The Agenda’s March Madness
The politicians face off … Mayors unite … And if Pornhub stops working, you know who to blame.
Arizona is known for the madness of its political scene, so we thought it’d be fun to co-opt the annual March Madness tournament with a little twist.
We’re launching a March Madness bracket for Arizona’s politicians.
Twice per week, politicians will compete against each other based on a series of tasks we’re assigning, unbeknownst to them.
The first round of “games” is up to you readers, who select a winner in head-to-head contests between 64 Arizona politicians. The next five rounds will include random tests for transparency, responsiveness and effectiveness that we’ll subject the politicians to over the next few weeks.
Like the NCAA tournament, our March Madness tournament is organized into four divisions: Local politicians, statewide and federal politicians, and state House and Senate. Unlike college basketball, however, there are no real rules here. We’re just making them up as we go along.
Wanna play along?
You’ll need to do two things.
First, fill out your bracket and send it to us before Thursday at 6 a.m.
To do that, just click this link to open the Google sheet, click “File” and “Make a copy.” Then fill it out and when you’re done, click “File” and “Email” and send it to info@arizonaagenda.com.
Second, we need you to vote in the first round.
You should have another email from us with a series of polls. Just pick the winners of each match-up. Whichever politician gets the most votes will advance to the next round.
We’ll announce the 32 who advance on Thursday. Going forward, we’ll thin out the crowd by assigning tasks twice a week, until we announce a winner on Monday, April 8 – the same day as the NCAA Mens’ championship in Glendale.
Readers can win stickers, pins, coffee mugs and maybe even a hat if you’re particularly good at this.
But only if you fill out those brackets!
Today’s edition is brought to you paywall-free thanks to our sponsor, Goodmans. If you’d like to unlock a free edition for all of our 10,000+ subscribers – get in touch! info@arizonaagenda.com
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The wrath of mayors: Arizona mayors have been pressuring Gov. Katie Hobbs to veto the “Arizona Starter Homes Act,” which cleared the Legislature with bipartisan support, saying the Legislature’s proposed solution to the housing crisis – deregulating city zoning – is not the answer, the Republic’s Taylor Seely explains. Hobbs has until the end of the day to sign or veto it. If she takes no action, the bill becomes law by default. Hobbs didn’t answer questions about whether she’ll sign the bill on Friday while in Mohave County, but sat for a Q&A on water, housing and education with the Kingman Daily Miner’s Taylor Schwartz-Olson.
"There's a saying in politics: 'Never let a good crisis go to waste.' This is the development community using the housing crisis to get out from under regulation," Mesa Mayor John Giles told Seely.
Pics or it didn’t happen: Pima County Attorney Laura Conover agreed to settle a State Bar complaint filed by David Berkman, a former high-level prosecutor in her office, through a “diversion agreement”1 where she doesn’t have to say she did anything wrong or tell the public what she’s doing to reform her problematic conduct, the Tucson Sentinel’s Dylan Smith writes. Conover’s Democratic primary opponent, Mike Jette, called on her to release the document, leading to a weird exchange in which she accused her accuser of officiating the wedding of her opponent. After repeatedly saying she wouldn’t release the agreement, she then released it on Sunday.
Why we can’t have nice things: After people called into a Flagstaff City Council meeting this month to spout racist conspiracies, request a “white pride month," and call council members antisemitic slurs, the council is tightening up its comment policy, the Arizona Daily Sun’s Adrian Skabelund reports. Going forward, the public will only be allowed to call in from home to comment on specific agenda items – anyone with a general rant will have to show up in person.
Sue ‘em all: The U.S. Supreme Court is refining the rules on politicians blocking constituents on social media. SCOTUSblog noted that the court issued decisions in two cases on Friday, one from California and one from Michigan, effectively saying that politicians can be held liable for blocking constituents on social media, but only if they’re using that social media for government work actions. The High Court sent both cases back to the Appeals Court.
Rural tech is hard: Votebeat’s Jen Fifield tags along as Maricopa County election workers try to digitize elections in their most rural town: The Tohono O’odham village of Ghaka, with its 44 registered voters. Voters there usually have to cast provisional ballots because there’s no internet for electronic pollbooks, mail is unreliable and the next nearest polling place is two hours away. It took a lot of work and cost about $35,000, but the county got internet running there.
Don’t worry, it gets worse: The pandemic generation is apathetic about politics, the Wall Street Journal reports based on polling and interviews with some Gen-Z Arizonans. They have a generally bleak economic and ecological outlook and a lack of faith in politicians to make anything better (in fact, politicians are threatening to take away the only joy Gen-Z has: TikTok). So many are questioning whether they’ll even vote.
“We’re just kind of over it,” 20-year-old Tucson juice bar employee Noemi Peña, told the Journal.
“We’re never picking someone that we believe in. We’re just picking the one that we disagree with the least,” Arizona State University freshman Audrey Lippert said.
Share the Arizona Agenda with the apathetic Gen-Zer in your life.
Texans are now blocked on Pornhub after state lawmakers passed, and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld, a law requiring the site to ensure visitors are over 18 by using a government ID or other methods.
Arizona lawmakers are pushing a very similar bill.
Republican Rep. Tim Dunn’s HB2586 passed the House with all Republicans and one Democrat in support.
It’s scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Rules Committee this afternoon, after which it will be eligible for a vote from the full Senate.
You can see how your representatives in the House voted here.
Much like a lot of State Bar discipline records (including the diversion agreement that former Attorney General Mark Brnovich entered into after the universities complained that he sued them while he was supposed to represent them), Conover’s diversion agreement is not public unless the subject of the agreement wants to make it public.
I dont agree that Gen z is not interested in politics— they are not interested in ELECTORAL politics because its unrepresentative. Its not on Gen Z, its on electoral politics! Come on dems, stop smothering youth voices calling for a livable planet in the future free of genocide and war and start representing them!
I started to pick politicians in your game, but then I realized that I was unclear about the aim. Should I pick out the ones I prefer as legislators etc, or pick the ones I want to be elected (not necessarily the same), or pick out the ones I think will win? What was your concept?