The Power Players
People. Process. Problems. The Agenda’s guide to making sense of the Arizona Legislature.
Hey readers,
With the 2024 legislative session starting on Monday, we want to make sure you know how to make sense of all the madness happening at the Arizona Capitol.
So we’re sending you some cheat sheets.
Today — We help you separate the people who really control the Capitol from the jokers who take up all the oxygen in the room, introduce you to the workers who make it all happen and shine a light on the power players behind the scenes.
Next Friday — Before the governor presents her budget next week, we’ll break down the budget process. How do they craft this thing? How much money are we talking about? What’s the cage and why is the governor locked in it? We’ll get to that.
Friday, January 19 — Most of this year’s bills should be introduced by then, and we’ll dive into the topics that dominate the debate and the solutions lawmakers present to Arizona’s most pressing problems.
In some ways, the Arizona Capitol is like a small town.
A town of about 1,000 residents, with another 10,000 seasonal visitors and tourists, where everyone spends all their time at the town hall. About 90 of the core residents are on the town council, which is bitterly divided. The rest work there or show up frequently to argue about things. Everyone is all up in each others’ business, and decades-old grudges and alliances color every interaction.
For outsiders, it can be hard to tell who’s who and what really matters in these town squabbles.
But we residents of the Capitol know who’s the mayor, sheriff, and judge. We know who’s the crazy neighbor, and who’s a quiet power broker.
We’ll introduce you to a few of the other residents so you don’t feel like an outsider.
THE BIG THREE
At the individual level, only three people’s opinions really matter: House Speaker Ben Toma, Senate President Warren Petersen and Gov. Katie Hobbs.
As the elected leaders of their respective chambers, Petersen and Toma have immense power to do just about anything within their buildings. They control their chambers’ multi-million dollar budgets and can hire and fire the entire staff at will. They can add or remove lawmakers from prestigious committee positions and can strip away a lawmaker’s access to resources or even an office in the building.
And perhaps most importantly, they control the flow of legislation in their respective chambers, and can singlehandedly ensure a bill dies, or that it gets every opportunity to succeed.
But without the governor, no bill or budget can become law.1
Knowing these three people and a little about their motivations and goals will give you insight into how the whole system works.
HOUSE SPEAKER BEN TOMA
The first thing you need to know about Toma is that he’s running for Congress in a crowded GOP primary in the West Valley to replace his political mentor, U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko. That campaign side hustle will color every move he makes this year.
Toma is an underdog in the race, despite having the endorsement of the incumbent. The race is packed with new-school Republican upstarts like Blake Masters and Trump-endorsed Abe Hamadeh. Toma comes out of the Lesko school of government — that is, the old Lesko, who was more known for her victories on complicated policy issues like sales tax reform than voting to overturn an election.
Like Lesko, Toma has walked the line between his conservative beliefs and the MAGA-tization of the Republican Party — he just hasn’t done it quite so successfully. He’s not beloved by every member of his caucus and has struggled to unify his razor-thin majority of 31 members.
Toma is running for Congress on a platform highlighting his experience and ability to govern, differentiating himself from the field of Trump loyalists and America Firsters. But don’t count on him to cut grand deals with the Democratic governor this year — he’s still gotta beef up his conservative credentials ahead of the August primary.
SENATE PRESIDENT WARREN PETERSEN
Leading the 16 Republican members of the Senate is an easier task than wrangling 31 GOP members of the House, for sure, but Petersen has shown a certain knack for the job.
Just as Toma was tutored by Lesko, Petersen is an acolyte of Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, who also hailed from Gilbert and once held the title of Arizona Senate president.
Just like Biggs, Peterson has shown a keen understanding of power dynamics, climbing the ranks to the Legislature’s most prestigious post in just a decade. He has united a caucus of hardcore MAGA conservatives like himself, and a few more moderate members, pretty seamlessly.
He has made himself a persistent pain for the new governor, blocking her agenda and agency directors, suing and frequently criticizing her. But he’s also shown a practical side, working with Hobbs to craft a budget last year and offering her kudos afterward for keeping her word.
Unlike Toma, Petersen isn’t going anywhere — he can serve another two terms in the Senate, and he’s given no indication he intends to step aside as president.
How he approaches negotiations with the governor this year could determine if lawmakers can hit the campaign trail in April, or if they’ll be stuck at the Capitol until July again.
GOVERNOR KATIE HOBBS
Hobbs is also a creature of the Arizona Capitol. She was first elected to the House in 2010, from the same district as now-U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Like Sinema, she’s a former social worker.
But while Sinema has always been a singular force, Hobbs leans toward the lead-by-consensus approach.
Just five years ago, her Democratic colleagues in the Senate elected her as their leader. However, the rapid turnover among Democrats at the state Capitol means that few Democrat colleagues from her era are still in office. Perhaps as a result, the Democratic caucus isn’t always uniformly behind her.
Without a Democratic majority in the Legislature, Hobbs will always be somewhat at the mercy of Republican lawmakers to negotiate policy and the budget.
And after decades in the minority, Democrats often lack the discipline to stay on message and prove that they are the “adults in the room.”
THE JOKERS
Speaking of adults in the room, the names you most likely know from the Legislature are not them.
Does Leezah Sun ring a bell? Wendy Rogers? David Farnsworth? A handful of politicians with little influence inside the halls of power often dominate the headlines and the public’s perception of lawmakers.
They’re the comedic relief, not (usually) the ones running the show.
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
One rule of thumb at the Capitol is bills don’t die because they’re voted down. They die from not getting a hearing.
Committee chairs can singlehandedly stop even the most popular bill in its tracks by keeping it off their committee agenda.2 The speaker and president generally assign bills to committees based on the topic, and committee chairs decide whether to hear the bills, giving committee chairs an effective veto over any ideas within their policy domain.
Want to run a bill about education? You’ll need to win over House Education Committee Chair Beverly Pingerelli and Senate Education Committee Chair Ken Bennett to get a hearing.
For environmental bills, you’ve gotta go through Rep. Gail Griffin and Sen. Sine Kerr.
Changing the criminal law? You probably gotta get Rep. Quang Nguyen and Sen. Anthony Kern to give your bill a hearing in their House and Senate judiciary committees, respectively.
Want to make a new environmental crime? Your bill might end up assigned to both the environment and judiciary committees.
The chair of the Rules Committee is next-level powerful. Every single bill has to go through the Rules Committee in both the Senate and House, on top of the other committee assignments.
Rules Committee members are only supposed to consider whether a bill is “constitutional and in proper form,” not debate its merits. It’s a rubber stamp committee — assuming your bill gets a hearing at all. That’s up to the chair.
But with great power comes great responsibility. In the House, Toma appointed Republican Rep. Travis Grantham to the position. In the Senate, Petersen does the job himself.
THE INFLUENCERS
Some people just naturally have clout.
A small group of politicians at the Capitol wield more influence than others — either because of their positions, skills or personalities.
The House and Senate Democratic leaders — Rep. Lupe Contreras and Sen. Mitzi Epstein — are examples of being inner circle by the nature of their positions and the fact that there’s a Democratic governor in office.
Republican Sen. T.J. Shope and Grantham are the Senate and House “pro tempore” — essentially the right hand to the Senate president and House speaker, giving them a seat at the table.
The chairs of the appropriation committees in the House and Senate, likewise, wield outsized influence, as they’re the true experts and negotiators on the budget process. Sen. John Kavanagh has been an Appropriations Committee chair for about a decade, making him an indispensable advisor on monetary matters.
But there are many paths to influence.
Some lawmakers earn it early by being branded as rising stars within their caucuses, like Republican Rep. Matt Gress or Democratic Rep. Annalise Ortiz. Others amass power by leading factions of their parties, like Freedom Caucus leader Sen. Jake Hoffman.
Still others gain influence by being willing to cut a deal across the aisle, like Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez, or buck their party, like Republican Rep. David Cook.
THE STAFF
The army of legislative staffers who do the real work are often the overlooked power players at the Capitol.
From the chiefs of staff who set the direction and strategy, to the clerks who choreograph the daily hearings, to the lawyers who write the bills, to the interns3 who summarize bills so that lawmakers can understand them, it takes several hundred people to bring the annual legislative session to life.
In this ecosystem, even lower-level positions wield influence. Assistants act as gatekeepers — if you’re trying to get an emergency meeting with a lawmaker, it helps to be friends with the person in charge of their schedule.
But if there’s one name you must know, it’s Richard Stavneak, the director of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, which tracks the economy, builds the budget and analyzes the fiscal impact of legislation. Stavneak has been doing the job for a long time, and his knowledge of the state budget is unmatched.
When he speaks, both Republicans and Democrats listen closely.
THE LOBBYISTS
Lobbyists generally fall into four categories. Some types are more distasteful than others, but despite their unsavory reputations, professional lobbyists are not all as bad as they’re made out to be.
There are some shady characters (who we won’t call out by name today). But mostly, lobbyists are kind of like idealistic salespeople. Except the thing they’re selling is a bill and the customer is lawmakers.
Hired guns: These are the lobbyists you’re probably imagining. They can work at giant firms or as solo operators. Some will represent any company, industry or issue that can pay. Others work only for progressive causes or conservative ones or within certain policy niches. Their unifying trait is that they represent multiple clients and provide access to and influence over lawmakers.
Industry/issue: These lobbyists work for a company, group or cause, and besides their relationships, their main value is their knowledge. A lobbyist for a company like Apple, or a think tank like the Goldwater Institute, for example, would fall into this category. Lobbying is their main job, and they only have one client or cause.
Liaison: They are government employees representing government bodies, like the courts, a city or a state department. They often pull double duty with other tasks within their office.
Grassroots: Activists come in many forms. Some are paid to organize and lobby full-time on behalf of a union, trade or cause. Others are just citizens with a bone to pick and don’t have to register as lobbyists. But the defining feature of a grassroots lobbying organization is the ability to bring a crowd.
Remember, the categories aren’t always mutually exclusive, and the different types of lobbyists can all engage in different ways.
If Apple wants to pass a bill in Arizona, for example, it might find a local hired gun to team up with its in-house expert to get them in the door to woo lawmakers and also pay a grassroots pro-worker or entrepreneur group that can bring a mob to the Capitol in support and buy dinner for the liaison to the AG’s office to try to tamp down that office’s opposition to the bill at the Capitol.
THE PRESS
About a dozen reporters keep an eye on all the chaos. Another dozen or so pop in regularly for Capitol stories that touch on their beats.
A decade ago it was twice as many reporters. Two decades ago, it was double that. In those 20 years, the number of lawmakers has remained the same. The state budget has roughly tripled.
We won’t do a full roll-call of every reporter at the Capitol, but if there’s one byline you should recognize, it’s Howard Fischer, who runs Capitol Media Services, a wire service that feeds almost every newspaper in the state (except the Republic). He produces more content in a day than the rest of the press corps combined. He’s the “dean” of the Capitol press corps, either because he’s the fastest, the oldest or the most obnoxious. We’re not sure which.
The Republic,4 the Arizona Mirror and the Arizona Capitol Times all have talented, dedicated reporters working hard to monitor your politicians for you. KJZZ is building up its politics desk ahead of 2024. A few TV reporters provide amazing Capitol coverage and investigations.
And there are some promising startups (ahem) stepping in to fill the void.
Reporters are your eyes and ears at the Capitol. We keep the politicians honest and the system fair.
But we’re vastly outnumbered.
If you can afford it, please subscribe to a local newspaper, donate to a nonprofit news organization, or click the button below.
Every rule has exceptions. In this case, certain pieces of legislation can be ratified by voters, rather than the governor. And with enough votes, lawmakers can override a gubernatorial veto and enact laws or a budget against the governor’s will.
Again, there are exceptions. The speaker and president decide which bills go to which committees. They can send a bill to a friendly committee or a hostile one.
Fun fact: Hank was once a Capitol intern who ran the cameras for committee hearings.
Ok, just one more shout-out. The Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl can crank out daily stories on the twists and turns at the Capitol while writing a deep-dive investigation into the Department of Child Safety on the side. She’s a state treasure.
Outstanding overview. I’ve been following Arizona politics for 40 years and have not ever read such a concise and practical piece of journalism on the subject. Thank you.
Thank you SO much for the shout-out to the legislative assistants. We strive to provide the best assistance to our Members while spinning a dozen plates with a smile. Nice to be recognized for our efforts!