Watching the Sun Set

So many appointments, so little time … Turning Point Elementary ... And the left lane is for going fast.

In perhaps the most surprising turn of events since the saga of Democratic Rep. Leezah Sun started, Sun abruptly resigned yesterday rather than face an expulsion vote that she was almost certain to lose. 

Given her weird performances to the House Ethics Committee, we expected her to go down swinging, and political observers opined that the anticlimactic last-minute resignation was the wisest thing she’s done since she got elected.

Then, just minutes after the news broke that Sun was out, Democratic Rep. Amish Shah announced he was leaving, too. He delivered a heartfelt speech recounting all the fun he had with his fellow lawmakers while on legislative junkets. 

As we predicted, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors selected Jevin Hodge to fill Democratic Rep. Athena Salman’s seat in the House. But he won’t be sworn in until Friday, the House tells us. Meanwhile, the process to replace Democratic Rep. Jennifer Longdon hasn’t even started. 

As of today, the House Democratic caucus has four vacancies. 

Two of those vacancies (Shah and Longdon) come from Legislative District 5, meaning residents of the central Phoenix Democratic stronghold don’t have anyone representing them in the state House right now. 

We’re about to see a wave of legislative appointments. 

So who are the likely new lawmakers? Here’s what we’re hearing:

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LD5

A crowded Democratic primary is already brewing in this central Phoenix district. Many of the candidates are sure to also seek the appointment. Among them, political insiders say that former lawmaker Sara Liguori, who was appointed in 2021 and then lost her 2022 reelection in a crowded primary, is a likely pick for one of the two seats. The board already appointed her once.

For the other, speculation is divided between 2022 candidates Brianna Westbrook and Aaron Marquez, and former Superior Court Judge Lisa Flores — all of whom are seeking the office in 2024. 

Whoever gets the appointment will have a leg up in the August primary election as the district’s sitting incumbent. But oftentimes, precinct committeemen and county supervisors are wary of picking candidates to fill seats for exactly that reason. 

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In Sun’s West Valley district, the PCs are already hearing from potential replacements, including former lawmakers Martin Quezada, who represented the area before running for state treasurer in 2022, and Lorenzo Sierra, who lost his reelection bid to Sun in the 2022 primary. 

Sierra said that assuming his family lets him seek the appointment, he’s only interested in serving out the remainder of Sun’s term, not running for the seat in 2024. Quezada told us hasn’t decided either on throwing his name in for the appointment or whether he’d want to run later this year. 

But the district’s PCs may be lining up behind Sharon Hendrickson, a first vice chair of the local party, who filed a statement of interest to run for the office this year. Meanwhile, Democrats Diana Casilla and Betsy Munoz also already filed statements of interest to run and may seek the appointment.

Every job comes with a learning curve. But starting a new job as a lawmaker a month into the second year of a two-year term will be an especially tough challenge.

Maricopa County Supervisor and former lawmaker Steve Gallardo told us recently that experience will weigh heavy in his decision-making on the upcoming appointments. And as the lone Democrat on the board, his opinion will have outsized sway in the Democratic appointments. 

For a lot of reasons,¹ being a state lawmaker isn’t something most people do for long. But Democrats, especially, have suffered a heavy brain drain in the past year after Senate Minority Leader Raquel Terán and her House counterpart Andrés Cano quit. Losing Salman, Longdon and Shah was another big blow.

And whoever earns the nod from supervisors won’t be able to do much coming into the session this late. By the time they’re appointed, the new lawmakers will have missed the deadline to introduce legislation. 

But with all these resignations, the Capitol is littered with orphaned bills.² 

Sierra, who graduated from ASU with a bachelor’s in journalism, said if he does win the appointment, he’d like to adopt one of the most important orphaned bills: Longdon’s HB2595, which would allow for a monument to honor murdered journalist Don Bolles on the Capitol lawn.  

The kids are alt-right: Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is allowing curriculum from PragerU, a media company that “advances Judeo-Christian values,” to be taught in Arizona public schools, the Copper Courier’s Camaron Stevenson reports. PragerU is known for its far-right, controversial school lessons, including an animated video of Frederick Douglas telling kids slavery was a “compromise,” and a series of five-minute videos from conservative stars like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens covering the gender wage gap and immigration. 

The plight of oversight: Joint Legislative Budget Committee members approved $8 million for the state Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to continue busing migrants away from the border communities they arrive in, Cronkite News’ Lillie Boudreaux reports. But the committee put new rules in place that cap in-state bus trips at $60 per person and require DEMA to report to the committee before reimbursing law enforcement, despite DEMA Director Gabe Lavine’s concerns. 

Trimming from the top: The University of Arizona’s interim CFO told faculty that layoffs for senior administrators are likely as the university has to cut $200 million this fiscal year, the Star’s Ellie Wolfe reports. UA President Robert Robbins hinted the university may make cuts to major and minor programs, and faculty are considering taking a vote of no confidence against the Arizona Board of Regents. 

"I walk around my office, and I meet people and they come up and introduce themselves and in the back of my head (I know) that person's probably going to lose their jobs. I hate it, but that's the heartful reality of the situation that we're facing,” Interim Chief Financial Officer John Arnold said. 

Inside baseball: Attorney General Kris Mayes said legislation that would make carve-outs in the state’s minimum wage law for minor league baseball players would undermine the intent of the voter-approved wage law and set “a harmful precedent,” KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association say they already have a bargaining agreement in place that the wage law could complicate. 

Buy one, get more time: House Speaker Ben Toma is pushing a bill to impose tougher penalties on repeat offenders of organized retail crime, Cronkite News’ Vanessa Pimentel reports. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell joined Toma at a press conference supporting the bill, which would impose tiered sentencing guidelines. 

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Justice delayed: Gilbert Police had the name of one of the suspects in the beating of a teen in an In-N-Out parking lot months before they arrested him, 12News’ Bianca Buono reports. Six suspects have been arrested throughout January, but police interviewed one of the suspects on the night of the assault in August last year and seemingly didn’t interview other witnesses the victim provided, according to police reports. 

“I think they could have just wrapped this up so much sooner, so much quicker, had they followed through and done the right thing at that time," said Rick Kuehner, the father of the assault victim.

Troubling trend: HIV transmission rates have increased 20% since 2020 in Arizona despite declining trends across most of the country, and experts say the state’s poor sex education practices are to blame, per Lookout’s Lisa Abelar. The virus is disproportionately affecting Black and Latino populations, and some say cultural stigmas and a lack of education are driving the numbers. Lookout also compiled a guide that guardians can consult when trying to find a safe school for LGBTQ+ people.

While doing our daily scroll through the new bills filed yesterday, we spotted a few that made us chuckle.

First, Republican Sen. David Gowan, a noted fan of legal ledfooting, and a bunch of fellow Republicans want to give you a $250 ticket for driving too slow in the left lane. Check out his SB1681.

Next, Democratic Sen. Juan Mendez and a crew of Democrats filed SB1546 to empower any citizen to challenge any candidate under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution if the voter believes the candidate “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” We wonder what that’s about!

Finally, we may not have to wait as long for future legislative appointments. Republican Rep. Alex Kolodin’s HB2703 would force county supervisors to make their pick within 14 days. 

1. Including but not limited to: term limits, losing elections, or quitting for better opportunities, or because of the low pay, long hours, bad colleagues, demanding constituents and lobbyists, and the increasing number of threatening and hostile nuts on both sides of the aisle.

2. By our count, those four lawmakers were prime sponsors of 111 bills.