The Daily Agenda: It's time to debate
The Daily Agenda: It's time to debate
Showing up is half the battle ... Initiatives end up in court before they ever hit the ballot ... And we're slightly jealous of Pennsylvania.
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GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake spent the weekend walking back her endorsement of a known anti-semite, racist and homophobe, while Democratic gubernatorial contender Katie Hobbs spent the weekend trying to weasel out of debating Lake.
And that about sums up Arizona’s gubernatorial race.
On the right, we’ve got a former TV anchor who sees her path to victory as selling lies, demeaning people and playing to her supporters’ worst instincts. On the left, a former social worker with sane ideas, loads of experience and not enough backbone to stand up to the madness.
Hobbs should be jumping at the chance to debate Lake. A televised debate would provide a venue to show Lake’s absolute nuttiness, her total lack of any kind of meaningful experience for the job and her association with dangerous bigots – including but not limited to Oklahoma state Senate candidate Jarrin Jackson, a racist, homophobic antisemite who Lake endorsed. (Lake hasn’t revoked the endorsement, but said she she would revoke it “if” all the horrible things he said about Jewish people, gay people and people of color “are true.”)
The debate would also serve as an opportunity for Hobbs to introduce herself to Arizona voters, many of whom have no idea that she’s actually a moderate Democrat. In other words, she’s the kind of person who can win Arizona, if she actually makes her case.
But instead of taking the opportunity to contrast herself with Lake, Hobbs late last week signaled she may chicken out of the Clean Elections debate, breaking with decades of tradition where voters get to hear from their gubernatorial candidates in at least one major debate. Her campaign said it’s seeking changes to the format of the debate to ensure it doesn’t become a circus of Lake’s lies. It’s a disingenuous argument, considering there is no debate format that would preclude Lake from stepping onto the stage and delivering her well-rehearsed lies to a statewide audience.
Lake is rejoicing. She’s having a lot of fun trolling Hobbs as a coward, and she even offered to let Hobbs pick a moderator. (Lake’s campaign previously got Republic reporter Stacey Barchenger removed as a moderator during the primary debate.)
“Hell, I’ll even let you write all the questions,” Lake said in a video.
If Hobbs doesn’t show up to the debate, it doesn’t get canceled. Instead, the only televised debate between the two turns into a one-woman show. Lake will get unfettered access to the airwaves to spread her hate and lies, reined in only by Arizona PBS’ Ted Simons. That’s what happened during the Democratic primary, when Hobbs didn’t debate primary challenger Marco Lopez. She still easily won the primary, but the general is much closer — and the stakes much higher.
Democrats frequently complain about those of us in the political press who demand better of their candidates. Yesterday, for example, Arizona Democratic Party Chair Raquel Terán penned an op-ed in the Republic saying she’s tired of hearing from the press that the “solutions-oriented” slate of Democrats are destined to fumble this election to the doomsday slate of Republican statewide candidates.
“Trust that Democrats are the ones fighting to defend your freedom from these attacks and defend every Arizonan’s bodily autonomy and individual choices,” she wrote.
That line seems to summarize the Democratic position: Just trust that Democrats are fighting for you against these crazy Republicans. Nevermind that the top Democrat isn’t technically showing up to the fight. She’s got “solutions.”
To be clear, Lake represents a dark threat to our democracy. Besides having no experience for the job, she’s a mean and vicious bully. But she’s tough. She’s quick on her feet. She’s polished. And most of all, she’s all over the campaign trail, talking to voters. And those kinds of things matter to voters who don’t fall into hardcore partisan camps.
Instead of demanding the press give Hobbs a pass, those in the Democratic bubble would be wise to demand Hobbs show up to the biggest moment of her race.
An old ban or a new one: A Pima County court heard arguments on Friday in a decades-old injunction that’s prevented a law banning abortion from being enforced in the case that will decide how Arizona can criminalize the practice going forward. The judge said she wouldn’t rule until on or after Sept. 19 because of a procedural issue, giving abortion providers about a month to continue providing abortion care. A 15-week abortion ban signed into law earlier this year is set to go into effect on Sept. 24.
The Latino-American dream: The Republican National Committee opened a new Latino outreach center in Tucson over the weekend, Arizona Public Media’s Andrew Oxford reports. AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward declared that “POC” (person of color) in Republican parlance means “person of character” since the GOP doesn’t see color. Meanwhile, Democrats say they’re not taking Latino voters for granted, though they’re worried that issues like inflation will push the traditionally Democratic-leaning group toward Republicans this year, the Republic’s Gregory Svirnovskiy writes. And inflation and the economy are top of Latinos’ minds, according to new polling, but so are gun issues. Finally, the New York Times’ Jazmine Ulloa argues that the phrase “the American Dream” is being repurposed by Republican candidates of color, like Arizona congressional candidate Juan Ciscomani.
Another initiative bites the dust: The Arizona Supreme Court agreed with the Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s argument that voters can’t refer tax measures to the ballot for a “citizen veto,” the Associated Press reports. The court had already kicked the referendum off the ballot several months ago, but on Friday it issued a ruling explaining its rationale, saying that because it’s a tax measure, voters cannot block it, which is a severe new precedent.
Ballot measures to protect ballot measures might not get to ballot: The Free and Fair Elections citizens’ initiative is on life support after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge invalidated nearly 100,000 of its signatures to qualify for the ballot. The initiative would ask voters to approve a host of liberal-backed election changes, including rolling back so-called election integrity laws Republicans lawmakers have passed in recent years. That alone wouldn’t be enough to invalidate the initiative, which filed more than 200,000 more signatures than necessary to qualify, but counties have also invalidated a whole lot of those signatures.
It’s pretty easy to spell, actually: Democrats are divided about how much to talk on the campaign trail about Republicans representing a threat to democracy, Politico writes, since it polls very low on the list of people’s concerns.
“One Democratic strategist who advises major party donors told me, ‘Most Americans can’t even spell democracy,’” Politico’s David Siders writes.
Both are good options: A lot of lawmakers lost their re-elections or bids for higher office, and the Capitol Times’ Camryn Sanchez hit them up to see what they’re doing now. House Speaker Rusty Bowers wants to go to Romania and “paint pictures of Romanian haystacks,” while Rep. John Fillmore is “recuperating” by “drinking incessantly” while “camping in a motel” in the “mountains of Oregon.”
“Advocate” can mean anything: A woman featured in an anti-Katie Hobbs ad being run by the Republican Governors Association describes herself as an “advocate for human trafficking victims,” though the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy notes that she doesn’t work with established trafficking organizations and cited her involvement in the issue by pointing to attendance at a “QAnon-adjacent” march at the Arizona Capitol.
Government that doesn’t work: All five commissioners on the Citizens Clean Elections Commission have now expired their terms, but replacements haven’t been picked yet, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. It’s technically Gov. Doug Ducey’s turn to appoint a replacement (and the governor has a history of lapsing appointments on commissions), but some want Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the other person tasked with appointing commissioners, to appoint someone if Ducey won’t. Elsewhere in government oversight, the Republic’s Ray Stern details lenient fines for violating campaign finance laws set by the Secretary of State’s Office don’t compel scofflaw politicians, like state Rep. César Chávez, to then start obeying the law.
Mighty Mitch: After U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared his chances of taking back the Senate are low because of the “quality” of candidates Republicans nominated, U.S. Senate Republican hopeful Blake Masters is trying to woo McConnell into supporting him. He acknowledged he’s probably not McConnell’s “favorite candidate” after talking smack about the minority leader, but said he hopes McConnell spends money to support him and the two will “find a way to work together,” the Associated Press reports.
We all gotta learn about water: In the aftermath of the latest cuts to Arizona’s Colorado River water supply, the state has taken up its frequent hobby of pointing fingers at California, saying our neighbors to the West aren’t willing to share the burden of further cuts, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. In the Tucson Sentinel, Blake Morlock laments the long-standing refusal to create policy that actually grapples with climate change, and now we’re seeing the direct effects that has on Arizonans. Instead of instituting policies to conserve, some now look at ideas like a pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona. The situation is so urgent at this point that someone needs to be the hammer and force more dramatic cuts to ensure Lake Mead survives — and it should be the feds, the Daily Star’s Tim Steller argues, noting that everyone in the water world thought the feds would announce these cuts last week. And if you want to learn more about Lake Mead itself (and all the stuff we could see rise up as water levels keep dropping), check out this story from the Republic’s Lane Sainty.
Press passes are for actual press: Gateway Pundit fake news reporter and all-around asshole Jordan Conradson had his press pass to the state Senate revoked after his domestic violence arrest earlier this year, the Yellow Sheet Report reports. We won’t defend Conradson, the fake news crew he works for or his actions — the fact he doesn’t actually work for a news outlet is reason enough to not grant a press pass. But it’s worth noting that the Legislature can wield its press passes based on personal grievances and negative coverage: Hank once had his press access revoked from the state House after getting in a drunken bar fight in Wickenburg, Arizona, though it was really for making the speaker look bad.
We recommend us: In Hank’s latest for Politico, he explains that Republicans who actually know Finchem are shocked at his transformation from back-bench lamaker to statewide nominee, saying Finchem hasn’t changed, the electorate has. And Rachel breaks down the timeline of the massive SNAFU in Pinal County’s elections, writing in Votebeat that no single factor or person was responsible for the series of screw-ups, but there were plenty of red flags.
So quirky. So individualistic: The Inflation Reduction Act is good, but it would have been a lot better without Democratic U.S. Sen. and “quirky individualist” Kyrsten Sinema watering it down to protect the rich, Steven Rattner, a former counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, writes in the New York Times’ opinion pages. He declares the package “a missed opportunity of extraordinary scale.” Meanwhile, Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia whose name is often cited alongside Sinema’s, called out Sinema for forcing the Democratic bill to narrow prescription drug pricing provisions to get her vote, NBC News reports.
We’re always the vanguard: After getting hit the hardest by the housing market bubble and related recession in 2008, the Sun Belt is now getting pummeled by inflation, and the region could again serve as a bellwether to tell us whether it’s gonna get better or worse, the New York Times reports.
Some follow-ups on the cops: The Flagstaff police chief is “preparing to return to work” after a temporary leave following an investigation into a “sex trafficking investigation” showed officers got naked and fondled while undercover at massage parlors. And after Tempe police didn’t rescue a drowning man in Tempe Town Lake, Tempe officers will now get water rescue equipment and training.
A strange one: A man who was arrested a few miles from the U.S-Mexico border with four AK-47s, one of which had a filed-off serial number, ended up in Santa Cruz County court instead of federal court, being sentenced for a minor plea, the Nogales International’s Jonathan Clark reports. The circumstances that led to the plea deal show that it was unclear whether the man was taking the guns to sell in Mexico and whether he knew the serial number was missing.
It’s rare when we’re envious of another state’s news cycle — Arizona has so much going on, we usually enjoy being the center of the political universe.
But the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz is providing so many LOLs, we wish we were covering it. The video of Oz shopping for crudité (that’s a veggie tray, for those of who aren’t elite enough to work random French words into your vocabulary) became an instant meme: He didn’t know the name of the grocery store, he grabbed whatever was in front of him including raw asparagus, he bought pre-made guacamole and salsa.
And now, we’re learning the dangers of using your existing website, which for Oz was focused on the medical stuff that got him on Oprah and rocketed him to fame, to run for office.
I hope Lake doesn't take back that Jackson endorsement.
Katie, if you can't take on this half wit what are you going to do when you have to face someone with a fully functioning brain? Debate!