A liberal Democrat is attempting to return to the Arizona State Legislature for the upcoming session to give her party control of the House of Representatives.
Kelli Butler is running for election to the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 4. Butler previously served in the Arizona Legislature from January 2017 to 2023. Currently, she sits on the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board as a Member At-large.
Though she is running in a centrist district in the Phoenix-metro area, Butler boasts of several endorsements from left-leaning organizations for her campaign, including the Arizona Education Association, Moms Demand Action, Arizona List, Save Our Schools Arizona, National Organization for Women Arizona Political Action Committee, Human Rights Campaign, Emilys List, and Sierra Club Grand Canyon.
The former lawmaker does not have an “issues” page on her campaign website, yet her “about” section makes clear that she would be legislating with an anti-school choice agenda should voters return her to the House of Representatives chamber. She writes, “We know public schools are underfunded, but universal vouchers send tax dollars to private schools with no accountability.” She also mentions abortion being one of her top focuses, highlighting that “attacks on women’s reproductive rights seem to be the priority.” Butler promises that “with a new majority, those priorities will change.”
On May 3, Butler reposted an endorsement from Save Our Schools, adding, “So proud to earn this endorsement! I’m looking forward to working to strengthen our neighborhood public schools.” Save Our Schools and the Arizona Education Association have been two of the top organizations opposed to school choice and educational freedom opportunities, working against efforts to give Arizona parents and guardians more choices when it comes to their children’s’ education and future development.
During her last term in legislative office, Butler voted against HB 2853, which expanded the state’s empowerment scholarship accounts program, giving tens of thousands more Arizona families enhanced opportunities to maximize the potential of their children’s education.
Butler also took a stand against Republican attempts to help the state secure the border and give law enforcement officers additional resources and authority they require to better protect communities and unsuspecting families. When the state legislature debated whether to pass HCR 2060 and send it to the ballot for the consideration of Arizonans, she posted, “I agree federal immigration reform is needed, but HCR 2060 is not the answer. It will divert local law enforcement resources, result in taxpayer funded lawsuits, give AZ another black eye nationally and further strain our state budget.”
I agree federal immigration reform is needed, but HCR2060 is not the answer. It will divert local law enforcement resources, result in taxpayer funded lawsuits, give AZ another black eye nationally & further strain our state budget. https://t.co/85qjurqyTv
The three-term legislator has also been a champion of gun control measures and would be a vote to dismantle Arizonans Second Amendment rights at the state capitol.
Pleased to join my #LD4 House running mate, Karen Gresham, for @MomsDemand Action Advocacy Day. The GOP majority at #azleg refuses to hear sensible bills to help make our children safer-instead, the GOP is pushing to allow guns on college & university campuses again. pic.twitter.com/ItzBEyBpZF
In 2022, Butler decried the lack of action on gun control bills introduced by her fellow Democrat legislators.
⬇️ a list of the gun violence prevention legislation @AZHouseDems introduced this year. All have been blocked from getting hearings & debate by the GOP majority. We call on our Republican colleagues to work with us & take sensible steps to make our communities safer. https://t.co/6cvkrHk4HF
Back in January 2022, Butler slammed then-Republican Governor Doug Ducey’s commitment to keep Arizona schools open for in-person learning – more than a year after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Butler said, “Gov. Ducey is again punishing schools that take action to shut down to protect the health of students and staff. He’s using this pandemic to defund our already stressed-to-the-brink public schools. Instead, he should provide PPE, paid sick days, substitutes, ventilation.”
Gov. Ducey is again punishing schools that take action to shut down to protect the health of students and staff. He’s using this pandemic to defund our already stressed-to-the-brink public schools. Instead, he should provide PPE, paid sick days, substitutes, ventilation. https://t.co/gKsFuIYYLQ
She also attacked Governor Ducey’s assertion that “there [was] no mask mandate in Arizona” in December 2021 – again, more than a year after COVID-19 pandemic pinnacle swept the nation, framing Ducey’s statement as bragging about “ignoring public health guidelines.”
While #Covid_19 is the leading cause of death in #AZ, Gov. Ducey brags that he’s ignoring public health guidelines. Thank goodness @POTUS is sending federal medical support teams to address the crisis caused by our governor’s failure to lead. https://t.co/5eQp41S3JW
Additionally, in September 2021, Butler pounced on a lawsuit from then-Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich over one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine orders, calling it a “PR campaign” and accusing the state’s top prosecutor of “want[ing] Arizonans to get sick and stay sick.”
Remember when AG Brnovich wasted our tax dollars suing to destroy the Affordable Care Act & protections for preexisting conditions? Now we’re paying for his new PR campaign/lawsuit to fight efforts to require COVID vaccine.
Butler ran as a team for the state House with fellow Democrat Karen Gresham, who serves on the Madison Elementary School District’s governing board as its president. In the just-completed primary election, Butler finished first, receiving 20,918 votes, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Gresham obtained 18,930 votes. They will face off against incumbent state Representative Matt Gress and his running mate, Pamela Carter, for the Republicans. Gress received 24,329 votes in the July 30 primary election, compared to 19,432 for Carter.
According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Legislative District 4 is one of the most competitive in the state, with a 3.4% vote spread between Republicans and Democrats in the past nine statewide elections. In those elections, Republicans have won five of the contests, compared to four for the Democrats.
Currently, there is only one legislator representing Legislative 4 (Gress) due to a Democrat’s resignation this summer. Butler was one of three Democrats nominated to fill the seat (with Gresham and Eric Meyer) to be considered by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. One of those individuals will be selected by the Board to serve for the duration of the term (until early January 2025).
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Vice President Kamala Harris and her vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will be coming to campaign in Arizona on Friday. Details of their visit are forthcoming.
Harris and Walz will be visiting a little over a week after Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Senator JD Vance, addressed Arizonans in Glendale.
Harris and Walz will come to Phoenix, but details of the exact location and time have not yet been released.
The visit comes shortly after Harris passed over Senator Mark Kelly as her running mate pick. Kelly put his support behind Walz on Tuesday, and disclosed to his supporters that he didn’t believe he would be the pick.
“I never expected to find myself in this position,” said Kelly.
Vice President @KamalaHarris and Governor @Tim_Walz are going to move us forward. They’re already building a campaign to unite our country — and @GabbyGiffords and I are ready to do everything we can to help them win.
Former Governor Doug Ducey toldThe New York Post in an interview this week that Harris and the Biden administration have been the worst on handling the border. Ducey served as governor under former Presidents Barack Obama as well as Donald Trump, as well as Biden.
Ducey asserted that Harris had failed on handling the border and ought to answer for it as a presidential candidate; Biden tasked Harris with handling the illegal immigration crisis in the first months of Biden’s term, resulting in the widespread acknowledgment of her being the “border czar.”
“She’s never been to Arizona’s border to this date. And that is an issue that she has failed on,” said Ducey. “This was all avoidable with attention to the border, and this is something that Kamala Harris will have to answer for in this presidential campaign.”
Not all Republican leaders have been so critical of Harris. They are part of an organized Harris campaign effort to win over voters in this swing state, similar to one launched four years ago by the Biden campaign.
Mesa’s registered Republican mayor, John Giles, endorsed Harris in a widely-reported guest column last month with The Arizona Republic. Giles also happens to be Mormon, and reported as part of growing Mormon support for Harris over Trump.
Giles cited Trump’s response to the 2020 election results as his main reason for opposing the Republican nominee. Giles also claimed that Arizona had benefited from Biden administration policies such as massive funding for infrastructure and semiconductor development. Giles also criticized pro-life and pro-gun policies as “far-right” threats to rights and freedoms.
“Trump poses a serious threat to our nation. We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad,” wrote Giles. “Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.”
Giles has endorsed Democrats for several election cycles to date, as Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda later clarified in a response statement.
“The Mayor has been endorsing Democrats for several election cycles now. This isn’t news, and it certainly doesn’t warrant any of our attention,” said Swoboda. “At the AZGOP, we are focused on expanding support and addressing issues that matter most to Arizonans and the American people.”
Giles gave $100 to Lorena Austin in April, the state’s first nonbinary and gender nonconforming elected official who made headlines recently for hosting an all-ages drag show fundraiser.
Giles also joined as the co-chair of the Arizona chapter to a newly-formed Harris campaign advisory committee, “Republicans for Harris,” which held a press conference earlier this week on their goal to “Stop Trump.”
Republican Mayor of Mesa, AZ John Giles:
“I think the time has come for us as AZ Republicans to admit the obvious…which is that our party’s nominee is not qualified for office and that we need to vote for the adult in the room, and that is Kamala Harris.” pic.twitter.com/ZV7F2KTGIE
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) August 5, 2024
The other co-chair of this “campaign within a campaign” within Arizona is Robin Shaw, a former state representative who served in the 1990s. Shaw also campaigned against Trump in the 2020 election alongside the Lincoln Project as part of the “Republicans for Biden” movement.
One of the most notable members of that 2020 movement for Biden was former Senator Jeff Flake.
Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana was also presented as a member of the Republicans for Harris effort.
HAPPENING NOW: Arizona Republicans endorse Vice President Harris and slam Trump for his attacks on democracy. GOP leaders will form a new advisory committee to help the Harris for Arizona campaign reach Republicans who will reject MAGA from now until November 🗳️ pic.twitter.com/UKySKxC0LG
The woman who announced the widely-reported Republicans for Harris press conference, Delaney Corcoran, runs the Harris campaign’s Arizona communications (she ran the Biden campaign’s Arizona communications from March until his announcement to drop out last month). Prior to posting up in Arizona, Corcoran was the communications director and spokesperson for Massachusetts’ Secretary of Education.
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The Maricopa County Superior Court ruled against provisions of Arizona’s 2023 Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) on Tuesday.
The EPM, drafted and passed under Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, was challenged in court earlier this year by the public policy nonprofit, Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC).
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Ryan-Touhill ruled that Fontes’ 2023 EPM contained speech restrictions that violated the Arizona Constitution, as well as misstatements and modifications of statutes, and failures to identify distinctions between guidance and legal mandates.
Ryan-Touhill ruled that the EPM’s provisions on speech were unnecessary, vague, overbroad, and serving as universal prohibition on conduct.
“The EPM’s language has restricted what the Secretary finds acceptable regarding behavior, both speech and acts. Our state constitution guarantees a right to speak freely and is only restricted for an abuse of that right,” wrote Ryan-Touhill. “[M]any of the prohibitions listed in the EPM are free speech and protected by both the Arizona Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. What, for example, constitutes a person communicating about voter fraud in a harassing manner? Or, for that matter, ‘posting’ a sign in an intimidating manner? How does a person either do this behavior — whatever it means — or avoid it? And what content printed on a t-shirt might be offensive or harassing to one and not another? What if the t-shirt says, ‘I have a bomb and I intend to vote!’? Where does the Secretary draw the line?”
Ryan-Touhill highlighted 13 instances of “problematic language” within Fontes’ 2023 EPM in her ruling:
[N]o electioneering may take place outside the 75-foot limit if it is audible from a location inside the door to the voting location.
Any activity by a person with the intent or effect of [ ] harassing, [ ] (or conspiring with others to do so) inside or outside the 75-foot limit at a voting location is prohibited.
The officer in charge of elections has a responsibility to train poll workers and establish policies to prevent and promptly remedy any instances of voter intimidation.
The officer in charge of elections should publicize and/or implement the following guidelines as applicable:
The inspector must utilize the marshal to preserve order and remove disruptive persons from the voting location.
Openly carrying a firearm outside the 75-foot limit may also constitute unlawful voter intimidation, depending on the context.
Aggressive behavior, such as raising one’s voice or taunting a voter or poll worker.
Using [ ] insulting [ ] or offensive language to a voter or poll worker. Disrupting voting lines.
Following voters or poll workers coming to or leaving a voting location, including to or from their vehicles.
Intentionally disseminating false or misleading information at a voting location. . . .
Directly confronting, questioning, photographing, or videotaping voters or poll workers in a harassing [ ] manner, including when the voter or poll worker is coming to or leaving the polling location.
Asking voters for “documentation” or other questions that only poll workers should perform.
Raising repeated frivolous voter challenges to poll workers without any good faith basis, or raising voter challenges based on race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion or disability.
Posting signs or communicating messages about penalties for “voter fraud” in a harassing or intimidating manner.
Judge Ryan-Touhill assessed that the EPM’s provisions modified the criminal intent and effect of crimes outlined by Arizona laws against harassment and voter intimidation or threats.
“The Secretary has no authority to change a mens rea, regardless of the objective of the language,” said Ryan-Touhill. “Moreover, neither law allows for a subjective belief of the alleged target of the crime but rather focuses upon the acts of the criminal (e.g., force, violence, infliction) or the victim (‘a reasonable person’).”
AFEC President Scot Mussi said in a press release that he was happy to see the court protect Arizonans’ First Amendment rights within elections.
“The judge correctly realized that certain portions of Secretary Fontes’ illegal and radical manual were nothing more than a brazen attempt to destroy the integrity and transparency of state elections,” said Mussi. “Secretary Fontes and his team of leftwing ideologues must conform the entire manual to state law as is their statutory duty.”
The court ordered the sections of the EPM containing speech restrictions to be unenforceable.
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The Arizona State Bar Cochise County Attorney declined to punish Brian McIntyre last week for working against his own county supervisors, and the bar ultimately dismissed the complaint against him. However, the state bar did issue a public admonition against him, according to the Arizona Daily Independent.
The state bar dismissed the complaint because, according to their statements, they felt that lawyer discipline was achievable through “instructional comment,” and because McIntyre had completed a client confidentiality course. The bar admonished McIntyre for airing out his concerns and the county supervisors’ confidential information publicly instead of the more appropriate venue of an executive session.
During a 2022 public meeting in which the Cochise County Board of Supervisors was discussing a post-election hand count audit, McIntyre revealed that he’d advised the board against the audit.
After the board was sued over the audit, McIntyre then sent a letter to the plaintiffs’ counsel disclosing a list of laws he believed his clients had potentially violated.
Former Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller and State Representative Alexander Kolodin had filed the complaint against McIntyre late last year for those actions. The pair alleged that McIntyre violated attorney-client privilege with his remarks during that 2022 public meeting, and that McIntyre had worked against his clients with the letter by providing legal analysis and fodder for the media against his clients.
The controversy escalated amid the state bar investigation after an uncovered document revealed that McIntyre had apparently colluded with Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes against his county supervisors.
The document was a letter from McIntyre to Mayes, in which the county attorney had asked the attorney general to retract an opinion set by her predecessor, Mark Brnovich, on expanded hand counts. McIntyre sent the letter amid an active appeal by his clients (the county supervisors) to conduct those hand counts.
“Key to our initial efforts was determining the readily apparent potential conflicts with pursuing a prosecution that might result from that investigation. While I remain satisfied that legally we could move forward if evidence warranted doing so, practically it would create substantial issues for this office’s relationship with the Board moving forward,” wrote McIntyre. “Unfortunately, recent events outside the office may also create the appearance that any prosecution is motivated by less than just concerns.”
After the state bar began investigating McIntyre last December, Mayes brought down indictments reflecting felony-level election interference and conspiracy charges against Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby.
McIntyre would later testify to the grand jury on the controversial 2022 general election audit.
Several months after struggling with his county supervisors over the 2022 audit, McIntyre was arrested and pleaded guilty to an extreme DUI in early 2023. An extreme DUI applies to blood alcohol content (BAC) levels over .15 percent (the Arizona legal limit is .08 percent); McIntyre had a .2 percent BAC.
The arrest video showed McIntyre was refusing to believe law enforcement’s breathalyzer results.
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Parents and community members within the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) are petitioning for the removal of sexually explicit books from school libraries.
Last week, a coalition of parents’ rights and educational organizations submitted a letter to the SUSD governing board requesting the book removals. Nearly all of the books on their list were only offered at high school libraries, with the exception of one offered at a K-8 school library.
Parents and community members involved with Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity, Arizona Women of Action, Restore Parental Rights in Education, Protect Arizona Children Coalition, A Legal Process, Not In Our Schools, EZAZ, SaveCFSD.org, KIDS FIRST, Mom Army, and Moms for Liberty submitted the request. Two individuals also joined the request, Shiry Shapir and Dan Kleinman.
The parents submitted their request to remove all “pervasively vulgar” or “educationally unsuitable” content from SUSD libraries to the Scottsdale Unified Governing Board, citing Arizona laws on furnishing harmful items to minors and the 1982 Supreme Court ruling recognizing that school boards maintain the authority to remove books determined to be vulgar or unsuitable for education.
The groups argued that the books don’t offer “serious educational value,” or any “serious artistic, literary, political, or scientific value.”
The parents and community members also requested that the district employ a book maturity rating system, and to prohibit future purchases of books rated not for minors or aberrant.
“This request is not to ban books,” said the parents. “All of the books mentioned in this letter are widely available in bookstores and other online and brick-and-mortar retail outlets. Schools have a limited amount of library budget and shelf space, thus the question we must answer is which books should be offered to minors and which should not.”
Per the groups, SUSD hasn’t responded to their request.
The sexually explicit books that parents would like to see removed were “A Stolen Life” by Jaycee Dugard, “Doomed” by Chuck Palahniuk, “Haunted” by Chuck Palahniuk, “Lucky” by Alice Sebold, “PUSH” by Sapphire, “Sold” by Patrick McCormick, “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, “Perfect” by Ellen Hopkins, “People Kill People” by Ellen Hopkins, “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins, “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace, “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sara J. Maas, “Anatomy of a Boyfriend” by Daria Snadowsky, “Anatomy of a Single Girl” by Daria Snadowsky, “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, and “Smoke” by Ellen Hopkins.
One or more of the books were located at all five high schools: Arcadia, Chaparral, Coronado, Desert Mountain, and Saguaro.
Desert Canyon K-8 school was also on the list for one book included: “Sold” by Patrick McCormick.
These books not only contain sexually explicit material, they contain aberrant depictions of sexual activities such as child molestation, rape, bestiality, sexual assault or battery, incest, adult and child prostitution, and sodomy. The books also contain descriptions of the usage of drugs and alcohol by both adults and minors, as well as suicide and self harm.
Arizona law prohibits the distribution of harmful items to minors, which includes that which contains descriptions or representations of nudity, sexual activity, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.
Parents cited the Supreme Court case Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School No. 26 v. Pico to make their case that SUSD had full authority to remove the contested books immediately without review.
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