The Free Agenda: Did Amish Shah vote for Trump?
How dare you ask that, this isn’t Russia … Today’s another big abortion vote … And kittens? Really?
Democrat Amish Shah, a former state representative and contender in a six-way primary for Arizona’s Congressional District 1, really doesn’t want to talk about the time he voted for Donald Trump.
Rumors have been circulating that Shah, a one-time Republican, used to openly talk about his “strategic” support for the former president. Shah’s voting record shows he voted in the 2016 Republican presidential preference election. And while we can’t see who he voted for, there were only three real options by the time Arizona hosted its presidential primary — and really, it was already pretty obvious who was going to be the GOP nominee.
But when we asked Shah about his 2016 vote, he wouldn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said he changed his voter registration to Republican in 2016 as a strategic decision.
“I have been a tried and true Democrat the entire time. I grew up in Illinois and the way that in Illinois, our Democratic Party has worked, we have tried to help Democrats in any way possible by voting strategically,” he said. “So I registered as a Republican in the 2016 election and switched right back after because we wanted to make sure that Democrats would be able to prevail.”
Perhaps more interesting than Shah’s alleged vote for Trump in the presidential primary is his refusal to talk about it.
Click the button to learn what we found out despite his obfuscation.
Delay tactics: As the state Senate prepares to take up the bill to repeal the territorial-era ban on abortions today, Attorney General Kris Mayes is asking the state Supreme Court to continue to postpone putting the law on the books for another 90 days as she decides whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, she announced yesterday. A 90-day delay would be significant, as Capitol scribe Howie Fischer notes, because if the law is repealed, that repeal wouldn’t go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends — though there’s no telling when that could be.
Sparkles and snowflakes: House Speaker Ben Toma banned Democrats from using the meeting rooms in the House basement after they used the room to host a “drag story hour.” After Republican Sen. Anthony Kern called Toma out for allowing the event, Toma declared drag a “dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am speaker,” KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez notes. Kern and Toma are facing off in the GOP primary for Congressional District 8.
So medicinal: After more than 50 years, the Drug Enforcement Administration is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug with no medicinal value, like heroin or cocaine, to a Schedule III drug more akin to steroids, the Associated Press reports. The move still needs approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget and would have to go through a public comment process.
“The election year announcement could help Biden, a Democrat, boost flagging support, particularly among younger voters,” the AP writes.
You know we’re gonna pitch off the weed item, right? So uhhh, subscribe so we can afford our medicine…
Same dumb schtick, now with consequences: Republican U.S. Rep. David Schweikert and his team settled the lawsuit over his campaign tactic of gaybaiting his 2022 primary challenger. Schweikert printed signs depicting Republican Elijah Norton with another man, which read “Norton isn’t being straight with you.” It was his most recent in a long line of gaybaiting attacks, and it cost him $50,000, the Republic’s Laura Gersony and Ron Hansen report.
“These lies were not based on any facts and were merely an attempt to cast doubt on Mr. Norton’s reputation. I now realize they were totally out of bounds for any political campaign,” Schweikert’s consultant, Jonathan Huey, said in a statement.
We’ll believe it when we see it: Lawmakers say they’re close to striking a deal to require developers in some large cities to build townhomes, duplexes and the like on lots zoned for single-family homes, but only within “within a mile of the central business districts,” Capitol Media Service’s Bob Christie reports. Republican Rep. Michael Carbone’s House Bill 2721 could come up for a vote in the Senate this week, he told Fischer, though the bill will still have to head back to the House for final approval before it can go to the governor.
We love a good spreadsheet: We pretty much know who’s going to be on the primary election ballot after almost all of the election challenge cases have wrapped up, the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers writes. The only remaining legal battle over access to the ballot is between Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers and Republican Rep. David Cook. A Superior Court judge allowed Cook to stay on the ballot, but Rogers appealed, Sievers writes.
The commission on judicial secrecy: As progressive activists attempt to unseat two Arizona Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of the territorial-era ban on abortion, the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review, which vets judges, says one judge doesn’t deserve to be retained. In a 25-2 vote, the commission declared Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jo Lynn Gentry unworthy of retention, the Republic’s Jimmy Jenkins writes, though the commission doesn’t say why, exactly. Gentry told Jenkins she’s retiring anyway.
Signs of the times: The University of Arizona put up “no trespassing” signs and fenced off parts of its mall after protesters against Israel’s war in Gaza set up an encampment there. Protesters attempted to fence themselves in first, the Daily Star’s Ellie Wolf writes, saying they were scared of agitators, but police made them take down the fences. Meanwhile at ASU, police removed a Muslim woman’s hijab, sparking outrage from the Muslim community, ABC15’s Dave Biscobing reports. ASU police couldn’t confirm to the Republic that it was their officers, but the Department of Public Safety said it definitely wasn’t any of theirs.
Maricopa County needs about 2,000 people to sign up as election workers for the July primary.
This seems like a good excuse to remind you all about Hank’s adventures in being a poll worker.
It was fun! You should do it too!
You really don’t need much more than the headline for today’s laugh.
But if you click the link, you can also laugh at the fact that the baby foxes definitely don’t look like kittens. Maybe dogs, or pigs or something, but not kittens.