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Pursuing power with propaganda: The ties that bind Brnovich and Fox News
Maybe Mark Brnovich should get a job hosting a show on Fox News. It’s clear that Arizona’s former attorney general and the propaganda channel’s premier hosts share the same instinct for lying to their followers about invented election fraud claims for purely selfish reasons. On Wednesday, the world learned that Brnovich both hid the results […]
Katie Hobbs should try to veto her way to a Democratic legislative majority
Seven weeks into her tenure as governor, Katie Hobbs is battling with the GOP-led legislature at every turn, and it seems unlikely that she’ll be able to accomplish much, if anything for the foreseeable future. She has proposed a budget with dead-on-arrival components that skewer GOP sacred cows, vetoed Republicans’ political theater budget, openly dismissed […]
GOP Arizona legislators, including leaders of the House and Senate, subpoenaed to testify in special counsel probe of Trump
At least three Arizona Republican state legislators have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Justice Department’s special counsel, Jack Smith, as part of the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss. The federal grand jury subpoenas were issued to Senate President Warren Petersen, Sen. Sonny Borrelli and […]
David Schweikert blames ‘populist’ AZ Freedom Caucus for his quitting the House Freedom Caucus
U.S. Rep. David Schweikert was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus when it formed in 2015 to undercut then-Speaker John Boehner and pull the broader Republican conference further to the right. But now that the group has more power than it’s ever had — as evidenced by the concessions its members wrung out […]
Fear and loathing in the Arizona legislature
The Republicans who run our state legislature are terrified. They’re terrified that their policy proposals are deeply unpopular. Terrified of facing even a tiny bit of accountability. Terrified of anyone knowing what they’re doing or who they’re talking to. They’re terrified of being forced to work with Democrats. Terrified of compromising even a little bit […]
‘Negligent in every way’: AZGOP spent $530K on a bus tour and party
Hundreds of red, white and blue balloons were suspended over the massive ballroom inside the swanky Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in the early morning hours of Nov. 9. But rather than fall onto a joyous crowd of Republicans cheering on their candidates in the midst of a “red tsunami” sweeping GOP candidates to victory […]
Election denial is lucrative: Kari Lake raised $2.5 million after Election Day
The day that Katie Hobbs was declared the winner of the governor’s race, cash poured into Kari Lake’s campaign, as people from across the country heeded her call to fight back against an election system she said was “BS.” More than 8,000 people contributed $338,388 to Lake’s failed campaign on Nov. 14. Less than a […]
Civil rights group objects to using federal COVID aid for prisons
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Treasury Department to take a harder line on states and local governments using federal American Rescue Plan Act money to build and expand correctional facilities. One of the projects it cited is in Arizona, where prison officials said they planned to spend $4.2 million to renovate executive […]
Kavanagh wants AG to defend all laws, after Brnovich wouldn’t defend his
After the attorney general last year refused to defend a new law making it a crime to take video of police officers in some situations, the law’s author is back with a proposal that would require the state’s top attorney to defend every law. State Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said it was frustrating that […]
Arizona’s new political reality: A split government
For nearly 14 years, Republicans have controlled the most important levers of power at the state Capitol, allowing them to increasingly become more insular in their governance and oftentimes cut Democrats out of the process entirely. That ends on Monday, when the GOP-majority 56th Legislature convenes and its 90 members take their oath of office. […]
Katie Hobbs, Democrats take the reins of Arizona government
Katie Hobbs officially became Arizona’s governor on Monday, ushering in a new set of priorities and vision for the state and setting the stage for contentious battles with the GOP-controlled legislature. Hobbs and four other victors in November’s statewide elections were sworn into office in a private ceremony Monday. Hobbs, who succeeded Doug Ducey as […]
Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban doesn’t overrule 50 years of more recent regulations
Abortions in Arizona are legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, after an appeals court ruled late Friday that the state’s Civil War-era abortion ban doesn’t overrule nearly 50 years of laws tightly regulating abortions and instead only applies to non-physicians who might try to provide abortions. In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge appellate panel […]