The Free Agenda: Drinking with Analise Ortiz
Yes, it’s actually our job … Politicians are competitive people … And advertising is all about knowing your audience.
Earlier this week, we gathered up some friends for drinks with Analise Ortiz, a rising star Democratic state representative, TikTok influencer and former reporter who has been at the forefront of some of Arizona’s most important policy battles since beginning her freshman term representing the West Valley last year.
It’s part of a new Agenda initiative where we get politicians drunk in hopes they’ll tell you the truth for once.
Ortiz was an amazing sport who put up with the utter chaos involved in everything we do here at the Agenda.1 We cannot thank her enough for her generous time, which she did not fail to note could have been spent canvassing her district or making calls for campaign donations.
It was a fun, frank, wide-ranging conversation. But of course, we spent a lot of time discussing housing, zoning reform and Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto of this year’s big housing bill.
Safe to say, Ortiz was not pleased with that veto!
We also delved into criminal justice reform, another one of her passions as a former ACLU campaign and communications strategist who has worked on the issue from both outside and inside the Capitol.
And of course, we couldn’t let her go without discussing the state of the Fourth Estate and comparing starting salaries as reporters.
We posted a full conversation to our YouTube page.
A huge thanks to everyone who made this possible, including Ortiz, Valley Bar owner Charlie Levy, the generous and patient staff, all our friends who showed up and our sponsor, Chuck LeVinus, a lobbyist and longtime subscriber who enjoyed our first happy hour event so much that he offered to sponsor this one, which forced us to actually follow through and do it.
We had so much fun that we’re going to do these happy hours once per month. Plus a bunch of politicians already reached out to be our next drinking partners / victims, so we can’t let them down.
The Arizona Agenda annual March Madness tournament has come down to two finalists: a local mayor and a north Phoenix state representative.
Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke and Rep. Judy Schwiebert have triumphed over 62 other state, federal and local officials through your votes, our tests for responsiveness and completing records requests.
Our Final Four round was determined by asking them to show us what they’ve done for their communities lately and how they’ve served their constituents.
Schwiebert’s final-four opponent, Sen. Catherine Miranda, didn’t respond to our request. But Schwiebert gave a comprehensive overview of bills she has sponsored and active attempts to engage with her constituents, like a monthly town hall and weekly newsletter. She also knows how to game the system in the Democratic minority. When her bill to increase adult education funding at community colleges failed in her first term, she gave it to a Republican to sponsor in her next term, and it passed.
Hartke sent us a three-page letter outlining his constituent service, and provided a lot of convincing examples. He says he helps create a strategic plan every two years to make sure City Council members’ voices are heard. He also oversaw Chandler’s ability to pay off its public safety pension obligation debt and noted he makes a point to attend “local sports events, 100-year-old birthdays, scout meetings, local school events and concerts.”
Still, it was a tough decision between Hartke and Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, who sent us a thoughtful response declaring himself a “workhorse” politician, rather than a “showhorse”, and offering a breakdown of his accomplishments, including a lot of bacon brought home to his state and district.
At the end of the day, we decided Hartke won that round, partially because he was the underdog and also, he just seemed to want it more.
“Competition is stiff, but I hope I make it to the Final Two and exemplify what it means to serve constituents well,” he wrote to us.
The seriousness with which some of these politicians completed their tasks almost makes us feel bad for wasting their time! We’re thinking of buying the winner a trophy to ease our guilt.
But our March Madness tournament is almost up.
To determine our champion, we’ll ask the final two for sit-down interviews, and we’ll let you all vote on the winner.
First, reply to this email to let us know what questions you want us to ask our champions!
Anything you say can and will be used against you: Attorney General Kris Mayes subpoenaed Republican U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs as part of her ongoing probe into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Politico reported. There’s no indication she’s bringing charges against them, the outlet noted, and it’s not clear how hard she’s willing to fight to force them to testify. But she has been forcing others to show up and plead their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent before a grand jury, which is highly unusual and could potentially backfire, per lawyers Politico spoke with.
Called it: Shortly after the Legislature’s newest member, Democratic Rep. Deborah Nardozzi, was sworn in yesterday, Democratic Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez quit. Last month, Quiñonez wouldn’t tell us if the rumor that he was resigning was true, and then announced he wouldn’t seek another term in the Legislature. He abruptly resigned yesterday in a speech from the House floor, becoming the seventh lawmaker to call it quits this year. Lawmakers then granted themselves the next six days off.
“Alright who’s gonna go chisel his nameplate off his desk? Anything good in his drawers? I need a new pen,” Republican Rep. Travis Grantham responded to the news.
The aha moment: The New York Times and Arizona-based photographer Caitlin O’Hara spent a few days at Turning Point Action headquarters in Arizona as its troops attempt to unpoison the well of early voting and once again convince Republicans that it’s safe. The quotes alone are worth a read.
“That kind of started a lot of soul searching between our team. I asked the question, I said, ‘What could we have done better?’” founder Charlie Kirk said of Kari Lake’s loss.
“Look, if we walked up to people and were like: ‘Oh, you’re on the early voting list? You’re an idiot.’ Do you think they’re more motivated to vote? Do you think they’re more motivated to become an Election Day voter? And that’s effectively what’s happening right now,” Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer explained to volunteers.
Total dysfunction: After Pinal County Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh accused County Recorder Dana Lewis of accusing him of tapping her phones, County Attorney Kent Volkmer announced yesterday that his office had already investigated the claims, which came from an anonymous email, and nobody was tapping anyone or claiming anyone tapped anyone. Cavanaugh has threatened to sue and demanded Lewis be fired in one of the weirder election meltdowns the county has seen, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka explains.
Pity the white boys: Disgraced former lawmaker David Stringer2 is, once again, running for Yavapai County Attorney. This time he’s not facing longtime former incumbent Sheila Polk, but instead her appointed successor, Dennis McGrane, in the GOP primary, per the Republic’s Ray Stern. His campaign platform is completely on-brand, declaring “young, white inmates” are having a really rough go of things.
Guilty conscience: Two members of the Nogales City Council filed ethics complaints with the Attorney General’s Office against themselves and their colleagues after they met behind closed doors with representatives from Australian mining giant South32, Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña reports. But they seemingly only felt remorse after Zavala Magaña caught them and wrote a story about it last month.
They bailed: Former Republican lawmaker Paul Boyer didn’t file any signatures to run against Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers in what was a much-anticipated match-up, per the Daily Independent’s Richard Smith. And the QAnon Shaman also didn’t file his signatures to run for Congress as a Libertarian, but talk show host Garrett Lewis still gave him 40 minutes of uninterrupted airtime to glorify his role in the January 6 riots, hawk his merch and spew conspiracies. Lewis didn’t ask about the failed congressional bid.
Bad day gardening: Phoenix grandma Penny McCarthy says six federal cops in bulletproof vests arrested her at gunpoint while she was gardening in her slippers, shackled her hands and feet and whisked her off to Florence for the night for a parole violation in a wild case of mistaken identity. U.S. Marshals think she’s Carole Anne Rozak, who went to prison for nonviolent crimes, but their birthdays don’t match, her family swears it’s not the same person and all the records seem to indicate they are indeed two different people, ABC15’s Jennifer Kovaleski explains in what can conservatively be described as the craziest story you’ll read today.
“Scary as hell. I’ve never been so uncomfortable… the whole having to be strip searched three times in front of all these people… It’s just humiliating and degrading,” McCarthy3 told ABC15 of her night in custody.
We mentioned recently that because abortion rights are in question in Arizona, Planned Parenthood is offering vasectomies at its Phoenix location after experiencing “an overwhelming request for appointments” at its Tucson location.
Well, with the NCAA Final Four playing in Glendale this weekend, the organization is not letting this prime advertising opportunity go to waste.
Does the ad include a clever play on the word ball?
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Including, for example, the fact that we started an hour late because the bar wasn’t technically open yet and we weren’t doing this thing sober.
Stringer was a correct answer in Tuesday’s quiz – both to the question of who supervisors were referring to when they referenced a lawmaker “sexually molesting a minor” and who they meant when they referenced a lawmaker “refusing to cooperate with an Ethics committee investigation over prior sex-crime charges.”
And/or Rozak, depending on who you believe.