Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs’ Democratic Party Chair Endorsement Indicates Party Divide

Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs’ Democratic Party Chair Endorsement Indicates Party Divide

By Corinne Murdock |

Governor-elect Katie Hobbs’ endorsement for the new Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) chair indicates a deep party divide.

Hobbs endorsed Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a member of her transition team — but other top Democratic leaders endorsed the apparent successor, ADP Vice Chair Yolanda Bejarano. The announcement confirmed railbird talk that Hobbs’ transition team had someone in mind other than Bejarano.

Hobbs appears to be attempting to gin up greater support for Gallardo. The outgoing secretary of state has issued public endorsements several times over the past few weeks. Additionally, two of her other transition team members —  Valleywise Health Board Chairwoman Mary Rose Wilcox and Arizona Education Association (AEA) President Marisol Garcia — endorsed Gallardo.

The current chair, State Sen. Raquel Terán (LD-26), announced earlier this month that she wouldn’t seek re-election due to her appointment as Senate Minority Whip. A day later, Bejarano announced her candidacy in a since-deleted tweet. However, in the remaining tweet thread, Bejarano said that she could end the “dangerous agenda” of Republicans.

“And with Republicans doubling down on their dangerous agenda that has all but ended the right to an abortion, defunded our public schools, villainized immigrants instead of working to fix the system, and denied our fair and free elections, our work has never been more important,” wrote Bejarano.

Bejarano quickly received public endorsements from a number of Democratic leaders, including: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-07), Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-09), Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ-02), defeated congressional candidate Jevin Hodge, attorney general-elect Kris Mayes, secretary of state-elect Adrian Fontes, State Rep. Athena Salman (D-LD08), state rep.-elect Analise Ortiz (D-LD24), state sen.-elect Anna Hernandez (D-LD24), Phoenix City Councilwomen Yassamin Ansari and Betty Guardado, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union president Delbert Hawk.

Bejarano is also the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union’s national legislative and policy field director. 

Apart from Hobbs and her transition team, Gallardo’s endorsements came from former Arizona Senate President and Pinal County Supervisor Pete Rios, primaried State Rep. Cesar ChávezUFCW Local 99 union, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Arizona chapter

Over the last few weeks, Gallardo has hit the media trail to inspire more support.

Gallardo is also a board member for the Phoenix Union High School District, and former board member for the Cartwright Elementary School District. Gallardo serves as the second vice chair of the County Supervisors’ Association. He is also on the Ryan White Planning Council and the Valley Metro Regional Transportation Advisory Board. 

Prior to serving on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Gallardo served for 10 years in the state legislature, going on to become House Minority Whip and then Senate Minority Whip. Gallardo also served as a campaign finance administrator in the Maricopa County Elections Department for 14 years, engaging in efforts to increase voter turnout.

Gallardo has also served on the Arizona Civil Right Advisory Board and the Maryvale Village Planning Committee, as well as been a member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). 

In 2006, Gallardo chaired a ballot initiative that established minimum wage in Arizona. Since then, the state minimum wage has increased from $6.75 to $13.85 (starting Jan. 1). The federal minimum wage is $7.25. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Maricopa County Supervisors Snub Senate Subpoena For Election Records

Maricopa County Supervisors Snub Senate Subpoena For Election Records

By Corinne Murdock |

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) won’t comply with the Arizona Senate’s subpoena for election records. The Senate has attempted to get these records from the county for a month.

In a response letter issued to State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-LD16), Government Committee chair, BOS Chair Bill Gates said that their staff and attorneys were too busy to respond by Townsend’s Wednesday deadline. Gates also insisted that Townsend’s subpoena wasn’t necessary.

“As you know, Maricopa County has made itself available to answer questions and provide information as requested, regardless if subpoenaed. It is not necessary for you to hand-deliver a letter or have a Senate President signed subpoena issued,” wrote Gates. 

Townsend rejected Gate’s excuse, describing it as a “willful and criminal” obstruction.

“[They] claim [they have] “no time due to court proceedings” [but] that would not be happening if they had followed their own policies,” tweeted Townsend. 

Townsend issued the subpoena on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation by her committee on potential mismanagement of this most recent election. 

Townsend asked Gates to reconcile discrepancies between his Audit Reconciliation report and poll workers’ Precinct Ballot Reports. Gates’ report failed to reflect the poll workers’ disclosure that nearly 17,500 ballots appeared to lack a chain of custody from voting centers. 

Townsend also asked Gates to explain why a combined 23,900 ballots were held overnight instead of immediate reception at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC). She also requested delivery of the remaining Incoming Scan Receipts chain of custody documents, and the Goldenrod reports (Voting Location Event Forms) for every voting center.

Further, Townsend requested that Gates reconcile discrepancies between the Election Procedures Manual (EPM) and the county’s procedures pertaining to audit reconciliation and Official Ballot Reports (Precinct Ballot Reports). Gates was to also provide the Goldenrod reports and all communications between the audit manager, the Elections Director, and/or all judges and inspectors regarding the discrepancies. 

Townsend also asked Gates to explain why some voting centers calculated Election Day tabulated ballots from memory cards, while others were counted at Central Count. 

The senator also requested Gates explain the audit process when a Precinct Ballot Report is missing information like tabulated ballots, door 3 ballots, seals, or inspector and judge signatures; as well as explain  how election boards at each voting center account for the provisional and voided ballots on their Official Ballot Report to complete EPM reconciliation requirements, since that wasn’t included in the Precinct Ballot Report fields.

Gates was also requested to explain why the county’s Precinct Ballot Report form wasn’t updated for the voting center model to include a count of control slips as a way to quantify voting center check-ins.

In response to constituent complaints that Townsend should issue an arrest warrant for the board, Townsend explained repeatedly that committee chairs don’t have the power to issue warrants on their own. 

“[A warrant] requires a vote of the body and a majority prevailing,” stated Townsend.

Townsend has attempted for about a month to receive complete election record data from Maricopa County.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Controversial Expenditures in Congress’ $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill

Controversial Expenditures in Congress’ $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill

By Corinne Murdock |

The following are some of the controversial carve outs within Congress’ 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion spending bill, “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.” 

Fiscal Responsibility

  • Waives PAYGO budgetary enforcement – $130 billion

Law Enforcement

  • Jan. 6 prosecuting attorneys – $2.6 billion
  • FBI investigations of extremist violence and domestic terrorism – $11.3 billion
  • Capitol Police – $132 million

Criminal Justice Reform

  • First Step Act of 2018 (enables prisoners to earn sentence reduction credits) – $409.4 million
  • Restorative justice responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking – $15 million
  • Culturally-specific services for female domestic/intimate violence victims – $11 million
  • New restorative justice national center – $3 million
  • Alternative sentencing programs – $3.5 million
  • Drug courts – $95 million
  • Mental health courts – $45 million
  • Grants supporting community-based alternatives and restorative justice – $10 million
  • Community violence intervention and prevention initiative grants – $50 million
  • Community policing development activities, programs – $275.88 million

Social Justice 

  • Health and Human Services for diversity training – over $100 million
  • Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund – $200 million
  • Women’s Leadership Program – $50 million 
  • Foreign gender-based violence prevention – $250 million
  • Foreign female empowerment – $150 million
  • Hate crime outreach and training by state, local, and tribal law enforcement – $25 million
  • Establishing Office of Diversity & Inclusion in the legislative branch – $3.5 million
  • LGBTQ+ Pride Center in California – $1.2 million
  • Community space for gender-expansive people – $1 million
  • American LGBTQ museum in New York City – $3 million

Globalism

  • Ukrainian military and economic aid – $45 billion
  • Foreign food security and agricultural development – $1 billion ($265 million specifically for smaller enterprises by the poor, especially women)
  • Foreign racial reconciliation – $25 million

Honors

  • Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program – $2 million 
  • Renaming and boosting funding for the Lake Champlain Basin Program after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) – $35 million
  • President Jimmy Carter Museum upgrade – $7.25 million
  • President Ulysses S. Grant Museum upgrade – $6 million

Welfare

  • Child Care and Development Block Grant – $8 billion
  • Head Start – $12 billion
  • Pell Grant increase by $500 (7.2 percent) – up to around $3 to $3.5 billion
  • Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program – $5 billion
  • Community Development Block Grant formula program – $6.4 billion
  • 21,500+ affordable housing units – $388 million

Environment

  • Environmental Protection Agency – $576 million
  • Sustainable landscapes – $185 million
  • Foreign clean energy programs – $260 million
  • Foreign indigenous environment protection, including species preservation – $20 million
  • Climate crisis response – $15.3 billion 
  • Multimodal, transit, bicycle and pedestrian, and passenger rail grants for green infrastructure – $1.7 billion
  • “Defense” funding for climate crisis – $2 billion
  • Foreign family planning/reproductive health, namely in “areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species” – $575 million

Pandemics

  • Global Health Programs fund for future pandemics – $200 million
  • COVID Response – $5 million
  • COVID-19 American History Project – $1.5 million

The 4,155 page spending bill may be accessed here.

READ MORE: Arizona’s Congressional Leaders React to Omnibus

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Arizona’s Congressional Leaders React to Omnibus

Arizona’s Congressional Leaders React to Omnibus

By Corinne Murdock |

Arizona’s congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle didn’t appear too fond of the Democrat-led Congress’ $1.7 trillion, 4,000-page spending bill. 

Republicans decried the plan entirely, first noting the Democrats’ last-minute submission of the legislation for review and demand for a vote. They admonished what they considered excessive spending, especially given the nation’s current financial insecurity. Democrats that commented on the spending bill, which were few, were more vocal about the aspects they disliked than the virtues of the package. However, Democrats ultimately voted for the bill. 

READ HERE: THE $1.7 TRILLION SPENDING BILL

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) declared that the omnibus was an “assault” on the people, separation of powers, and fiscal responsibility. He warned it would devalue the American dollar to “unprecedented levels.”

Biggs and representative-elect Eli Crane signed onto a letter led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX-21) urging the Senate GOP to unify their 41 votes to kill the bill.

Biggs said that Republican resistance on the spending bill would allow the incoming Republican-led House to hold the FBI accountable for suppressing free speech online.

Biggs also shared commentary from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) disputing Democrats’ claim that Republicans were holding up the spending bill. Paul reminded the public and press that the Democrat-led Congress, just as with every other Congress, knows the deadline.

Watch here for Biggs’ full remarks on the omnibus:

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04) said the bill was “America Last” in nature. He criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for prioritizing Ukraine over America. 

Gosar listed a litany of real issues facing the country: inflation, declining wages, World War II-era shortages and supply chain issues, record crime levels, a weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ), FBI censorship and political persecution, Big Tech monopoly colluding with the DOJ, Biden family corruption with illegal Ukrainian bribes, record levels of broken families, a transgenderism crisis, failing infrastructure, record low confidence in government, broken elections systems, inept public health systems, COVID-19 vaccine harms, declining military, over $31 trillion in debt.

“Yet the Omnibus bill failed to remedy a single one of these very real problems. Not one. In fact, it rewards the DOJ, the FBI and the failed military leadership with more money and no reforms and no investigations. Not a dime is allocated towards securing our own border,” said Gosar.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) said the plan was “reckless.” Lesko noted that the country’s interest payments would surpass the entire Department of Defense (DOD) budget on a yearly basis ($742 billion).

Lesko also noted that 63 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

“We cannot continue spending money that we don’t have,” said Lesko.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) backed the bill, declaring that further funding for Ukraine was a good thing. However, Sinema did break with her former party (she now identifies as an independent) to speak out on border policy within the bill. Sinema reaffirmed dedication on a bipartisan solution with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) for border legislation. 

As AZ Free News reported last week, Sinema has been attempting to broker a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange for increased border security measures.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) hasn’t commented on the omnibus as of press time.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-07) hasn’t commented either, though he did signal support for Ukraine once again. 

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-09) criticized the decision to leave out the Afghan Adjustment Act, legislation to expedite the legal status process for Afghan evacuees. Stanton signaled his support for Ukraine as well. 

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ-02) had the most favorable view of the spending bill. She championed the legislation as a great increase in funding for Arizona. 

READ MORE: Controversial Expenditures in Congress’ $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

January 6 Committee’s Early Christmas Present to Rep. Biggs: An Ethics Probe

January 6 Committee’s Early Christmas Present to Rep. Biggs: An Ethics Probe

By Corinne Murdock |

Six days before Christmas, the House Jan. 6 Committee gave Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) a referral to the House Ethics Committee. In response to the committee’s final attempt to bend Biggs to their will, Biggs promised to publicize the committee’s “lies” and correct the record.

The referral was part of a larger set of referrals capping off the committee’s final hearing, chief among which was the criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Cheseboro to the Department of Justice (DOJ).  

The committee referred Biggs for sanctions to the House Ethics Committee for failing to comply with their subpoenas. They suggested that Biggs and others referred for sanctions should be questioned publicly about their “advance knowledge of and role in President Trump’s plan to prevent the peaceful transition of power.”

The committee announced their decision after their final meeting on Monday, and issued a 154-page report of their findings.

READ THE JAN 6. COMMITTEE FINAL REPORT HERE

Although the committee publicized a number of records within its report, they’ve refused to publish certain information of interest. Records of federal involvement — such as the ongoing mystery behind Ray Epps, who appears to be the only Capitol intruder to avoid prosecution — remain inaccessible to the public. 

Monday’s decision by the committee was punishment for Biggs’ refusal to comply with their subpoena. The congressman refused to turn over information regarding Jan. 6 and then refused to appear for his deposition. 

The Jan. 6 Committee findings documented Biggs’ communications with Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, advising their administration to encourage state legislators to appoint electors, and to not allow Trump to concede the election. Biggs also coordinated with defeated secretary of state candidate, then a state representative, Mark Finchem, to gather Arizona lawmaker signatures in support of new electors. 

The committee also noted Biggs’ criticisms of their work. 

Biggs decried the committee’s announcement as “their final political stunt” of many. Biggs added that the committee’s use of the House Ethics Committee was an inappropriate maneuver to justify “predetermined” conclusions.

“They only wanted the testimony to have the ability to edit and misconstrue our statements to further their own false narratives, as they did with so many other witnesses,” stated Biggs. 

In addition to Biggs, Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23), Jim Jordan (R-OH-04), and Scott Perry (R-PA-10) were referred for an ethics probe. 

The committee claimed that Trump violated 18 U.S.C. § 1512(C), 371, 1001, and 2383. These statutes prohibit the obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement, and incite, assist, or aid or comfort an insurrection. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08) declared that the committee’s hands were tied “inescapably” by the application of facts to law.

“We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today… just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy we describe in our Report,” stated Raskin. 

Among those to testify against Trump before the Jan 6. Committee was outgoing House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa).

Watch the full meeting here:

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.