attorney General's Office is investigating him over allegations of misusing public funds and threatening a political opponent, the Republic’s Elena Santa Cruz and Miguel Torres report. The county attorney claims he was in California when the searches happened, and his colleagues are asking him to resign.
Buried treasures and defunded police: In Santa Cruz County, Nogales International reporters found that $4.125 million was transferred from a county bank account into an account owned by former County Treasurer Elizabeth Gutfahr over six months, Angela Gervasi writes. Federal investigators are probing the missing funds, but local school and fire districts are worried about how it could affect them. And Navajo Nation Police Chief Daryl Noon abruptly quit last week, saying Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren’s staffers muscled him out of the job without explanation, the Navajo Times’ Krista Allen reports.
“My reaction to that was, ‘You’re the president. If you’re gonna let the chief of police go, I would think that you would be the one to do it (termination), not your chief of staff,’” Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton said of the chief’s firing.
Stupidity, not corruption: Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Michell’s office is facing a lawsuit from a man who they wrongly and publicly accused of being a member of Turning Point USA and attacking a queer ASU professor. Braden Robert Ellis, who did not commit the attack, has a different middle name, birthday and social security number than Braden Joel Ellis, who actually committed the attack and admitted his guilt in court.
Private school ain’t cheap: A new Grand Canyon Institute report placed the net cost of making school choice vouchers universal at $332 million this fiscal year, which could grow to $429 million next year, per the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers. More than 75,200 students have enrolled through May, surpassing the Arizona Department of Education’s estimate of 74,000.
The Arizona Agenda will not cost you anywhere near $429 million. It’s a steal at just $120 per year!
Slippery slopes: An Arizona Board of Regents committee advanced a policy that would bar student groups from “knowingly providing support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” but University of Arizona Faculty Senate Chair Leila Hudson is worried the rule would limit students’ rights to free speech and assembly, underscored by months of recent pro-Palestinian protests across the country, the Arizona Luminaria’s Carolina Cuellar reports. A bill with similar provisions passed the state House but hasn’t made it through the Senate.
It’s Monday, so it’s time to check in on our new political calendar.
As a reminder, you can post your events through this form here, or just email us at info@arizonaagenda.com. This is your chance to add an additional 11,000 invitees to your rallies, fundraisers, debates, whatever. As long as it’s Arizona politics-related and has all the info, we’ll post it.
Check out the public calendar for full listings, or add our Google calendar to yours to stay in the loop.
We’ll start highlighting events daily as the campaign season progresses — if you keep sending them in.
Some of this week’s big events include:
Today: The Democrats of Greater Tucson will host Andrew Horne, one of the Democrats running for the party’s nomination in Congressional District 1 for an online event at noon. Register here.
Tuesday: We’re all going to be at Valley Bar hanging out with Rusty Bowers and Clint Hickman. Did you forget already? Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: The Capitol should be mostly quiet until Wednesday, when the House and Senate return to their respective floors. The Senate schedule notes that it’s also “possible” they meet on the floor on Thursday and Friday, presumably if budget negotiations between the governor and Republican lawmakers go well on Monday and Tuesday.
Thursday: You’re gonna have to make the tough decision of whether to spend your morning with the Pinal County Board of Supervisors or the Mohave County supervisors, both of which start at 9:30 a.m. and have entertainment potential.
Friday: Stand for Children is hosting an event with free breakfast and coffee at the Yuma County Library District at 9 a.m. to talk about how to enact positive change in the community.
Finally, the best event on the horizon has to be Clarkdale Town Council candidate Marney Babbitt-Pierce’s mini-golfing fundraiser on Sunday, June 23. You can RSVP and get details on her website.
Kari Lake delivered a speech in front of a Confederate flag at the Trumped Store in Show Low, which is owned by a guy who has repeatedly lied about his military service.
But what really got us was her campaign’s response to reporters’ questions about it:
“The Kari Lake campaign does not respond to British propaganda outlets. We stopped doing that in 1776,” her campaign told the Guardian U.S. (the American wing of the British news service).
“Kari went to a store. The New York Times published an op-ed from the terrorist organization the Taliban. Do you approve of the Taliban?” she told the Times.
The Arizona Agenda is proudly a “subscriber-first” publication. You subscribers are the reason the Agenda continues to exist, and we write for you, not for what grant-makers want. With the giant caveat that nonprofit journalism outfits are doing amazing work in Arizona and beyond, we think that chasing grants distracts from doing the actual work and often results in what we call “philanthropist-first journalism.”
Surprisingly, the opinions expressed in the footnote above are not popular among the philanthropic crowd.
Awwwwe these comments warm my heart thank you all so much!
Were the Arizona Agenda not around, I would still get the news because there are many outlets that cover the state capitol. Were the Arizona Agenda not around, I would still get commentary and analysis about what's happening at the capitol, but most of that commentary and analysis is spun so far left and right that it has limited value. Arizona Agenda provides high quality analysis and commentary lacking from other sources, which I find useful as a state senator.