We read the legislative owner’s manual

Someone invite us to the beer caucus … You've been banished ... And our art intern moonlights.

We didn’t exactly jump at the chance to crack open longtime Republican Sen. John Kavanagh’s new book, State Legislatures: An Owner’s Manual.

It sounded about as thrilling as an Ikea instruction booklet — a dry walk through rules and procedures that doesn’t make for ideal leisure reading.

But Kavanagh’s “textbook,” written for an Arizona State University course (and, he points out, priced cheaply “out of sympathy for students”), was a fun, revelatory read.

It’s disarmingly honest, laced with his trademark eye-roll humor and packed with the kinds of unspoken rules and backroom maneuvers that rarely make it into the civics handouts schoolkids get at the Capitol.

Yes, Nicole color-codes her bookmarks.

Kavanagh has served in Arizona’s Legislature for 19 years, and he’s taking over as Senate majority leader when the next session starts in January. But with all those years of insider knowledge, we wondered: How did he manage to be that candid without ruffling too many feathers at the Capitol?

“I guess some of the stuff people don't want to admit happens, but insiders know … So why shouldn't students and ordinary people understand?” Kavanagh told us.

Our favorite insider tidbit came up in the section explaining legislative caucuses. Kavanagh reveals there’s a “beer caucus” that meets at “various bars.”

“Alcohol blurs partisan differences, but it has the same effect on logical thinking. (Never commit to voting for a bill at a Beer Caucus meeting!),” he writes.

His legislative manual is full of funny asides like this throughout the solid breakdowns of legislative rules, like Kavanagh’s explanation of why lawmakers can only amend voter-passed initiatives with a three-fourths vote in both chambers: After lawmakers gutted a voter-approved initiative to legalize medical marijuana, the backers of that measure got the Voter Protection Act passed, which set the three-fourths rule.

“The message the aggrieved supporters of the rescinded marijuana initiative sent to the legislature was, ‘Payback’s a bitch,’” he writes.

The senator manages insider revelations honestly. Each chamber's legislative leadership, for example, not only punishes offending lawmakers by kicking them off committees, but by moving them to bottom-tier offices or “parking spaces located past even the no man's lands that cigarette smokers have been banished to.”

And while Kavanagh explains the lawmaking process “can involve dealmaking, compromise, backroom meetings, and a dash of quid pro quo,” he makes sure political newcomers also know that vote-trading between lawmakers “is unethical and often a violation of legislative rules.”

And despite his long-held Republican bona fides, Kavanagh weaves in opposing, left-leaning viewpoints throughout his explanations.

But he stops short of turning the book into a tell-all on his colleagues.

Still, his explanation that “an obstinate caucus can push a bill or budget further away from their position when its members withhold their votes to gain concessions” sounded a lot like the playbook of the far-right Freedom Caucus.

Kavanagh said he didn’t name names in his book because “(He doesn’t) believe in committing suicide.” He did disclose some autobiographical gossip, however.

As the chair of the House Appropriations Committee in a past legislative session, the chancellor of the community college district he worked for came to his legislative office to ask for state funding. It was during the Great Recession, however, so Kavanagh was busy cutting instead.

“I slashed millions of dollars from the college district’s budget line. The chancellor was a good sport about it. Thankfully,” he wrote.

The book was meant to be half its 383 final pages, Kavanagh said, but he kept finding more to add. And plenty of those extras awakened our inner political nerd. Such as:

• Legislative immunity came from an old trick: sheriffs arresting lawmakers to keep them from showing up for big votes.

• Arizona’s House members used to be required to be seated at their desks during full floor votes.

• Arizona’s gift clause, which bans giving state money to private groups, was a response to the territorial-era legislature spending a quarter of a million dollars on a railroad from Tucson to Globe for 20 miles of rail. (That’s $9 million in today’s dollars).

• Republicans send a staff member to Democrats’ caucus meetings to write down what they talk about, then “The report is jokingly emailed out to all Republican legislators under the subject line, ‘Spy Notes.’”

As you can tell by Nicole’s dog-eared copy, the book is full of lines that made us laugh or double-take. They include:

• “Pages are often college students receiving college credit, no doubt in abnormal psychology, for working at the legislature.”

• “Also, to prepare for television appearances, always have a compact of face makeup available. Television, especially high-definition television, accentuates imperfections on your skin, and its lighting makes your skin shine. I keep cosmetic makeup compacts at home, in my car, and in my office because you never know when a media opportunity will arise.”

• “The two biggest lies legislators tell are, ‘I read all the bills I vote on in their entirety.’ And, ‘I knock on every voter door in my district when I campaign.’ Although I once knocked on 300 doors in a single afternoon, I was in a Home Depot store.”

• “The legislature is your best celebrity option if you cannot sing or act.”

Crime, punishment and electronic surveillance: The Gila River Indian Community is considering a proposal to strip away tribal membership and banish people who have been convicted of violent felonies or three violent misdemeanors, the Luminaria’s Chelsea Curtis reports. Banishment would prohibit a person from entering tribal lands, voting in tribal elections, participating in community-sponsored events and receiving per capita payments. Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation’s Law and Order Committee is considering buying the Flock license plates readers that are sweeping the nation, to mixed reviews, KJZZ’s Michel Marizco reports. The company has come under fire for a host of privacy concerns, including recently in Illinois, after Customs and Border Protection accessed data from the state’s cameras.

The original citizens: Besides inconveniencing the more than 80% of Arizona voters who choose to vote by mail, President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate mail-in voting could disproportionately affect Native Americans, who already face a plethora of unique challenges in voting, the Republic’s Arlyssa Becenti writes. And that push comes on top of his March executive order purporting to require a birth certificate, REAL ID or passport to register to vote. While Arizona already requires that to vote in state elections, neighboring states that share the Navajo Nation, like Utah, have laxer requirements and the new rules could trip up some Native voters, according to Torey Dolan, a Native vote fellow in the Indian Legal Clinic at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, especially because the executive order doesn’t seem to account for allowing people to use tribal IDs to register to vote.

Meet the Press: Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne refuses to add the Phoenix New Times to his campaign press release listserv “because he hates our coverage,” the New Times’ Zach Buchanan reports.¹ Meanwhile, soon-to-be-retiring Republic columnist Laurie Roberts joined Dennis Welch on his “Politics Unplugged Podcast” to reminisce about the good old days of journalism, when you actually had to leave your house to watch government meetings.

This button puts gas in our cars so we can chase down politicians in real life.

New candidates dropped: Two of the Democrats running for the Arizona Corporation Commission are teaming up as a rural roots slate, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. ASU researcher Jonathan Hill ran an unsuccessful campaign for the commission in 2024, while Clara Pratte is a member of the Democratic National Committee’s Native American Caucus. The two are running as a team for the two open seats, but they’ll have to survive a Democratic primary that already has four contenders.

We will rebuild: The Dragon Bravo fire torched more than 100 buildings and destroyed some key infrastructure, including a water pipeline and wastewater treatment plant where hazardous materials were found, AZFamily’s Peter Valencia reports. The fire, which started on July 4, is about 80% contained.

ESA Program Lacks Accountability, Risks Student Outcomes

Education Forward Arizona is sounding the alarm over the mounting reports of waste, fraud, and a lack of transparency in Arizona's universal school voucher program, calling Empowerment Scholarship Accounts “a taxpayer-funded black hole.”

The nonprofit points to growing reports of waste, fraud, and secrecy in the ESA system and is urging lawmakers to act before more public money is lost.

“The Empowerment Scholarship Program, as it currently stands, is failing Arizona’s students and wasting taxpayer dollars,” said Rich Nickel, president and CEO.

While not opposed to vouchers in principle, Education Forward Arizona argues ESAs should be held to the same standards as any other public education investment — with clear academic benchmarks, fraud protections and public reporting.

The group warns that unchecked spending in the program threatens to drain resources from core state education goals, such as ensuring all students read by third grade and reaching Arizona’s target of 60% postsecondary attainment.

Unfortunately, the evidence is clear that ESA dollars are still being disbursed despite the clear lack of adequate performance standards, measurements for student success, and oversight to prevent fraud.

Education Forward Arizona is urging lawmakers to take immediate action to regain control.

John Kavanagh borrowed our art intern, ChatGPT, to break up the blocks of text in his new book.

This gem, from the chapter titled “The Ten Commandments of Good Legislating,” explains Commandment 7: “You shall never attribute to conspiracy that which is explained by incompetence or stupidity.”

Sage advice.

1. Who’s old enough to remember the time when former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio refused to send his official press releases to the West Valley View, until a judge eventually forced him to? Not exactly the same since Horne is withholding campaign press releases, not press releases from his office. But we love talking about that episode.