The Daily Agenda: The confusion is the point
Ask two different politicians, get three different answers ... Only six weeks until the ads stop ... And they're pro-Trump furries.
Confusion, once again, reigns on abortion access in Arizona.
Even after the Pima County ruling on Friday that lifted an injunction on a pre-statehood outright abortion ban, Gov. Doug Ducey continues to refer to a new 15-week abortion ban as prevailing law.
Those two statutes are in conflict, and so are Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich on which one now affects Arizonans.
Brnovich sought to lift the Pima County court injunction. AG spokeswoman Katie Conner said via email that the AG’s goal with that case was to “seek clarity” and noted that the new 15-week ban specifically included language that the pre-statehood ban was not repealed1. Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson’s ruling mentions, albeit briefly, the 15-week ban and the language not repealing the full ban. Conner said the ruling means the pre-statehood ban is “now in effect.”
“If Arizonans disagree with the law, they should contact their legislators or the governor,” Conner said.
But decisions on how to enforce the statute fall to county attorneys, who Conner notes have “primary jurisdiction” on enforcing it.
Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s opinion on the ruling aligns more with Ducey’s: She said on Monday that the Pima County ruling did not resolve which law now applies.
Mitchell said her office hasn’t received any case submittals, but if it does, she would ask the courts for guidance before taking any action on the case. She also said she won’t prosecute women who get abortions, which is not what the law would require anyway.
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, a Democrat, said her office “will be looking at available legal remedies” after Planned Parenthood lost the case. Conover, and the City of Tucson, have said they don’t plan to prosecute over the abortion law.
The governor, if he were interested in governing, could simply call a special session to bring lawmakers back to clarify the issue.
We don’t expect that to happen. Ducey’s position on special sessions has been that he’d call one if there were enough votes on a given issue, and there’s likely little appetite among the Republican-dominated Legislature to clarify the confusion, because that confusion stopped abortion providers from offering the procedure in Arizona.
A special session to clarify the law would also require Republican lawmakers to vote directly on the outright abortion ban, just before a November election where abortion has animated voters.
In the meantime, women seeking abortions at Arizona clinics told the Associated Press that they were turned away and forced to find other options, like going to nearby states or trying to get abortion medications online.
Hospitals will have to decide how to interpret the “life of the mother” provision, the only exemption in the outright ban. The state likely needs to provide them guidance on how to proceed. (We’ve asked the Arizona Department of Health Services if or when this guidance can be expected.) And the courts will continue to play a role in how this all will work.
We are in uncharted legal territory, and we need clarity, not political posturing, from our leaders.
Tell me something I don’t know: The Republic commissioned a poll to tell us what we all know: The gubernatorial race is super tight and Democrat Mark Kelly is slightly leading Republican Blake Masters in the U.S. Senate race. Both races are within the poll’s margin of error. The poll also asked voters which issues they cared most about (inflation, abortion and threats to democracy, which can mean two very different things) and which politicians are viewed most favorably (it’s Kelly).
Oh good, more ads: Gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs both put up new ads yesterday. Lake’s focuses on dispelling the “lies” you’ve probably heard about her and explaining her upbringing, while Hobbs’ focuses on her tax cut policies.
Speaking of taxes, as small business owners, we pay a lot of them. Help us keep the IRS happy by becoming a paid subscriber today.
Our own Steve Bannon: An Arizona knife-maker’s podcast has become a must-visit campaign stop for Republican candidates, even though the guy who runs it, Greg Medford, says all sorts of racist, homophobic and otherwise uncool things, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy writes in a mini profile of the show.2
Maybe for 2024: Arizona’s new law making it a felony to knowingly register someone to vote if they’re registered in another state is on hold after voting rights groups argued it’s unconstitutional, Capitol scribe Howard Fischer reports. The case is still ongoing, but with the voter registration deadline only two weeks away, the injunction means the law likely won’t be in effect this election cycle.
Bob Burns’ revenge: Eight years after APS tried to buy favorable regulators with dark money, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an individual commissioner does, in fact, have the right to subpoena documents from utility companies, as former commissioner Bob Burns attempted to do to find out if APS was secretly buying favorable regulators with dark money.
If the press hates you, Kari likes you: Lake went on Tucker Carlson’s show to say she identifies with the newly elected far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney because they’re both described as fascists and racists in the press (also, both are former reporters), much like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar. In other Fox News, Lake went on Maria Bartiromo’s show3 to declare that Democrats are “politicizing” the issue of abortion.
Rest in peace: The longest-serving staffer in the state Senate died Saturday, the Arizona Capitol Times’ Camryn Sanchez reports. Maintenance Supervisor Miguel “Mikey” Rendon worked in the Senate for 45 years after being born in Mexico in 1950 and immigrating to Arizona in the 1970s.
No referendum, no problem: The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board takes on Hobbs’ stance against school vouchers, declaring vouchers are a winning issue (see Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Virginia Glenn Youngkin) and claiming “Hobbs is doing the union’s bidding by trying to kill ESAs.”
Killing her with kindness: The Washington Post’s newsletter, The Early 202, writes about Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s cozy relationship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, noting that Arizona politicos are “unafraid to harshly criticize their leaders in recent years.” Meanwhile, The Hill covers U.S. Rep. (and likely Sinema 2024 challenger) Ruben Gallego’s Twitter thread talking smack about Sinema.
“There is no doubt that Kyrsten Sinema is the best Republican to come out of Arizona in years,” Arizona Republican operative Barrett Marson told the Post.
He’ll do it his way: Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawsuit is still dogging Sheriff Paul Penzone, who is facing an upcoming contempt of court ruling against him after data shows his office still takes way too long to do internal investigations about police misconduct. Phoenix New Times’ Katya Schwenk notes it sometimes takes years for the office to investigate pretty open-and-shut cases of abuse.
Just trust them: The Tucson Unified School District is refusing to disclose which schools, if any, received security upgrades like fencing, cameras and keyless entry systems, after the district said it was beefing up security features at schools that don’t have them. The district refused to turn over records about the upgrades to the Arizona Daily Star’s Genesis Lara, citing a broad exemption in the public records laws for not disclosing records if it’s in “the best interest” of the state to keep them private.
Chihuahua for official state dog: The Apache trout, the official state fish of Arizona, was among the first fish to be recognized on the Endangered Species List, but its population is again booming and it may be delisted, the Republic’s Jake Frederico writes. In other animal news, a chihuahua named Cooper won Safford’s annual chihuahua race, the Eastern Arizona Courier’s Tom Bodus writes in this lovely profile of the local mainstay event.
The fact that someone harassed and threatened to shoot two people in Show Low isn’t funny.
But this story in the White Mountain Independent about the two “furries” who were threatened is both hilarious and terribly cringey. Just give it a read.
In its arguments to lift the injunction on the 1864 ban, the AG’s office noted the Legislature has, over the years, reaffirmed its interest in keeping that law on the books. The most recent example, as we noted, was this year, in the bill that included the 15-week ban. But the Legislature also “re-codified” the 1864 ban, a process we haven’t seen during our time covering the Legislature.
We previously laughed at Lake’s interview with Medford when he grilled her on what kind of gun she owns.
The b-roll on that show depicted people crossing the border in “Narcos, Arizona” presumably meaning the border town of “Naco.”
Thanks for the shout out to Mike Rendon, the longest serving Senate staffer. He was a hard worker who always had a smile on his face. And he worked for 17 Senate Presidents. I thought my working for 10 Senate Presidents was impressive....not so much. RIP Mikey.
"we need clarity, not political posturing, from our leaders." Your expectations are way too high.