The Daily Agenda: Another court case to watch
Kari Lake does a classic flip-flop ... Kelli pleads the Fifth ... And we're looking forward to Insect Festival.
Pro-choice groups filed a new lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court to seek clarity on whether the state’s new 15-week abortion ban or a pre-statehood, near-total ban are in place.
The lawsuit — filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, ACLU and Perkins Coie on behalf of abortion provider Dr. Paul Isaacson and the Arizona Medical Association — wants the 15-week ban to prevail. That would allow abortions that occur before 15 weeks of pregnancy, which comprise the vast majority of abortions in the state, to resume, albeit the law would still be more limited than before Roe was overturned.
The plaintiffs note that elected officials have offered wildly different answers about which law is currently governing abortion access in Arizona, so doctors don’t know “which actions are prohibited, and which are not,” meaning they could be “at risk of arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of those laws should they resume providing abortion care in Arizona.”
As the courts decide how to manage Arizona’s conflicting abortion laws, providers are coming up with ways to help patients, while police are figuring out guidelines for 911 calls on abortion. And politicians are doing what they always do — parsing words and flipping their positions.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake deferred to the courts in a KTAR interview with Mike Broomhead yesterday, saying she was confused by the two laws as well. Though the headline on KTAR’s story says Lake’s new position is that abortion should be “rare and legal,” her comments in the segment are a bit more muddled. She wouldn’t say whether she supports rape and incest exceptions, and she ridiculously claimed some want abortions after birth. She repeatedly said she was pro-life. Her past comments have strongly opposed abortion access.
“It went from rare and legal to an abortion right up until the baby’s born,” Lake told KTAR. “That’s not right. And now they want to make somebody who is pro-life seem like they’re radical. I’m not radical. We’re not radical for being pro-life.”
By the end of the day, Lake walked back the “legal” part of her comments. Her campaign told the Associated Press that she only meant abortions should be “rare but safe,” not legal.
In the meantime, at least one Arizona abortion clinic found a workaround to the legal climate here: Camelback Family Planning will give patients an ultrasound here, then order abortion medications from a telemedicine provider in California, who will then mail the pills to a border town in California, according to the Associated Press’ Bob Christie.
And 911 dispatchers in Phoenix got some guidelines from the city’s police on how to respond to abortion-related calls. They won’t send out police cars and instead will collect information from a caller to pass along to higher-ranking officers, 12News’ Brahm Resnik reports.
Still, despite mounting pressure for a special session, don’t expect Gov. Doug Ducey to act. He told us yesterday that “this will be left to the courts.” (He also called on the Arizona Supreme Court to expedite a decision on the issue, but there’s no case on abortion currently before that court, and claimed he hadn’t said the 15-week ban was the “law of the land” after Roe — which he did say.)
Ducey wouldn’t say if he supports or opposes the near-total ban on abortion, saying only that the state will abide by whatever the courts declare is the law.
“You’ve got to have the votes,” Ducey said of the idea of a special session.
In the months since it’s been clear that Roe would be overturned, the state did not work to clarify the issue whatsoever, which has effectively halted abortion access. At least the new lawsuit should provide some insight into the state of legal abortion here.
You have the right to remain silent: When AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward was deposed by Congress’ Jan. 6 committee about her role in Arizona’s fake electors scheme, she pleaded the Fifth, Politico reports. The scoop came from a court hearing over Ward’s attempt to block the committee from accessing her cell phone records, a battle which Ward has lost but is appealing.
The answer is almost all of them: The Republic runs through all the Republicans statewide and congressional candidates who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Needless to say, the piece would have been a lot shorter if they listed the Republicans who think the election was fair.
Dominion is so last year: The election deniers at True the Vote held an invitation-only conference in Phoenix to point their conspiracy theories at a new target: Konnech, a small Michigan-based company that does election logistics (not vote-counting software or technology), which was founded by an American citizen who was born in China. Konnech is suing the organization, and The New York Times’ Stuart A. Thompson had a wild story about it Monday, including that the FBI may be investigating True the Vote for hacking Konnech. But then yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported that a local prosecutor had the head of Konnech arrested, saying the company breached its contract with Los Angeles County by storing information about poll workers on a server based in China and that prosecutors learned of the breach through a “separate investigation” that they wouldn’t share details about.
Speaking of poll worker info: The Republican National Committee and the AZGOP sued Maricopa County yesterday after previously firing off a letter to the county attorney complaining that the county hired more Democrats to work the polls during the primary election than Republicans. They’re demanding records about poll workers in the primary and the upcoming election. County Recorder Stephen Richer doesn’t seem too worried.
The centrist Gallego: Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is trying to nudge her left-leaning city council to the political center by backing a former Republican Phoenix assistant police chief who is running for City Council in District 6, the Republic’s Taylor Seely reports. That could land her a centrist governing majority if her candidate wins or it could diminish what little sway she has now if he loses, Seely writes.
She’s not trying to dodge: A year ago, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs looked like a rising star while U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly looked vulnerable, but their prospects have flipped, the Associated Press’ Jonathan Cooper writes. Cooper spoke with Republicans and Democrats who think Hobbs’ strategy is too non-confrontational. He writes that in “a brief interaction after an event last month, Hobbs said she’s not running from tough questions.”
“I’m doing what my team is having me do,” she said. “I’m not looking to dodge anything.”
Voting against voting: A trio of questions lawmakers put on the ballot — Props 128, 129 and 132 — would dramatically scale back citizens’ ability to put laws at the ballot, Arizona Public Media’s Andrew Oxford explains. Separately, AZPM’s Zachary Ziegler fact-checked a bevy of claims Republican Secretary of State nominee Mark Finchem has said about elections. We don’t wanna spoil it, but they’re all false. Also, Finchem got a shout out from the New York Times in a story about Americans promoting claims of election fraud in Brazil’s presidential election.
We love a good history lesson: The Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl takes us back to 1987, when lawmakers nearly approved a dramatically simplified tax code similar to Gov. Doug Ducey’s flat tax, noting that while the attempt failed because of opposition from then-Gov. Evan Mecham, the episode illustrates how political fights over taxes “can reveal shifts in who state leaders think should benefit most from a booming economy … (and) shows there is more than one way to get to a flat tax rate, with different winners and losers and variable consequences for state programs.”
Real must-see TV: Candidates for state treasurer squared off in a debate on Monday night, with each trying to paint the other as an extremist in line with the radical elements of their party. Republican treasurer Kim Yee and Democratic challenger Martin Quezada fought over “ESG” investing (using corporate policies on environmental, social and governmental issues to determine sustainability and ethical impact of a company) and an Arizona law that requires the state to disinvest from companies that “boycott” Israel, the Republic’s Ryan Randazzo reports.
Pay up Google: Google paid Arizona $85 million to avoid going to court while not admitting wrongdoing to claims from Attorney General Mark Brnovich that it violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by deceptively and misleadingly tracking and collecting information on users, Capitol scribe Howard Fischer reports.
For just $120 per year, you can not admit wrongdoing, avoid court and become a paid subscriber to support local journalism. That’s a better deal than Google got.
Screw up one election, shame on you… : After a disastrous primary election, Pinal County is doing its best not to blow the November election, county officials announced yesterday. With its new elections director (former longtime recorder Virginia Ross) and a lot of planning, officials said they should have plenty of ballots and head off any other potential problems, Pinal Central reports. The investigation into what, exactly, went wrong in the primary is still ongoing.
Arizona is so hot right now: Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is coming to town to campaign with Kari Lake and Blake Masters today, while Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel will hit the campaign trail Thursday with AG nominee Abe Hamadeh, U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, state Treasurer Kimberly Yee and others. Also, it appears Peter Thiel is in town to fundraise for his protege, Masters, and Ducey attended the fundraiser.
Get better soon and for a reasonable price: Former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has cancer, he announced in a Facebook post over the weekend that harped on how expensive his treatment is. But he told Axios’ Phoenix that he’s not seeking donations and has been able to pay the bills himself.
Short answer is Trump: Republic editorial board leader Elvia Diaz spoke to KJZZ’s “The Show” about her career and why the paper dropped its longstanding practice of endorsing candidates. She didn’t like the decision from the editorial board to cancel endorsements, and disagrees with the desire from the Republic’s corporate overlords at Gannett to scale back opinions altogether.
The Daily Star’s bug coverage is unparalleled: The University of Arizona apparently has an annual “Insect Festival,” the Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports. It’s happening this Sunday and will have a full booth dedicated to celebrating “the joy of cockroaches,” among many others.
Oh no! Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers has cracked the code.
Any chance of getting the names of the Republicans who aren’t election deniers? Asking for a friend who doesn’t have a subscription to the Arizona Republic. (She sends her $ & gets her info from the Agenda😉)