The Daily Agenda: Knocking is part of the job

But harassing Wendy Rogers is the best part of the job ... Bipartisan budget complete ... And we read the comments for once.

A Flagstaff judge shot down Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers’ restraining order against Capitol Times reporter Camryn Sanchez yesterday, saying her investigative reporting serves a legitimate public purpose and a reasonable person would not consider Sanchez’s actions “harassment.”

Of course, Rogers is not a reasonable person.

“I mean, kids come on Halloween and knock on doors. I’ve knocked on thousands of doors in my elections, as have you, Senator Rogers,” Judge Howard Grodman said before lifting the restraining order that another judge had issued.

The ruling was a victory for the press and the First Amendment. But the order should have never been issued. The decision to grant it hinged not only on absurd claim that a reporter harassed a sitting state senator by investigating her potential illegal activity, but on the idea that showing up to a politician’s door is somehow out of the ordinary for reporters. 

Just like politicians, reporters knock on doors. At least the good ones, like Sanchez, do. That’s part of the job. 

Over the years, we’ve knocked on the doors of more politicians than we care to remember. But a few highlights do come to mind. We staked out former Democratic Rep. Daniel Patterson for days back in 2008 in an attempt to prove he lived at his campaign manager/girlfriend’s house outside his district after he left his wife. We knocked on former Republican Rep. Darin Mitchell’s doors back in 2012 to prove he was not living in the Republican district he represented, but rather in a solidly blue district next door. We also knocked on the door of his seatmate, Rep. Steve Montenegro, to check if he lived in his district and ask if he knew where Mitchell lived. 

None of them were happy to see us. But they didn’t file restraining orders.¹

TV reporters are even more prolific knockers. They ring doorbells of normal people every day, often to ask about tragedies or traumatic moments. It’s not an easy job. But it is the job, and people are often thankful to have an opportunity to tell their story. Politicians are often less thankful. 

Good reporters don’t drop a story because a politician doesn’t want to talk. That would be an abdication of our professional duty. Reporters give politicians an opportunity to respond to allegations. If they don’t take it, we may stick a microphone in their faces and ask again. Or we may simply show up and investigate. We’re pushy people. 

And that’s exactly what you should demand from a free press, unless you’re a politician breaking the law, cheating the taxpayers or otherwise doing something shady. 

Which brings us back to Rogers. When she applied for the restraining order, Rogers never used the words “fear,” “afraid,” “intimidated,” or mentioned feeling physically threatened. Instead, she was focused on whether the reporter would “learn their lesson” and if the restraining order would go on Sanchez’s permanent criminal record. But in her press release the next day, the keyboard warrior and retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel was terrified of what the 24-year-old reporter who rang her doorbell might do. 

“I don’t know what she is capable of… I don’t trust that this person won’t lash out and try to physically harm me in some fashion,” she wrote in a press release. 

Rogers was scared. But not for her safety. She got the restraining order because she knew Sanchez was hot on her trail.

The idea that Rogers lives in a 1,000 square foot mobile home in Flagstaff rather than one of the two houses she owns in the Valley where neighbors say she’s lived full-time for years simply doesn’t pass the smell test. And it’s not unimaginable that she’s bilking the taxpayers on per diem payments and mileage reimbursements that she’s not entitled to. Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure since the restraining order effectively cut short Sanchez’s investigation.

When a politician can’t avoid a reporter or kill a story, they go on the attack. We’ve been on the receiving end of that, too. It’s not fun. But it's part of the job. 

While simultaneously criticizing the governor for delivering them such a terrible deal and patting themselves on the back for making it better, House Democrats split their votes on the budget proposal yesterday. A little more than half of the the House Democratic caucus supported the main budget bill. Republicans in the House unanimously supported the nearly $18 billion spending plan. 

The package is now on its way to Gov. Katie Hobbs. 

Here’s a roundup of some of the reporting about what’s in it:

• The Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl has the most comprehensive list of all the big and little pet projects in the budget, including everything from a $1,000 art supply grant for teachers to $15 million for renovations at the Prescott Rodeo Grounds.

• The budget put $150 million into the Housing Trust Fund. Last year, the fund spent $60 million on a transitional housing facility in Phoenix, youth shelter in homelessness in Flagstaff and “40 container homes for formerly incarcerated people working at an egg farm in Tonopah, among other projects,” the Republic’s Juliette Rihl writes. 

• It included some significant investments in highways and roads, including $89 million to support the $400 million the state already committed to widening Interstate 10, Howie Fischer writes in Pinal Central.

• The budget took a chunk out of the $1 billion water infrastructure investment that Gov. Doug Ducey championed last year. The plan was to provide $333 million per year for three years, but this year’s allocation was almost cut in half, the Republic’s Joanna Allhands writes. 

• While it wasn’t officially part of the budget, and it wasn’t the cap on growth they wanted, Democrats were able to negotiate an ad hoc committee over the summer to study how to provide oversight on Arizona’s “growing and complex” universal school voucher program, Kevin Reagan reports for 12News.

• The budget did not include any state investment in local news organizations like the Arizona Agenda. But you can fix that with a single click.

Dramacopa County: Maricopa County supervisors got into a heated argument with county School Superintendent Steve Watson at yesterday’s board meeting and passed a resolution refusing to fund the county’s alternative school districts that he oversees because of what they called Watson’s history of misspending and misreporting millions in taxpayer money, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka reports. Her story includes a fun history of the drama and corruption in that office over the years. The county also approved its plan for stricter lines dividing labor and communications from the Elections Department, which the county supervisors oversee, and the Recorder’s Office, which the recorder oversees, Hupka reports. Both sides deny any internal tensions after the 2022 Election Day fiasco prompted the change. Meanwhile, County Recorder Stephen Richer told KTAR’s Barry Markson that he’s not worried about Kari Lake’s claim that she has “whistleblowers” that will prove her lawsuit’s claim that Maricopa County didn’t properly vet ballot signatures. 

“She’s filed two election contests and she’s been sanctioned in both. So I think that speaks to the credibility of the allegations and the type of lawyers we’re dealing with here,” Richer said. “But regardless of that, the actual allegations are, of course, preposterous.” 

Super techy: Coconino County is trying to find a “new tech” way to use the unusable wood collected from forest thinning, Michel Marizco reports for the Fronteras Desk. Basically, they’re burning it and putting the charred wood into the ground. 

Stop lights, free rides and alt-fuels: Mohave County Supervisors unsuccessfully asked state officials to pull down a new stoplight on a major highway through town, and several accidents later, they’re considering taking their complaint to the Legislature, Havasu News’ Brandon Messick reports. The retirees in Sun City are switching from driving golf carts to riding in driverless cars now that AARP is sponsoring a program for a free driverless car service around town, Axios Phoenix’s Jessica Boehm reports. Buses in Tucson will remain free after the Tucson City Council decided they’ll figure out how to pay for it later, the Arizona Luminaria’s Becky Pallack writes. And if you heard Democrats at the Capitol talking about the looming “alt-schools” fiasco and didn’t get the reference, Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda has you covered. 

The end of the Zone: The City of Phoenix started evicting hundreds of homeless people from the Zone in downtown yesterday, Jack Healy reports in the New York Times. Though the city says it’s trying to find shelter for everyone as it starts clearing out the area block-by-block, many have nowhere to go because they have pets or convictions that bar them from transitional housing. 

Get your pointing fingers ready: Whether they liked Title 42 or not, it seems all politicians are calling the end of Title 42 a failure, including a bipartisan crew of Arizona sheriffs. And Gov. Katie Hobbs found some numbers to add to that Title 42 plan she announced Monday: She started five new bus routes to take people from border communities to Tucson (where the shelters are full) and the state has $7 million it can make “immediately available” to scale up transportation, shelter and public safety operations, the Republic’s José Ignacio Castañeda Perez reports.

Wait until summer: Arizona is home to an elite open water swimming competition where athletes brace “bone-chilling” water temperatures for a four-day, 40-mile race across the Saguaro, Canyon, Apache and Roosevelt lakes, the New York Times reports in a profile of the event and its swimmers. 

Government that works: State agencies spent $5 million to support post-fire flooding recovery efforts in Coconino County last summer and another nearly $11 million to support long-term flood mitigation efforts, and local officials are thankful for the money and collaboration, the Daily Sun’s Adrian Skabelund reports. 

“[We] had some of those reimbursements back the same week. That is unheard of in government,” Wes Dison, the director of the county’s emergency management department, said.

We watched reporter Camryn Sanchez’s legal victory over Sen. Wendy Rogers yesterday on Right Side Broadcasting Network. 

But really, we couldn’t stop watching the comments section. 

1. Although we have also been slapped with a restraining order from a subject of an investigation who didn’t want to be investigated. And just like Sanchez, we won that fight in court.