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Main character energy ... The war for independent Independents ... And great party, Matt!

Welcome back from your turkey comas, readers!

We took last week off to stuff our faces with stuffing. But Arizona’s politicians unfortunately kept on politicking through the break.

So we’ve all got a fair amount to catch up on.

But first — chime in on our 2025 year-end survey by telling us what you love, what you hate, and what you want to see us do more of in 2026.

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1. Getting their 15 minutes of fame

Democratic U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego each became the main character on Twitter over the break — Kelly for telling the U.S. military that it’s OK to ignore orders they think are illegal, and Gallego for a leaked text thread where he degraded his fellow liberals.

Kelly is now facing a pair of investigations from the Pentagon and the FBI, and President Donald Trump says that Kelly’s “sedition” is “punishable by DEATH.”

But Kelly doesn’t seem too concerned about his potential death sentence — he’s using the whole episode as a fundraising tool and as fodder on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

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Meanwhile, Gallego says he’s “heartbroken” that a conservative friend sent a bunch of texts to reporters at a conservative outlet.

Gallego told ABC15 that the texts below are the kind of thing he says all the time publicly and that they reflect his belief that the Democratic party isn’t “as inclusive as it should be.”

2. The New American University

ASU President Michael Crow was mad that Trump didn’t invite ASU into his “compact” with universities, and he thinks Trump meant to offer it to ASU but got the school confused with UofA (which ultimately rejected the offer).

That’s probably the wildest detail in the Wall Street Journal’s dive into Crow’s attempts to cozy up to the president.

The whole story is worth a read, but for you skimmers, here are some highlights from the Journal:

• ASU officials also offered to help the State Department vet international students.

• ASU has hired the lobbying firm Continental Strategy, whose team includes former Trump administration and campaign officials, plus the daughter of Trump’s chief of staff.

• The school also joined a network of major Arizona businesses that are each committing $250,000 annually to an organization run by former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat-turned-independent. She is touting her relationship with members of the Trump administration and GOP-led Congress. Sinema is a professor at ASU and has donated millions of leftover campaign funds to the university.

3. Independents vs independents

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted to sue Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over the newly created Arizona Independent Party (formerly known as the short-lived No Labels Party), saying that using “Independent” in the party name will confuse voters.

About a third of Arizona voters are “independents,” which are officially known as “party not designated.”

Clean Elections fears that independents will unwittingly register as Independents because they don’t know the difference, per Capitol Scribe Howie Fischer.

Fontes says he has no authority to block the name change, and the Arizona Independent Party argues Clean Elections is doing the political bidding of the two major parties.

“This is lawfare by candidates and by parties who don’t want the 35% of the people who are independent to be able to participate,” Paul Johnson, chair of the party, told Fischer.

4. Fake electors, fake prosecution

Attorney General Kris Mayes is still trying to push forward with her case against the fake electors who tried to steal Arizona’s 2020 presidential election for Trump.

After a trial court found she failed to tell the grand jury that indicted the fake electors about the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which is central to the fake electors’ defense, the indictment was thrown out, and the case was sent back to square one.

But ahead of a do-or-let-die deadline, Mayes asked the conservative Arizona Supreme Court to overturn that trial court ruling, saying she didn’t have to tell the grand jury about the law, per the Arizona Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez.

A few weeks ago, Mayes had signaled she might just drop the case instead.

5. Keep your hands to yourselves

Glenn Hamer, the former CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stands accused of sexually harassing and assaulting a woman, then using his job as the leader of the Texas Association of Business to retaliate against her.

“Jane Doe” claims that Hamer became her mentor and groomed her before launching a series of unwanted advances and “begged, pleaded, harassed, and even cried” when she refused.

The harassment culminated with Hamer attempting to remove her pants, climbing on top of her and assaulting her while intoxicated, she says in the lawsuit.

Afterwards, he apologized and offered to go to the ATM and get cash so she could “forget about it.”

She’s suing Hamer and the Texas Association of Business for $10 million, and the association put Hamer on “administrative leave” while it investigates.

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Meanwhile, Avondale City Council member and Turning Point USA staffer Jeannette Garcia stands accused of sexually harassing a subordinate Turning Point staffer, then kidnapping his 14-year-old daughter when he rebuffed her.

“John Doe” says in his lawsuit that Garcia propositioned him at a Turning Point dinner earlier this month, and when he left the party, he found his daughter missing, per ABC15’s Casey Torres

He said Garcia and other staffers were drunk when they took his daughter and “manipulated” her into coming with them by saying he may become violent after drinking that night. He called the police, and the daughter returned home after 12 hours, according to his lawsuit.

“I am aware of the outrageous and false accusations being made about me. Let me be very clear: these claims are untrue. I have never kidnapped anyone, never harmed anyone, and never solicited anything inappropriate, ever,” Garcia told ABC15 in a statement.

Bonus: The Hernandez saga continues

Phoenix Union High School District finally released the security camera video of that weird incident a few months back where Democratic Rep. Lydia Hernandez and someone else allegedly attempted to test the district’s security system by bringing a box cutter to a school board meeting right after a student got stabbed on campus.

But that “someone else” is not Hernandez’s daughter, Cartwright School Board Member Cassandra Hernandez, as Phoenix Union had alleged.

Phoenix Union apologized to Cassandra, who has faced harassment over the accusations, per ABC15.

Meanwhile, the district still can’t find the woman who was allegedly working with Lydia, who isn’t talking. So the district is asking for the public’s help to identify the coconspirator.

The district also issued a trespass warning against the lawmaker, meaning she now needs written permission to enter Phoenix Union campuses.

“This is a woefully inadequate apology, you know, it’s been two months now,” Cassandra told ABC15.

The Weirdest Story of Thanksgiving Week Award goes to Scottsdale Unified School Board member Matthew Pitinsky’s outrageous party.

Basically, Pittinsky hosted a birthday party for his son — and warned the neighbors that it may be loud, but that the family “hired private security to ensure the party remains limited to invited guests.”

In case you can’t guess where this is going, the party did not remain limited to invited guests.

It took off with the kids on Instagram, and by the time police arrived, around 500 kids were wandering the property, many of them wasted — including an underage girl who had to be taken to the hospital for possible alcohol poisoning.

It’s unclear who gave the booze to the kids.

Pittinsky says they brought it and passed it over walls, and his security was unable to kick them all out. Some of the kids told police the booze was already flowing when they got there.

But Republican Rep. Joseph Chaplik wants Pittinsky to resign.

And he says that Scottsdale Unified’s superintendent (who presumably was not at the party) should resign, too.