The Daily Agenda: Hobbs breaks veto record

We always knew she had it in her … That lawsuit was inevitable ... And why did you assume we meant Trump?

Gov. Katie Hobbs’ record-breaking veto streak has held off a Republican wishlist of policies  that limit abortion, kowtow to election deniers, allow guns in more places and cut taxes that fund critical services, that would’ve made the state the endless butt of late-night jokes and loser of costly lawsuits. 

She vetoed 11 more bills yesterday, bringing her session total to 63 and making her an official record-holder for most vetoes in a single session, surpassing former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s previous record. 

Former Gov. Doug Ducey frequently tried to get his party’s farthest-right instincts from taking over and sending him bills that would harm the state’s reputation and make his job as top Republican in office more difficult. 

This year, Republicans haven’t hesitated to make Hobbs veto bills that might come up in the next election, though that doesn’t really matter — her party is unlikely to be upset if she vetoes an anti-trans or anti-abortion bill. 

We’ve touched on some of Hobbs’ vetoes in past newsletters, but wanted to run through some of the most consequential denials she’s written so far to give just a small sense of what Arizona could have been with a Lake governorship.

• On elections: Just yesterday, Hobbs vetoed bills that would have prohibited the use of artificial intelligence or software in ballot adjudication and added more requirements to ballot chain of custody. She previously nixed a bill that would call for maximizing transparency in elections, saying it was unnecessary, said no to conforming signature verification law with what’s in the state elections manual because the issue should be left with elections officials, and vetoed a bill that would’ve kicked more people off the Active Early Voting List saying the process is already secure. She also went against a GOP plan to support the electoral college, saying they should’ve just done a resolution instead, and she vetoed a bill that would’ve hindered the potential for ranked-choice voting here because it works elsewhere. A bill that would’ve added requirements for election machines got the ax because the equipment the bill called for “does not exist.”

• On education: Expanding parental rights by allowing people to file lawsuits against schools without the threat of having to pay attorneys’ fees “merely encourages litigation,” Hobbs said in another veto. An anti-critical race theory bill was “rooted in fear mongering and evidence-free accusation,” she said, so Hobbs vetoed it. A bill that would’ve made it so vaccines with emergency use authorization can’t be required by schools also met the veto stamp.

• On abortion: Only one abortion-focused bill has made it to Hobbs’ desk so far, and she’s repeatedly vowed to veto any that limit access. The one that got the boot would have required health care workers to try to save any baby born alive, which “interferes with the reproductive rights of Arizonans.”

• On guns: A bill that would have required schools to provide firearms training “will not make a campus safer,” Hobb said in one veto. Making it illegal for banks to get government contracts if they discriminate against gun companies “could result in banks leaving Arizona’s market,” she said in another denial. She axed another proposal that would have legalized gun silencers and one that would’ve made it illegal for cities and towns to prohibit gun shows. Yesterday’s veto list included a measure that would’ve negated certain federal gun laws here.

• On taxes: In a couple showdowns between the state and local governments, Hobbs has sided with cities and towns to veto rental and grocery tax exemptions.

• On tamales: Finally, Hobbs shot down a bill yesterday that would have legalized the common practice of selling delicious homemade tamales (and other “cottage foods”) without a license, saying it would “significantly increase the risk of food-borne illness.”

From the field to the courtroom: The parents of two transgender girls who want to play school sports sued Arizona in federal court yesterday in an attempt to overturn the state’s new law banning trans kids from playing on the team of their gender, the Associated Press reports. The parents allege the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, which bans sex-based discrimination in schools. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne praised the law and called the lawsuit “backwards.”

Historic wins: For the first time, Phoenix has two Black city councilmembers at the same time after Kevin Robinson and Kesha Hodge Washington were sworn in Monday. The Republic’s “Valley 101” podcast spoke to the two newest council members about their new gigs as part of a short series on African American representation on the council. Meanwhile, progressive activists strung up and smashed a piñata that looked like Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego outside of her State of the City address Monday to protest her opposition to proposals to stop development on mobile home parks, saying she’s siding with “greedy landlords” over the poor, the Phoenix New Times’ Katya Schwenk reports. 

Tucson, we have liftoff: Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock gets a rare chance to discuss his two favorite topics — rockets and land use — as the city council is considering redeveloping a bunch of land for a Tucson-based rocket maker that wants to launch satellites more cheaply. He also breaks down the much more boring topics of Tucson's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes a 16% spike in personnel costs and a potential city council pay increase.  

History repeats itself?: Liz Harris’ expulsion was pretty dramatic, but have you heard the story of the first expulsion from the Arizona Legislature? Two lawmakers were kicked out after getting in a brawl with a third lawmaker on the floor of the House, Axios Phoenix’s history buff Jeremy Duda reports. But they both got reelected and served another 10 years. 

Lightly used water for sale: Which cities will want the recycled wastewater that Phoenix is building a multi-billion-dollar plant to make, and which will pay for it? The Republic’s Taylor Seely surveyed Valley cities and didn’t get many straight answers from cities, which either don’t know much about Phoenix’s plans or want to gauge public opinion on the “toilet-to-tap” water idea before committing. Meanwhile, the Colorado River once again tops an advocacy group’s “endangered rivers” list, though at least this year it’s only a portion of the river that’s labeled endangered, the Republic’s Brandon Loomis reports. The report looks at not just water flow, but overall health of the rivers. 

Quite a change in scenery: Tempe named a new police chief to replace Jeffrey Glover, who Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed to lead the Department of Public Safety. Kenneth McCoy, the former top cop of Anchorage, Alaska, will officially start June 5, KTAR reports.  

Any day ending in Y: Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar promoted positive stories about himself on an antisemitic website that “denies the Holocaust, praises Adolf Hitler as ‘a man of valor’ and features a large number of admittedly false articles,” the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy writes. Gosar cut the word “Jewish” from a headline reading “Congressman: Jewish warmongers Nuland & Blinken ‘Are Dangers Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed,’” before sharing the story, which was originally published on Russian propaganda website Sputnik.

Nice weather for a walk: Gas stations are running out of gas in Phoenix, where prices are spiking above $5 and way above the national average. KJZZ’s Lauren Gilger asked Patrick De Haan from GasBuddy (an app to find cheap gas) why it’s so hard to find gas. It’s pretty complicated, but basically Arizona requires specific blends of gas to be sold here, and it’s having a hard time getting to the market. 

Retroactivity clauses matter: The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated a death penalty sentence for a man who was convicted of murdering a University of Arizona professor in 1995 and taking his wallet, saying while the law defining murder for monetary gain as a death penalty crime was repealed in 2019, there’s no evidence lawmakers wanted that repeal to be retroactive, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer writes. There’s still a separate legal challenge ongoing in federal court.

Nonpartisan, eh?: Pinal County Democrats are accusing the local GOP of making illegal contributions to nonpartisan school board candidates and accepting improper in-kind contributions from the local school district to the GOP for renting its facilities to the party at a discounted rate, Pinal Central’s Mark Cowling reports. For its part, the school district said the discounted rate was an “honest mistake” and offered to pay Democrats the difference. 

Burn the receipts: The Nogales city manager wants to conduct an audit of all the city’s credit cards “just to make sure we’re on the up-and-up” after a city council member requested an audit of the mayor’s card, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. City council members were recently authorized to start requesting their own cards. 

There’s a toddler in the White House!