The Daily Agenda: There are worse things than losing an election
The Daily Agenda: There are worse things than losing an election
Doug strikes while Mark hides ... He's on the ballot, but not running ... And it's all about the kids.
Gov. Doug Ducey issued his first veto of the year Friday, knocking down an election bill that Democrats dubbed SB1070 for elections. Republican Rep. Joseph Chaplik’s House Bill 2617 would have allowed anybody to allege a voter is not eligible to vote and forced county recorders to investigate.
The bill was problematic for a number of reasons — and the governor showed some spine by vetoing it. He could have just as easily set aside his misgivings and signed the legislation to avoid the far-right outrage cycle that has so many politicians cowering these days.
Instead, Ducey stuck to his guns, and in his veto letter, zeroed in on the fact that the bill could be abused by election integrity activists and lead voters to be rejected without due process.
“This provision leaves our election system vulnerable to bad actors who could seek to falsely allege a voter is not a qualified elector,” Ducey said in his veto letter.
Arizona Republican Party leader Kelli Ward dubbed the governor “Unamerican” and a “rat” (technically she used the emoji — 🐀 ) for vetoing the bill. Chaplik called the veto “shocking,” saying he had worked with the Governor’s Office on an amendment to ensure it won the governor’s signature, while Ducey’s spokesman cryptically offered that Chaplik “knows the reason for the veto.”
And while Ducey is taking heat from the right for quashing the bill, Attorney General Mark Brnovich is trying to score points with the election deniers by dodging his duties to defend the state’s early voting system from Ward’s lawsuit seeking to eliminate early voting altogether.
The lawsuit, which improbably argues that Arizona’s early and mail voting laws are unconstitutional, is legally ludicrous and Brnovich knows it. More to the point, it would end mail voting in Arizona. About 80% of Arizona voters vote by mail, including Ward, Brnovich and nearly every other person you hear screaming about how mail-in ballots were used to steal the 2020 election.
The choice facing Brnovich was an easy one: Do his job and defend the state, the law and the voters by fighting the lawsuit; or don’t do his job, cower to the election fraud crowd that hates him and hope that the other defendants will take care of it. Unfortunately, Brnovich chose the latter.
Brnovich will likely lose the GOP primary nomination for U.S. Senate no matter how many Arizonans he throws under the bus. But by cowering those who would promote lies and dismantle our elections, he’s already lost much more than an election.
Two Dems left: Aaron Lieberman dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for Arizona governor on Friday, acknowledging there “just not a realistic path forward in this race this year” for his campaign. Because he dropped out so late, his name will still be on the ballot. We’ll remember his run for top office for the ill-conceived idea of standing beside a raging dumpster fire — while a fitting representation of our state’s politics, choosing to stand by the dumpster yourself gives others an easy attack line. Lieberman’s exit leaves Democrats Katie Hobbs and Marco López on the left, and a crowded five-way race on the right (three of whom are serious contenders).
Keep your enemies close and your friends closer: As Senate President and audit queen Karen Fann and other election-denying lawmakers prepare for a press conference today to spout more misinformation about fraud, Fann is coming under fire from her allies for not letting treasure hunter Jovan Pulitzer be a part of their show.
No bill dies til sine die: Arizona lawmakers revived Rep. Michelle Udall’s attempt to limit instruction on “critical race theory” or any topics that could lead to judging someone on the basis of their race or ethnicity, not just in K-12 schools, but in higher education courses for teachers and for guest speakers in classrooms. Among the topics the bill would make illegal for discussion in a classroom: the racist motivation of the Buffalo mass shooting. Teachers who violate the law could lose their teaching license. House Republicans passed the bill on party lines, though the Senate will need to sign off on it before it could hit Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk. Last year, a similar law passed muster as part of the state budget, though the provision was one of many struck down by the courts for logrolling.
What’s a nation to do?: In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tim Steller argues that people shouldn’t become numb to these too-frequent massacres, pointing instead to laws that could prevent more of them, like red flag laws, universal background checks and limits for teenage gun purchasers. And some schools in rural areas look to safety measures, further training, working more with local cops, school resource officers and evaluations of their campuses’ “vulnerabilities” to shooters, the Green Valley News’ Jamie Verwys reports. (As schools and elected officials consider how to respond to Uvalde, though, they should look to the timeline of police inaction before jumping to more officers on campus.)
A document to show what you already knew: The Arizona Auditor General’s Office flagged $22 million that Ducey misspent from federal COVID-19 relief dollars in the span of a few months in 2020, the Arizona Mirror’s Dillon Rosenblatt reports. The audit, which only covered fiscal year 2020, showed Ducey used the funds to cover payroll costs for state and local government from before the public health emergency started. Ducey’s flagrant use of COVID-19 funds is well-documented, like the programs he set up to ding schools that had pandemic measures like masking in place.
It’s not in your head: Everyone really is moving to Arizona, with several cities seeing some of the nation’s highest population growth rates, the Census tells us. Among the boomtowns are Queen Creek, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Maricopa and Goodyear. Phoenix saw the second-largest number of new residents, following San Antonio, Texas.
Good thing water systems aren’t all connected: Because a copper mining company gave up its Clean Water Act permit, it can go ahead and pollute the streams on its private land in the Santa Rita Mountains, but it can’t dump materials into other waterways, a judge ruled, the Republic’s Zayna Syed reports.
Loons of a feather: Fresh off a censure for her violent and anti-semetic rhetoric and now deep into her second ethics investigation from her Republican colleagues, state Sen. Wendy Rogers scored a high-profile endorsement from Kari Lake.
Where are your elected officials?: Ducey is in Israel this week on a confab with Arizona business leaders to talk about water, trade and border issues. And one of them isn’t elected to anything yet, but both Lake and Katie Hobbs skipped out on a governor candidate forum with business and education groups late last week.
We also support voting on your phone! Voting with your dollars for the Arizona Agenda, that is. Not voting for politicians in real elections — that could compromise the integrity of Arizona’s excellent election system.
First police shooting test case for Mitchell: Chase Bebak-Miller, the Chandler police officer who shot and killed 17-year-old Anthony Cano, won’t be charged, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced last week. In declining to bring charges, Mitchell said the officer’s shooting was not unreasonable and that he wasn’t likely to be convicted if he was charged.
Speaking of the county attorney: The forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion restrictions brings new importance to the Maricopa County attorney’s race, as the local prosecutors will decide whether and how to prosecute abortion providers, The Appeal’s Meg O’Connor reports. There’s been a lot of attention on the abortion ban on the books since before statehood and the recent 15-week abortion ban, but little mention of a 2021 fetal personhood law that could come into play for local prosectuors, O’Connor notes. Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said she wouldn’t prosecute abortion cases, and Coconino County Attorney Bill Ring said his office is unlikely to prosecute cases that fall under the 15-week ban.
Wait extended: Migrants have been waiting for years in border towns for Title 42 to end so they can enter the U.S. and request asylum. But as the legal fight over the policy drags on, they’ll have to wait at least several months more, the Republic’s Clara Migoya reports.
Who’s afraid of a committee interview?: U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is one of several House Republicans refusing to comply with subpoenas from Congress’ January 6 committee, though it’s unclear if the committee will pursue contempt charges against the lawmakers for refusing the subpoenas, the New York Times reports.
Waterworlds: ABC15’s Courtney Holmes delivers a multi-part series about the fate of groundwater in rural Arizona, where wells are running dry, costing residents extra money and putting businesses in competition with residents for dwindling water resources. Meanwhile, in Utah, a settlement between the state, the feds and the Navajo Nation gives water rights on the San Juan River to the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, allowing homes in the area to connect to running water, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. In exchange, the tribe agreed not to sue for more water rights to the Colorado River system.
The sorry state of prison health care: A woman whose son died by suicide while in a state prison in Buckeye is suing the state, saying her son’s death was the result of negligence by prison staff, including prison health care providers, the Arizona Capitol Times’ Kyra Haas reports. Separately, the state signed up a new prison health care contractor, NaphCare, which paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle claims for overcharging federal prisons, the Republic’s Jimmy Jenkins reports.
City/university swapsies: Some parking lots at the southeast corner of McKinley and First streets on Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus will revert to City of Phoenix ownership as part of the university’s deal with the city in the early 2000s, and the city council will decide how to use the parcels of downtown real estate, KJZZ’s Christina Estes reports.
His first name is Brandon: Meet the guy behind the Valley’s most ubiquitous lawyer billboards, Rafi.
We’ve got three simple words for you: Invasive feral hogs1.
An eviction order on your record — even if you win the eviction case — can make it nearly impossible to find housing.
Republican Rep. Justin Wilmeth is trying to ensure that housing background checks don’t catch eviction records unless a person was actually evicted. His House Bill 2485 requires courts to seal all records about evictions if the eviction is settled, including by paying back rent and fees, or the tenant wins their case.
“Right now, innocent tenants are being labeled with a scarlet letter,” Wilmeth said, adding that the problem will get worse with post-pandemic renting eviction processes resuming.
But others, including Republican Sen. David Livingston, argued the bill is too lenient on renters who have been late on rent and doesn’t take into account the landlord’s “emotional stress of evicting somebody.”
The bill passed the House 50-8 and is heading to a vote on the Senate floor today.
Students and parents at the Arizona Virtual Academy graduation ceremony heckled their commencement speaker, U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, after she used the speech to deliver an election stump speech that didn’t mention the graduates or their accomplishments.
Lesko instead brought up school choice, student loan forgiveness and her own newsletter (we sympathize), according to KJZZ’s Vaughan Jones. She brought voter registration forms and handed them out. Lesko said her speech was the same as one she gave to another school that same day, and it was intended to encourage students to vote.
“This should have been all about the kids and their accomplishments. And, and it wasn’t, and that’s why parents got frustrated. And that’s why she was only there for 10 minutes. And that’s why she walked out as soon as she was done,” parent Charlie Butler told KJZZ.
And if you really wanna geek out on invasive feral hogs and their exact numbers, here’s a fantastic episode of the great Reply All podcast about it. (RIP, Reply All.)
So, a liberal activist, Butler, takes advantage of the school choice environment that Congressman Lesko created and heckles her out of her speaking role. Worse, the school goes along with the heckling. Arizona is number one in the nation in school choice. As an Arizona legislator, Congressman Debbie Lesko was one of the top 5 creators of school choice in AZ history.