Resurrecting politicians
While we were out, the gubernatorial candidates picked their running mates to be Arizona’s first-ever lieutenant governor.
Republican Andy Biggs tapped former GOP Sen. Sine Kerr, a dairy farmer from Buckeye who decided not to run for reelection in 2024.
Like Biggs, Kerr is a staunch conservative, especially when it comes to abortion and water, and critics note she does not add much diversity to the hardline ticket.
Meanwhile, Gov. Katie Hobbs finally confirmed that she had chosen former Republican Mesa Mayor John Giles as her second-in-command a full week after the New York Times broke the news.
The rollout of the announcement itself was newsworthy for being “clunky and confusing — some might say botched,” as the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger put it. However, the choice itself was widely praised as savvy, considering Giles is a former Republican who has harshly criticized the Trumpification of his party and endorsed Kamala Harris.
Fun side note: One of the main talking points for creating a lieutenant governor position was to prevent a Republican secretary of state from ascending to the Governor’s Office if a Democratic governor left mid-term, or vice versa. AKA a Jan Brewer-like ascension to the Governor’s Office, as we discussed with the idea’s champion, Republican Sen. JD Mesnard, in this edition.
Fun side side note: Even Brewer thinks we should have a lieutenant governor position so voters don’t get stuck with a governor who belongs to the opposite party of what the voters chose.
But Giles ultimately ditched the GOP and reregistered as an independent this May, so that Democrat-to-Republican succession technically can’t happen.
Still debating the merit of debates
Hobbs also confirmed that she will once again refuse to debate her opponent.
When she was facing Kari Lake, Hobbs said she wouldn’t debate because Lake was an election denier. (Though she also refused to debate her Democratic primary opponent that year, Marco Lopez.)
This time around, she said she’s not debating Biggs because debates are just political theater. She also accused Biggs of “dodging” many debates as a congressman.
Meanwhile, Giles is following suit, saying, “Anybody who watched that last Republican primary debate on television would like to get an hour of their lives back.”
C’mon, John, you can give us a better show!
Also, does anyone still believe she dodged those debates because Lake was an election denier?
Soooo, uhhhh, what’s on my ballot?
Lawsuits are still flying over the 10 questions that could be on your November ballot — and the courts have until Thursday, when ballots and the publicity pamphlet go to print, to sort it out.
Prop 212, the citizens initiative to regulate school vouchers, scored a legal victory when the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Republican lawmakers had written an “argumentative, speculative, and non-neutral” summary of the initiative in the publicity pamphlet in an attempt to sway voters against it. Republican lawmakers will have to rewrite that summary. There’s also an appeal to the state Supreme Court over whether Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ description of the measure on the ballot using the word “voucher” is overstepping. Fontes lost that at the trial court level.
However, the fate of the anti-voucher initiative is still in question, as a lawsuit continues over whether enough of the signatures collected to qualify for the ballot are actually valid. The Maricopa County Superior Court delivered a muddy answer last week because two counties hadn’t reported their validity rates.
Yesterday, opponents of the measure declared victory when those rates came in. Supporters said not so fast, as the whole thing is being appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court anyway.
Meanwhile, Prop 145, Republican lawmakers’ “poison pill” referral to attempt to undercut the anti-voucher initiative got thrown off the ballot by a trial court, which found it violated the separate amendment clause of the Arizona Constitution. That ruling is currently being appealed to the state Supreme Court.
While that appeal is ongoing, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Fontes can’t tell voters on the ballot that Prop 145 would nullify Prop 212 — because Prop 212 isn’t law yet. Fontes is appealing that ruling.Prop 143, the anti-union measure that Republican lawmakers put on the ballot as a response to the breakdown in legislative negotiations over vouchers, got kicked off the ballot by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge. Republican lawmakers, feeling the heat from police unions that would have also been affected, decided not to appeal.
Prop 144, the election reform effort spearheaded by election denier and secretary of state candidate Alexander Kolodin, is still awaiting two rulings from the Arizona Supreme Court. One case, arguing it violates the state’s separate amendment rule, got shot down at the trial court level, but that is being appealed.
If the Supreme Court flips that trial court ruling, the measure will get kicked off the ballot. And another, arguing Fontes’ explanation of the measure attempts to tip the scales against it, also got shot down at the trial court but is on appeal.
It was a green four months
After clean-energy advocates defeated Turning Point USA candidates and won a majority on the Salt River Project board this spring, the board appointed Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin to replace solar advocate Nick Brown, who stepped down.
That appointment means the board majority is no longer pro-clean-energy. But at least you can’t call Galvin a Turning Point lackey.
His money is no good here
The Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission voted to give GOP Corporation Commission candidate Ralph Heap public funding to run his campaign, despite also finding that there’s reason to believe he broke campaign finance laws that should disqualify him from funding.
The commission is continuing to investigate the matter, which we wrote about before we went on break.
At the center of the issue was that Heap had refused to sign an affidavit swearing he didn’t lie on campaign finance reports about how he acquired all those roadside signs, despite having hardly any money in his campaign account.
Heap says that the sign shop gave him those on a line of credit, and the sign shop owner backed him up with a sworn affidavit.
Heap argues he doesn’t have to disclose that line of credit. Clean Elections thinks otherwise.
Plus, there’s also a new complaint about Heap alleging a similar violation — that he didn’t report spending for petition circulators.
Maybe they gave him a line of credit, too?
Speaking of investigations
Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that she would wrap up her investigation into Hobbs’ alleged pay-to-play scheme with Sunshine Residential before the election.
In case you forgot, Sunshine is one of the more damning scandals of her first term: The company received a $4 million increase in its state contract after it donated $400,000 to Hobbs’ campaign, the Democratic Party and Hobbs’ inaugural fund.
The Republic did some hard digging last year on those receipts, prompting the fellow-Democrat AG to investigate.
Hobbs has refused to sit for an interview in that investigation, and her spokesman has claimed she had “no involvement in that decision.”
But the Republic reported last year that public records show her staff weighed the contributions when deciding to give the company a raise.
Wrecking homes, but not in North Carolina
Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema sat for a deposition in the “homewrecker” case brought against her by the now-ex-wife of Sinema’s former security guard who the Senator was sleeping with and finding jobs for in the U.S. Senate and at ASU.
Basically, Sinema owned up to all the accusation, but argued she never slept with him in North Carolina, so that state’s homewrecker law doesn’t apply to her.
The deposition didn’t add a lot of new details to the sordid affair, but you can read the whole thing here, if you’re into that kinda smut. There’s an evidentiary hearing in the case tomorrow.
The Agenda is back from a much-needed pre-election break, and we’re hitting the ground running with our second round of legislative debates.
In case you missed it, we’re moderating this year’s legislative debates in partnership with the Arizona Clean Elections Commission. Nicole moderated the first debate of the general election cycle for Legislative District 13’s House and Senate seats last night, and you can watch it here.
We’re just getting started! Check out the full schedule of this year’s debates here.
Got questions for the candidates? Submit them here.
Debates this week
Tuesday, Aug. 18 — LD16 (Casa Grande, Maricopa, Florence)
House candidates: Julia Romero Gusse (D), Chris Lopez (R), Teresa Martinez (R)
Senate candidates: Elaine Aldrete (D), Thomas Shope (R)
Wednesday, Aug. 19 — LD19 (Sierra Vista, Douglas, Benson)
House candidates: Aiden Nicholette Swallow (D), Jackie Anderson (D), David Gowan (R), Lupe Diaz (R)
Senate candidates: Bob Karp (D), Gail Griffin (R)
Thursday, Aug. 20: — LD12 (Ahwatukee, Tempe, Chandler)
House candidates: Anastasia “Stacey” Travers (D), Armando Montero (D), David Richardson (R)
Senate candidates: Patricia Contreras (D), Anthony Ramirez (No Labels)
We love looking at the ratemyprofessor.com reviews left for politicians who double as college professors.
Yes, they’re almost all petulant diatribes by 18-year-old kids who flunked a class.
But they’re objectively funny!
So hat tip to right-wing radio talk show host Garret Lewis for pulling up Gov. Katie Hobbs’ reviews circa 2013-2017 and reading them aloud over the airwaves.
Like the political chattering class, the students noted she isn’t exactly a polished public speaker. The word “um” was mentioned in 10 of 17 reviews.
Here are our top three favorites.
