The Daily Agenda: Dems abandon colleague for selfies

Let's all be more like Lela ... Sky Harbor is getting weird ... And lobster is the classiest drive-thru.

Programming note: Monday’s a federal holiday so we’re not publishing. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Wednesday.

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When President Joe Biden came to Arizona last week to dedicate a library in honor of the late John McCain, Democratic Rep. Jennifer Longdon was among the first in line. 

She always shows up to events early. It’s a habit she has learned as a wheelchair user: expect complications and prepare accordingly. 

The White House had offered special VIP access for Arizona’s entire Democratic legislative delegation. But when Longdon arrived, a Secret Service agent told her she wouldn’t be sitting with her colleagues in the front. They had a special box for her back with the lobbyists and staffers. He tried to make it sound like an upgrade.

It’s not the seat or view that bothered her — it’s that she was treated differently from her fellow lawmakers because she uses a wheelchair. And that so many of her colleagues saw what was happening, and then took their seats at the front without her anyway.

“It was just another example in a long line of times something like this has happened,” she said. “It was a combination of same shit, different day — and some folks who in the moment could have made better decisions.”

Democratic Sen. Lela Alston was the only lawmaker who refused to leave her side. Alston is the longest-serving lawmaker in Arizona, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. When the Secret Service attempted to whisk her off to the VIP section without Longdon, Alston wasn’t having it. 

“Senator Alston could have taken her very primo seat, which she was very entitled to. … And she's like, ‘Absolutely not. Wherever you're going, I’m going.’ And I tried to argue with her and the Secret Service guy tried to walk her in. And she just refused. … When she drew the line at that moment, like even the Secret Service guy kind of backed up. It was very clear that we were all going to be listening to what Senator Alston wanted,” Longdon said.

In that moment and so many other moments in her life, Alston lived her Democratic values, Longdon said. It’s not a partisan issue, she said, but she does wonder how her fellow Democrats would have reacted if it had been the Republicans who left her out like that. 

“It never occurred to me not to (stay with her),” Alston said. “Anyone would have done it, I hope.”

Longdon isn’t sure which of her colleagues knew exactly what was happening in the moment. Or, at least, she won’t name them to a reporter. But plenty of people saw her sitting in the cheap seats, far from the rest of the elected officials. The lobbyists immediately knew something was up because “they can read our body language… that’s their job,” she said.

A few other lawmakers showed up late and weren’t allowed into the VIP section, and Longdon waved them up toward the vacant seats near her and Alston. 

“And rather than take empty seats up there, they went back downstairs. And the group advocated together to get them seats,” she said.

Lots of people called to apologize after the fact. 

The White House reached out with an apology and questions about how to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Tempe Mayor Corey Woods called to apologize on behalf of the city (the event was at Tempe Center for the Arts) and asked her to tour the building and identify any failings. (Longdon isn’t sure if she was stuck in the back because of the facility’s limitations or because of how it was configured for that particular event.) 

Longdon wants to be clear that she doesn’t blame the president or the governor. Biden isn’t in charge of seating arrangements, and Hobbs has been a close friend and steadfast ally of the disability community for years. If the governor had known, she probably would have “stopped the event” Longdon joked. 

But if a state lawmaker with VIP status still faces that kind of segregation, then lots of other people with disabilities will, too. And watching her colleagues take their seats without a second thought as to why she was being shooed off to another area hurt.

It also says a lot about the state of disability rights that it didn’t even occur to event organizers that one of the political leaders might need wheelchair access. It happens a lot, Longdon said. 

We called a half-dozen Democratic lawmakers who posted front-row selfies of the event and left messages explaining that we wanted to talk about what they saw and how they reacted. The only one who called back was House Democratic Leader Lupe Contreras. 

Contreras wasn’t in the room for most of it — he and Senate Democratic Leader Mitzi Epstein had been invited to take a photo with the president. But afterward, when Contreras learned from staff what had happened, he called the White House, the Governor’s Office and Longdon to express his frustration, he said. 

He noted that the House has renovated parts of the building to accommodate people with disabilities since Longdon first got elected, and said Democrats will “continue to fight alongside her” to make political events more inclusive for all people with disabilities.

When we explained what seemed to sting the most wasn’t the seating, but the way her Democratic colleagues reacted, or didn’t react, Contreras said that’s understandable and Longdon has every right to feel that way.  

“I wish I would have known … I would have said something,” he said.

The event was an exciting, chaotic moment, Contreras said, and he didn’t even know where he was supposed to sit. People may have seen Longdon and Alston in the back without registering that something was wrong. 

He hopes this is a teachable moment for the caucus.

“A conversation will be had,” he said. 

Chaos incoming: If the presidential election goes to a recount in Arizona next year, which is much more likely now that state lawmakers decreased the threshold for a recount, it may take so long that it delays the process of seating the new president. The Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reports that elections officials and counties are scrambling to figure out how to speed up the process. The problem is complicated by the fact that Congress strengthened the Electoral Count Act after 2020 and tightened deadlines, which could even possibly mean Arizona’s 11 electoral votes aren’t counted, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer adds. Also, the huge number of election officials who have left the profession in Arizona “could further strain the election system” the New York Times writes, based on a report from Voting Rights Lab.

Because … the law: Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced that legally speaking, he cannot actually unilaterally decide to block former President Donald Trump from the ballot in Arizona by claiming that Trump violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by engaging in “insurrection.” In an interview with Fox10’s John Hook, Fontes, who has been flirting with the idea in a series of public statements over the last month, blamed the Federalist Society for coming up with the idea.  

The good ol’ boys like their club: Gov. Katie Hobbs, Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, Arizona Commerce Authority CEO Sandra Watson and other business boosters defended the Commerce Authority’s use of $2.1 million to wine and dine CEOs in hopes that they’ll bring business to Arizona, Capitol Media Services’ Fischer reports. Auditors recently put fresh eyes on the whole concept of the ACA, apparently, and warned the spending could violate the state Constitution’s gift clause. They asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to give a definitive answer. 

Who works in the summer?: Mayes chief of staff Amy Love doesn’t appear to have done any work in her final month after Mayes “wished her all the best” out of the office this summer, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger found. No-show months are a common perk of leaving a top political gig, as Barchenger noted, digging up an old clip of Hank’s about former Arizona House of Representatives / Trump White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham’s final months “in Arizona.”¹

We love a good mystery: David Adame, the longtime head of Chicanos Por La Causa, is out. Adame’s very abrupt departure after 15 years at the politically powerful Latino community development organization is currently the hottest gossip in the Arizona Democratic political community. The Republic’s Daniel Gonzales has a straight news story about how the organization says he “resigned to ‘pursue other opportunities.’" But check out the kicker.

“CPLC owns Prestamos, a lending company that had been under investigation by the U.S. Small Business Administration in relation to Paycheck Protection Program loans given out by the federal government during the pandemic,” the last line of the piece notes.

Actually pursuing other opportunities: Peter Ambler, the longtime director of Giffords, the gun safety group founded by the former congresswoman, is stepping down, he told Politico in a wide-ranging interview.

“I thought that I could compartmentalize, stay focused on building the organization. But one thing that happened along the way is that I had kids.

The day of Uvalde, it was also the last day of my daughter’s [transitional kindergarten]. So I go to the “graduation.” I’m there, and I’m watching this tragedy unfold.

A couple days later, my wife and I were taking her to her first day of summer camp. She just starts talking in the backseat, and she started talking about a lockdown drill that she’d done in school. And she talked about the kids shot at a different school, asking if that was going to happen to her.”

Long walk to La Roca: The Morley Port of Entry — essentially the pedestrian side-entrance to the main border entry in Nogales — is closed for repairs, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. The construction and broader reshuffling of Customs agents to handle additional asylum seekers is leading to long lines to cross into the U.S. and severe strains for border retail shops. 

The Scottsdale City Council is debating whether to allow drive-thru weed dispensaries, per the Republic’s Sam Kmack. 

One big question on Councilman Barry Graham’s mind is “does this add to Scottsdale's appeal as a high-end tourism destination?” 

Well, sir, we would direct your attention to Tucson, which has already legalized drive-thru dispensaries.

As the data below clearly shows, it made the entire town more appealing as a high-end destination.

1. We just re-read that story for the first time in six years and wow, it’s got some goodies, including Grisham’s lawyers threatening to sue us if we published it. (We did, and she didn’t.)