by Staff Reporter | Jul 6, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The balance of Arizona’s Legislature may hinge on Republicans being able to pick up seats in districts under Democrats’ control in the upcoming election. Robert Scantlebury, who is running for state senate in Legislative District 9 in Mesa, may be one of those candidates for the Republicans in November 2024.
Robert has lived in Mesa since 1992, when he joined the City of Mesa Police Department as an officer after graduating from California State University with his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. He started his career with Mesa in its holding facility before serving as a police officer, special investigations detective, patrol sergeant, school intelligence detective, and a detective sergeant. After this distinguished body of work for the Department, Scantlebury retired in 2018, completing 25 years with the city.
Retirement couldn’t keep Robert from the persistent itch of public service. He served as a volunteer Reserve Police Officer until 2020, when the Mesa Police Department ended the program. In this role, he worked as a School Resource Officer and School Intelligence Detective. As Scantlebury reflected on this period of his life, he said that “I loved my job and have always felt I had a calling to protect and stand up for others.”
When his tenure at the Department came to an end after the sunset of the reserve program, Scantlebury followed in the footsteps of his parents, creating his own small business, Little American Tractor Service. He also serves as a school board member for Step-up School, which is a nonprofit school in his community.
The Mesa law enforcement officer veteran entered the political realm in 2018, when he unsuccessfully ran for Mesa City Council in District 4, finishing third. However, Scantlebury just barely missed the bar to move on to the November 6 election, falling 39 votes short of second place. He then challenged incumbent State Senator Tyler Pace in the August 2022 Primary Election, garnering more than double the votes for a shocking victory. Robert couldn’t defeat his Democrat opponent, though, losing to incumbent Eva Burch by five percent (just over three thousand votes).
Scantlebury decided to run again for Legislative District 9 in the 2024 cycle. In August 2023, he wrote that “people have asked why I’m going to run for office again when it is so hard to do,” answering that he has “always done hard things to do my part to make things better and stop bad people from hurting others.”
On March 29 of this year, Scantlebury turned in 920 signatures of qualified voters to make the ballot for the primary election. That number was almost three times the minimum he was required to submit to the Arizona Secretary of State. In a Facebook post, he thanked “all the people who talked with me at their front door and all the supporters who visited their neighbors and advocated for me.”
His three top priorities for public office at the state legislature are public safety, lower cost of living, and supporting parents and students. On his campaign website, Robert writes that his “thirty years in law enforcement have made it clear to me that we need our state government to do more. I will be a voice to empower local law enforcement, address serious mental illness appropriately, and work to stop human trafficking and the flow of drugs coming across our border.”
Scantlebury goes on to address his economic priority, stating that “we should be able to afford groceries, gas, electricity, and rent or buy a home in a safe neighborhood. But today, we’re paying more to buy less and our kids can’t envision ever affording a house. That’s the opposite of the American dream.” He promises to “defend our flat tax, oppose new taxes, stand up to radical environmental policies that raise the cost of our gas and electricity, and balance community needs with individual property rights.”
In addressing his priority of supporting parents and students in Arizona schools, Robert asserts that “one size doesn’t fit all and families should be able to access what works for their child, regardless of where they live or how much money they make.” He assures voters that “I am going to protect this for any family that needs it.” He adds that he “want[s] schools to focus first on the basics of education like reading, writing and math” and “schools that are responsive to students’ and parents’ needs.”
The Republican lists endorsements from the Mesa Police Association, the Arizona Republican Assemply, LUCA-Latino United, East Valley Young Republicans, and Arizona State Representative Barbara Parker on his website.
Robert has been married to his wife, Heather, for 23 years, and they have two daughters, Ryley and Robyn.
In July’s Primary Election, Scantlebury faces off against fellow Republican Christopher Stapley. The winner of the contest will be pitted against the entrenched Democrat incumbent, Eva Burch, for the November General Election.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jul 5, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs’ high rate of vetoes in election-related legislation was featured in a new Ballotpedia report released this week.
That report also detailed the thousands of election-related bills considered nationwide, highlighting those passed and vetoed in Arizona specifically.
Arizona with its divided government saw the passage of three key election bills, and the veto of seven.
The digital nonprofit featured several key bills passed by the Arizona legislature this year: HB 2785, which modified the statewide primary date by one week; SB 1342, which provided compensation to political party designees for post-election audit hand counts, with a limit of 75 percent of those conducting the hand count from being members of the same political party; and HB 2482, which required county election officials to notify voters of registration record changes within 24 hours.
Ballotpedia also highlighted the seven bills vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs: SB 1060, allowing federal candidates to choose observers at polling centers; SB 1330, replacing the term “drop box” with “ballot box” or “container”; SB 1097, making school board races partisan; HB 2393, allowing for an alternative presidential preference election for overseas military voters; HB 2404, prohibiting county recorders from issuing voter registration cards to out-of-state addresses; HB 2612, prohibiting individuals convicted of ballot abuse offenses from holding elected public office; and HB 2031, reducing the threshold for asking voters to expand the board of supervisors from 150,000 to 125,000.
Hobbs’ vetoes pushed Arizona to the top in terms of highest vetoes nationwide.
Although Arizona was featured as one of the key states reviewed, the state didn’t make the top 10 for most active overall in passing bills. With the exception of Maryland and Virginia, all of these states had Republican trifectas. In order from most activity to least: Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Idaho, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, and Maryland.
Arizona was, however, most active among the 10 states with divided governments.
In its report, Ballotpedia tallied the total of election-related legislation considered across Arizona and the rest of the nation: over 3,700 bills.
The nonprofit also noted that legislation topic or type was often determined by the political party leading the state. In Republican-led states, the election-related bills focused on ballot harvesting or collection, voter registration drives, noncitizen voting, or ranked-choice voting. In Democrat-led states, the bills focused on ballot curing for absentee or mail-in voting, voter suppression, and election disinformation or misinformation.
Bipartisan support existed for about eight percent of bills on topics such as voter list maintenance, protections for elections officials and workers, presidential electors, and voting by eligible but incarcerated individuals or felons.
States with a Republican trifecta and Republican or other sponsorship of the bills enacted the greatest majority of election-related legislation: 64 percent (196 bills). Democratic trifecta and Democratic or other sponsorship of the bills enacted 19 percent of the legislation (57 bills). “All other” totaled 17 percent (52 bills).
However, states with Democratic trifectas considered more changes to election laws than those states with Republican trifectas or divided governments. Ballotpedia noted that this was true for the third year in a row of their tracking history.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jul 4, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Democratic Senate candidate and Congressman Ruben Gallego has flipped his stance on voting rights for illegal migrants.
The congressman recently introduced legislation to clarify the illegality of non-citizen voting in federal elections. Yet last year, Gallego voted against a bill that similarly condemned non-citizen voting.
The legislation Gallego rejected, House Joint Resolution 24, was an opposition to the D.C. City Council’s approval of the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022. Even without Gallego’s vote, the resolution ultimately passed the House 260-162.
That D.C. act allowed noncitizens, mainly illegal immigrants, to vote in elections. It became law last February for a time, but the House quickly voted to cancel it.
Gallego’s newest bill, the Voting Clarity Act, serves as an advisory to illegal immigrants. The brief legislation is a mandate for Customs and Border Protection to inform illegal immigrants of federal law: that only citizens may vote in federal elections.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide information to each alien applying for asylum under this section on the restrictions on voting and the penalties for voting unlawfully under Federal law, including under section 611 of title 18, United States Code, at the time of such application. Information under this paragraph shall be provided in a form and language that the alien can understand.”
Violation of voting law would incur a fine and/or up to one year in prison.
In a press release, Gallego said that the privilege of U.S. citizenship, voting, shouldn’t be extended to noncitizens.
“That is why it is critical that those seeking to enter the U.S. are told clearly and upfront that they cannot vote in our elections if they are not citizens,” said Gallego. “I’m proud to introduce this commonsense bill to combat misinformation about who can, and cannot vote in our federal elections.”
Gallego’s legislation portrays the Senate candidate as tough but fair on the hot topic of the border. Last week, Gallego issued an ad featuring the sheriff who denied the border crisis and rejected Arizona National Guard assistance for his county in doing so, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway.
Hathaway has downplayed the severity of the state of the border.
“We don’t have a migrant crisis on the border. We do not need to militarize our counties and have troops come to the border,” said Hathaway. “We have certain, very vocal sheriffs in this state who are trying to fan the flames on a supposed crisis.”
Conversely, Gallego has admitted that the state of the border constitutes a crisis.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement claiming the Voting Clarity Act was just a way to “pander” to Arizonans.
“Ruben Gallego has been rubber-stamping the far left’s most radical, open border policies for his entire career in Washington,” said the NRSC. “His election year pandering is a slap in the face to Arizonans who are facing the brunt of the border crisis Gallego helped create.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jul 4, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed during a recent visit to Tucson that the Biden administration has reduced illegal immigration.
Levels of border encounters have dropped since this time last year, but remain much higher than those that occurred during the 2022 fiscal year and exponentially higher than those of past administrations.
Mayorkas held a press conference last week at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. In his remarks, Mayorkas claimed that southwest border encounters dropped 40 percent since President Joe Biden took executive action.
“We are imposing stricter consequences for those who cross the border without authorization,” said Mayorkas. “These actions are changing the calculus for those considering crossing our border.”
Mayorkas also claimed that the blame lies with Congress, not Biden, for the prolongation of the border crisis.
The secretary said that Congress needed to provide more funding to hire agents, officers, support personnel; buy, install, and maintain technology; and equip border agents to remove illegal immigrants.
Just several days after addressing Tucsonans, Mayorkas granted an 18-month temporary amnesty to over 300,000 illegal Haitian immigrants. Mayorkas and the Biden administration stated that the migrants don’t pose a threat to national interest.
Yet earlier this year, a Haitian man was arrested for murder and criminal possession of a weapon. That Haitian national, Kenol Baptiste, came into the country using the controversial Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) One app. The CBP One app has come under scrutiny for its perceived facilitation of illegal migration; it began allowing appointment scheduling last January, offering otherwise illegal immigrants the option to schedule an appearance at a port of entry to be released into the country rather than go through smugglers.
Since last January and through May, the app has brought in over 636,600 individuals according to the CBP.
The House impeached Mayorkas earlier this year over his handling of the border crisis, but the Senate later opted to dismiss the impeachment.
While the numbers presented by Mayorkas appeared high, total illegal border crossings remain at historical highs.
According to CBP data last updated in May, southwest border encounters totaled nearly 1.7 million this fiscal year (from October to present), a decline of 46,00 from this time last year and an increase of 152,000 from this time in the 2022 fiscal year.
Since Biden took office, there have been over 8.1 million illegal immigrant encounters. That number serves as an estimate of total illegal immigrant entries, as it doesn’t include “gotaways,” or those who evaded detection upon entry.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pointed out that the Biden administration continues to allow over 70,000 illegal immigrants into the country through the CBP One app and the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) parole program, the latter which FAIR disputed was unlawful.
Violent crimes involving illegal immigrants have been on the rise under this administration. The most high-profile cases have frequently involved illegal immigrants who were either inadmissible for admission or were eligible for deportation.
Earlier this week, two employees in a Texas Chick-fil-A restaurant were shot and killed by an El Salvador illegal immigrant, 37-year-old Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta.
A number of murders by illegal immigrants also occurred earlier this month.
In Texas, two Venezuelan illegal immigrants — Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26 — murdered a 12-year-old girl in Houston, Jocelyn Nungaray. In New York, 21-year-old Ecuadorian illegal immigrant Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis murdered a 21-year-old woman on her birthday.
Last month, police arrested 23-year-old El Salvador illegal immigrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez for raping and killing 37-year-old Rachel Morrin, a Maryland mother of five, while she was on a run last August. Martinez-Hernandez allegedly fled his home country last February due to accusations of murdering another woman there.
Earlier this year, an illegal immigrant who had been scheduled to be removed in 2020, 25-year-old Mexican citizen Brandon Ortiz-Vite, was arrested for the murder of Ruby Garcia, a 25-year-old woman in Michigan.
There was also the murder of 22-year-old college student Laken Riley in Georgia by 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra. Ibarra was permitted entry despite documented ties to Teen de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang operating in New York and Georgia, the two states he would live in before murdering Riley.
Even with the rising concerns of public safety and resources illegal immigrants impose, the Biden administration has made more public resources available to them.
In November, DACA recipients (also called “Dreamers”) will qualify for Affordable Care Act health care. American taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly 600,000 DACA recipients, nearly 21,000 of which reside in Arizona.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jul 1, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer plans on voting to reelect President Joe Biden this November, despite identifying publicly as a Republican and having voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Richer clarified his voting intentions during an interview with AZ Family after the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (ACCEC) debate earlier this month.
“I voted for President Trump in 2020. And who am I planning on voting for [in November]? President Biden,” said Richer.
Despite pledging to vote for Biden, Richer has remained critical of the president. On Friday, the recorder reposted a remark from Elon Musk mocking the Democratic Party for its declaration that Biden won the first presidential debate on Thursday. He also reposted an article from The Bulwark advocating for Biden to drop out of the race.
Richer’s voting choices haven’t been the only source of contention for his constituents and Arizonans in recent weeks.
Richer endured criticisms in relation to the recent arrest of an elections worker, 27-year-old Walter Ringfield Jr., who stole keys and a fob to the Maricopa County Elections Building last week and has also been placed under investigation for stolen items out of the Senate earlier this month. Ringfield was tasked with assisting in logic and accuracy testing, cleanup of tabulation machines, and various paperwork within the ballot tabulation center.
The stolen items were a magnetic security key which assists in activating ballot tabulation machines and a key unlocking the pins atop the tabulation machines.
The stolen election items cost the county over $20,000 in damages, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in a press conference earlier this week.
While Richer’s opponent, State Representative Justin Heap, accused Richer of overlooking Ringfield’s criminal past to hire him, Richer says he did no wrong.
“He didn’t have a felony on his record. You know a charge is different from a conviction,” said Richer. “He was caught. Immediately. Credit to the Board. System worked. He’s in custody. No harm was done.”
Ringfield was arrested last year in relation to a theft of over $1,000 from a Fry’s grocery store. The county’s background check didn’t flag that arrest because Ringfield entered a diversion program, which had him on felony release.
Richer initially denied that Ringfield was the same individual who filed a statement of interest last year to run in this year’s Senate race as a Democrat.
Richer later admitted he was wrong, apologizing to GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake’s top advisor, Caroline Wren, as well as radio personality Garret Lewis and lawyer Tom Ryan.
Maricopa County reported that Ringfield began working in elections on June 3. The county sheriff’s office commended the elections staff for recognizing the missing items in a timely manner.
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