Arizona civil rights activist Jarrett Maupin, Jr., characterized the 2022 attorney general election contest as the “civil rights issue of our time.”
Maupin referenced the allegations of disenfranchisement, which he claimed would bring American society back to a time where Black citizens couldn’t vote under the Democratic Party.
“Without the right to vote and to have every vote counted, we will return to the dark days of the Democrats of the Old South. If you cannot vote, you are a slave,” said Maupin. “Period.”
Listen @AbrahamHamadeh and @JenWEsq’s fight is a civil rights fight. It is THE civil rights issue of our time. Without the right to vote and to have every vote counted, we will return to the dark days of the Democrats of the Old South. If you cannot vote, you are a slave. Period.
— Rev. Jarrett Barton Maupin, Jr. (@ReverendMaupin) May 30, 2023
Maupin has run multiple times for different offices, including Congress and Phoenix mayor.
Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh is challenging the validity of Kris Mayes as the elected attorney general. The Mohave County Superior Court granted oral arguments earlier this month. As AZ Free News reported, Judge Lee Jantzen expressed interest in the sampling of evidence provided by Hamadeh’s team during the arguments.
Hamadeh’s team focused on evidence of allegedly disenfranchised voters, specifically uncounted votes from undervotes and provisional ballots. Opposition representing Mayes, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Maricopa County argued that too much time has passed since the initial December hearing and swearing-in.
A ruling in the oral arguments is pending but should be made available soon. Jantzen promised a ruling in several weeks’ time; it’s been over two weeks since the hearing.
While the outcome of Hamadeh’s oral arguments remains pending, a nonprofit organization filed a lawsuit against Gov. Katie Hobbs for failing to fulfill a public records request related to the election while in her capacity as secretary of state.
America First Legal (AFL) submitted its public records request 10 days after Election Day last year, on Nov. 18.
AFL requested all emails from Nov. 8-16 sent to and from Hobbs; Hobbs’ former assistant secretary of state and, most recently, former chief of staff Allie Bones; Hobbs’ former communications director as both secretary of state and governor, C. Murphy Hebert; and Hobbs’ former deputy communications director while secretary of state and current deputy communications director, Sophia Solis.
Bones resigned from Hobbs’ office several weeks after AFL filed its lawsuit. Hebert was dismissed in March, just days after Hobbs’ former press secretary, Josselyn Berry, resigned over a tweet indicating a call for gun violence against transphobes. Berry issued the tweet hours after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, perpetrated by a woman who identified as a transgender male. The Covenant School is a private Christian school; the shooter has an unreleased manifesto corresponding with the murders.
Hebert was hired earlier this month by the current secretary of state, Adrian Fontes.
AFL reported that though Hobbs’ administration never responded to their request, Fontes did. Fontes denied the request on Feb. 1 of this year. His administration claimed that the request covering the emails between four employees over the course of nine days constituted “an unreasonable administrative burden.” The secretary of state’s general counsel, Amy Chan, said the request concerned “many thousands of emails” in her rejection letter.
AFL argued that Fontes’ office failed to fulfill their statutory duty of providing “sufficiently weighty reasons” for denying the request. This includes, according to court precedent cited by AFL — ACLU v. Arizona Department of Child Safety — the resources and time it took to locate and redact the materials, the volume of materials requested, and how much it disrupted the secretary of state’s core functions.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) is focusing its recruitment efforts on bringing in more women and diversity staff.
PPD announced they wanted female officers to make up 30 percent of their force. Presently, women make up 14 percent of PPD’s force. The push by PPD is part of the 30×30 Initiative, a national effort to increase the number of females in police departments. PPD signed a pledge in January to fulfill the initiative.
The pledge comes at a time when PPD continues to sustain significant staffing shortages. Although PPD departures from Jan. to April were less than they were during the same time period last year according to PPD data, PPD still has over 560 vacancies to fill. Vacancies totaled 500 last June.
In an interview with 12 News, a PPD spokesman credited the reduction in departures to the $20,000 raise given to officers.
PPD credits Commander Aimee Smith for persuading the department to sign the initiative. Smith has served in PPD since 1997, working 11 years in patrol as both undercover and investigative positions, five years as a sergeant, four years as a lieutenant, and for the past five years as a commander. Smith also teaches as an adjunct criminal justice professor at Rio Salado College within the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD).
PPD follows in the footsteps of other police departments across the state who have already signed onto the 30×30 Initiative: Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Tucson, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. Over 320 law enforcement departments in the U.S. have signed onto the initiative
The Secret Service, Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, Supreme Court of the United States Police, IRS Criminal Investigation division, and FBI have also signed on to the 30×30 Initiative.
The 30×30 Initiative encourages special accommodations for women, including nursing stations for female officers. Some departments, like in Mesa, are developing special accommodations for women: medical benefits for life, alternative work schedules, part-time positions, and around-the-clock daycare.
The 30×30 Initiative was launched to establish “gender equity,” over equality, by artificially reducing natural disparities in law enforcement departments. The initiative is based on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) approach of weighing individuals based on intersectionality.
“Each of a woman officer’s many identities — race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and more — defines her experience, and often multiplies her exposure to discrimination,” states the initiative. “Black women and other women of color, in particular, face compounding experiences of bias and discrimination in law enforcement because of their race or ethnicity, in addition to their gender. Transgender and gender non-conforming officers face discrimination on the basis of their gender identity and presentation. Other identities, too, shape a woman officer’s experience in law enforcement: a mother or caregiver may require a modified schedule for caretaking duties, or a pregnant officer may require certain physical accommodations.”
The 30×30 Initiative issues a lengthy list of action items that it ranks “essential,” “strongly recommended,” and “recommended.” Those that are deemed essential are considered integral to fulfilling the pledge to the initiative.
Essential action items include: collecting gender, race/ethnicity, and age data on sworn officer applicants, hires, promotion applicants, promotion recipients, and separations and retirements. Also deemed essential was bias training for individuals seated on promotional panels, and for recruitment content to exactly reflect the community demographics.
The 30×30 Initiative declares that “latent bias” may exist if a department has more female applicants than female hires, and that “gender-relevant issues” may exist if a greater number of female officers voluntarily leave than men.
The initiative justifies purposeful prioritization of hiring female staff over males based on research showing that females present a reduced risk of excessive force incidents, make fewer arrests, and are named in fewer lawsuits and complaints.
However, other research shows that female officers are at a greater risk of enduring assault and sustaining injuries when responding to calls.
The 30×30 initiative works in partnership with the New York University School of Law Policing Project, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE), Crime and Justice Institute, Police Executive Research Forum, National Policing Institute, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, International Association of Women Police (IAWP), NOBLE National Headquarters, Women Leaders in Law Enforcement Foundation, and Women in Federal Law Enforcement.
The initiative receives funding from Arnold Ventures, a progressive philanthropic organization, and Mark43, a law enforcement-oriented technology company.
Arnold Ventures was founded by John Arnold, a billionaire hedge fund trader, and his wife, Laura.
Mark43’s angel investors included Goldman Sachs, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, and General David Petraeus.
Mark43’s co-founders — Scott Crouch, Matt Polega, and Florian Mayr — attended Harvard University together in the early 2000s. Polega interned for three months for major defense technologies contractor Raytheon in the summer of 2012 while co-founding Mark43.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Gov. Katie Hobbs hung four “Progress” Pride flags from the governor’s office on the first day of Pride Month.
The Progress Pride Flag is an expansion of the traditional rainbow Pride flag: it includes light pink, light blue, and white to represent transgender individuals, and black and brown to represent people of color.
Hobbs said that LGBTQ+-identifying individuals brought “light and energy” to the state.
“I will continue to work alongside you until we have an Arizona where everyone, no matter who they are or who they love, has the safety, freedom, and opportunity to truly live their authentic lives,” said Hobbs.
Kicking off pride month leaving no room for doubt that in Arizona, we celebrate the light and energy the LGBTQ+ community brings to our state. I will continue to work alongside you until we have an Arizona where everyone, no matter who they are or who they love, has the safety,… pic.twitter.com/2ImKMEKkF3
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) June 2, 2023
Pride Month can be traced back to the first Pride marches held in late June, 1970 on the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, or Stonewall Riots, in Manhattan, New York. The uprising consisted of six days of riots in response to a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan, New York. At that time, states widely prohibited homosexual relations. Activists commemorated the week-long riots with marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
In Hobbs’ campaign platform, the governor promised to enact anti-discrimination policies that explicitly banned LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing, education, adoption, foster care, insurance, public accommodations, and credit procurement. Hobbs also promised to ban law enforcement profiling based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Hobbs’ first executive order prohibited gender identity discrimination in state employment and contracts.
In a March event with One N Ten, a pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, Hobbs served as the honorary chair. The governor pledged her allegiance to LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It’s been a long time coming to have an ally for the LGBTQ+ community in our state’s highest office. So let me say this loudly, clearly, and unequivocally: with me as Governor, you have one,” stated Hobbs.
I’m honored to be the Honorary Chair of this year’s @1n10 Fresh Brunch, celebrating 30 years of their impactful work in our community.
It’s been a long time coming to have an ally for the LGBTQ+ community in our state’s highest office. So let me say this loudly, clearly, and… pic.twitter.com/NZLoGWUrqX
One N Ten advances LGBTQ+ ideology in both minors and young adults, ages 11-24. They offered a peer support program to gender transitioning patients from Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
In April, Hobbs vetoed SB 1005, which prohibited a court from granting attorney fees, expenses, or damages to a governmental entity or official concerning a parent’s lawsuit alleging that the entity or official interfered with their right to direct the upbringing, education, health care, or mental health of their child.
Hobbs stated in her veto letter that the bill didn’t protect parental rights but rather removes the consequence for frivolous lawsuits. The governor chastised Republican legislators to “turn down the temperature and rhetoric” to produce solutions.
“Across the country and here in Arizona, schools and teachers have been maligned by bad actors who spread baseless theories, seeking to create conflict with teachers, school boards, and administrators,” said Hobbs. “Parents, acting in good-faith concern for their children, are often caught up in the middle of these conflicts.”
This wasn’t the first year that Hobbs used her state office to display LGBTQ+ paraphernalia. Last year while secretary of state, Hobbs’ administration hung a Pride Flag and waved a transgender flag from their office balcony.
On Wednesday, the city of Phoenix gave up its water rights for $60 million in federal funding that may be used for infrastructure. The city cited the historic drought as necessary for its forfeiture.
The trade is a deal offered by the Biden administration to those with Colorado River rights: voluntarily forfeit their water allotment, and in return receive millions of taxpayer dollars. It’s a deal that Tucson also took up last week.
Phoenix forfeited 150,000 acre-feet of its water in Lake Mead over the next three years, in exchange for $400 per acre-foot.
The Biden administration financed the arrangement through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) enacted last year and in 2021, respectively. A combined $15.4 billion from the IRA and BIL were designated for combating drought.
The federal payments for water allocation forfeitures is part of the newly-established Lower Colorado Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program (LC Conservation Program).
Additional options for cities and states include shorter agreements of water forfeitures for less funding: one year for $330 an acre-foot, or two years for $365 an acre-foot.
Mayor Kate Gallego characterized the trade as one of their moves chalking up a big win for sustainability, alongside an Active Transportation Plan to prioritize transit alternatives such as bicycles, fully electric or liquified natural gas-based buses, and an increase in trees planted.
Gallego shared that the city would apply for another federal grant to expand the number of electric vehicle chargers throughout the city.
Today was a big day for sustainability in Phoenix! 🧵
1⃣ #PHX continues to lead the way to conserve water & combat drought. We voted today to leave up to 150K acre-feet of water in Lake Mead over the next three years, furthering our commitment to protect the Colorado River.
Phoenix and Tucson follow in the tracks of Gov. Katie Hobbs, who joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo to collectively forfeit three million acre-feet of water rights over the next three years. That plan, the Lower Basin Plan, equates to $1.2 billion in federal funding altogether.
Joining with California and Nevada, I just announced a new plan to conserve the Colorado River and protect Arizona’s water resources.
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) May 22, 2023
The LC Conservation Program by the Department of the Interior (DOI) has three stages altogether, or “components.” The tradeoff of acre-feet for federal infrastructure funding makes up the first component.
At present, the second component effectively offers a blank check to entities with effective proposals for water conservation and efficiency projects. The application window closed in November.
Similarly, the third component requests proposals for long-term conservation. Proposals for this program component are currently open according to the DOI website.
Senior White House and DOI officials traveled to Arizona and the rest of the lower basin states in April to arrange deals for water conservation efforts.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Gov. Katie Hobbs selected her former legislative colleague and longtime lobbyist, Chad Campbell, as her replacement chief of staff. The appointment comes less than a week after the resignation of Hobbs’ longtime right-hand woman, Allie Bones: first as assistant secretary of state and, until recently, chief of staff.
Campbell formerly served as the House Minority Leader for the Democrats for four years of his eight-year tenure as a state representative from 2007 to 2015. For four years, Campbell and Hobbs represented the same district; Hobbs took over as minority leader for Campbell in 2015.
Campbell’s legacy includes passing the 2013 Medicaid expansion under former Gov. Jan Brewer, and lobbying for the 2020 legalization of marijuana through Proposition 207.
Campbell served on both of Hobbs’ transition teams, first as secretary of state and then governor this past year. He will assume his position on June 5.
Last year, Campbell co-founded Lumen Strategies Arizona alongside Stacy Pearson, known for assisting in the 2016 defeat of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the 2020 legalization of marijuana. Prior to that, Campbell served as an executive for two different consultancy firms: Strategies 360 and Resolute Consulting.
Campbell proved his political acumen as recently as the last election, after he predicted the failure of Maricopa County Attorney candidate Julie Gunnigle’s campaign, describing it as resembling the “worst” he’d seen over the last 30 years. Campbell made the remarks in a video call with other Democratic leaders.
“[Gunnigle’s campaign] reminds me of that: not knowing the audience, not knowing the issues that matter to a lot of voters,” stated Campbell. “And I will say this: the vast majority of Democrats that I know all believe that there needs to be reforms in law enforcement, we believe there needs to be more accountability. But almost everybody I talk to, nobody wants to defund the police, everybody knows we need more public safety resources, which will actually make more accountability.”
Hobbs’ recently departed chief of staff, Bones, resigned last week. Bones was the latest in a rapid series of turnovers in Hobbs’ administration.
Bones’ resignation reflected a pattern from Hobbs’ last female predecessor, Jan Brewer, whose first chief of staff also departed within a year. However, both of former Gov. Doug Ducey’s chiefs of staff lasted years.
How long do AZ governor’s 1st COS last?: Brewer: Less than a year. Ducey: 4 years Hobbs: 5 months Brewer & Hobbs’ 1st chiefs, no legislative experience & both served as Assistant Secretary of State prior to governor’s office. Ducey’s 1st chief, a former House Speaker. https://t.co/JXPUGhsHCD
Bones resignation also followed months of unsuccessful nominations to outfit Hobbs’ cabinet. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Director Nominations rejected the Registrar of Contractors nominee, former State Sen. Martin Quezada.
In February, Hobbs faced the retraction of two nominees: Dr. Theresa Cullen as director of Arizona Department of Health Services, and Matthew Stewart as director of the Department of Child Services.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
