Since early on in the legislative session, Arizona Rep. Bret Roberts has tried to convince his fellow lawmakers that it was crucial to protect citizens from mandatory COVID-19 vaccination demands.
A bill, HB2190, introduced by Sen. Kelly Townsend on Roberts’ behalf would prohibit companies and government agencies in Arizona from demanding proof, referred to as a vaccine passport, of someone’s vaccination status in order to receive government benefits or enter a place of business.
HB2190 stalled out but fast forward nearly three months to Ducey’s decision this week to issue an executive order banning Arizona’s universities and community colleges from mandating that students show proof of their COVID-19 vaccination status or be forced to wear masks “in order to participate in learning.”
The governor’s action came after Dr. Joanne Vogel, Vice President of Student Services for Arizona State University (ASU), announced that students who have not received the COVID-19 vaccination would be subjected to daily health checks, twice-weekly testing, and mandatory face mask use in all indoor and outdoor spaces on ASU campuses.
Rep. Travis Grantham, the Speaker Pro Tempore, issued a statement Tuesday calling for the immediate rescindment of Dr. Vogel’s COVID-19 policy or her departure from ASU. At stake is not only students’ freedom to be vaccinated or not, but the university’s finding, according to Grantham.
“I have received numerous calls from concerned parents whose kids have no other option but to attend a state university,” Grantham noted. “It’s important that this tyrannical policy must not prevent any Arizonan from accessing our state university system. Moreover, as the legislature prepares to pass a state budget for next year, I will not support funding for any state university that intends to harass or discriminate against non-vaccinated students on campus.”
Rep. Jake Hoffman also opposes the ASU policy which he called “a gross abuse of students’ liberties.” He pointed out Tuesday that the state’s universities receive hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds and that it was common knowledge lawmakers have language in the pending state budget which would prohibit ASU’s COVID-19 policy.
“They’re just basically giving the Legislature the finger and that’s a problem for our State,” Hoffman said in a radio interview. “It’s an unacceptable overreach by a political subdivision of the state.”
In announcing his executive order, Ducey called on the legislation to codify his executive order into law. The question now is whether the legislation Ducey is seeking will be HB2190 or if it will include something else.
For his part, Roberts said during a radio interview Tuesday morning that the governor’s executive order is “a good start” but he believes all Arizonans -not just students- deserve the same protections. Which would be provided by HB2190.
Roberts also said he is not surprised by the ASU vaccination dustup, although he found it interesting the University of Arizona did not try to implement such as policy. He remains hopeful his vaccine bill -or something similar- will pass.
The problem, he noted, “is future political interest” of those who have so far opposed legislating vaccine policies for private and public purposes.
“If the people make it clear that future political interest are in jeopardy then maybe there’s a chance” of passing HB2190, he said. “I put the right of the individual to make that choice (to vaccinate or not) before a business should be able to dictate whether or not you have to give up your personal medical information in order to particulate in commerce.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita provided a shout-out to Roberts for “taking an early lead on this important issue,” and called on lawmakers to prohibit vaccine passports “from ever being mandated by any government or business.”
While some Arizona voters remain focused on last November’s election, dozens of candidates for state and federal offices in 2022 are already vying for voters’ attention and their dollars, even though early voting for primary contests won’t begin for 13 months.
The November 2022 General Election will bring major changes to Arizona’s executive branch, as Gov. Doug Ducey is termed out and Attorney General Mark Brnovich has announced his run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Mark Kelly. There will also be a new Arizona Secretary of State as current officeholder Katie Hobbs is seeking the governorship.
Hobbs announced her candidacy earlier this month, but faces a tough Democratic primary race with Marco Lopez Jr., a former mayor of Nogales and prior Chief of Staff for U.S. Customs & Border Protection. They currently have two other primary challengers, Steven “Paco” Noon Jr. and Trista DiGenova-Chang, although State Rep. Aaron Lieberman is rumored to be considering tossing his hat in the ring.
On the Republican side, 10 candidates are currently vying to get past the Aug. 2 primary and onto the Nov. 8 General Election ballot. Among the first to announce their candidacy were Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee and Karrin Taylor Robson, who is the secretary of the Arizona Board of Regents.
Former Phoenix-area television news anchor Kari Lake has also announced a run for the Republican nomination, along with Ameer El Bey, Kelly Garett, David Hoffman, Michael Pavlock Jr., Julian Tatka, Paola “Z” Tulliani, and Wayne Warren.
Meanwhile, two Libertarians -Bill Moritzky and Steve Remus- have already filed a Statement of Interest for governor.
With Hobbs giving up her position as Secretary of State, the Arizona Republican Party is pushing hard to take back the office in 2022. Five candidates, including Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Rep. Mark Finchem, are expected to be on the primary ballot, along with Remo Paul, Mark Sarchet, and Wade Wilson.
In addition, Rep. Shawnna Bolick, also a Republican, is expected to announce her candidacy for Secretary of State at a June 21 “Campaign Kick-off” event.
Whichever Republican clears the primary will likely take on Democrat Adrian Fontes, the former Maricopa County Recorder. Fontes informally announced on social media last week his interest in running for Secretary of State.
One of the state’s most influential offices is up for grabs in 2022 now that Brnovich is running for Congress. One Democrat -Diego Rodriguez- has filed a Statement of Interest, as have two Republicans- Andrew Gould and Tiffany Shedd.
Gould recently stepped down from the Arizona Supreme Court to announce his candidacy.
The U.S. Senate seat currently held by Mark Kelly is expected to be one of the most contested federal races in 2022, although the Republican primary to determine who takes on Kelly will be just as intense.
In addition to Brnovich, the Republican nomination is being sought by 15 other candidates as of June 12. They include recently retired Arizona Adjutant General Michael “Mick” McGuire and Fortune 500 executive Jim Lamon.
Other Republicans vying for the nomination are Wendy Acuna, Craig Brittain, David Buechel, Dan Butierez Sr., Ronald Coale, Eric Corbett, Mark Fisher, Vlad Hermann, Josh McElroy, Rob Paveza, Thomas Tripp, and Chad Yosick. They are joined by Kelly Garett, who also filed a Statement of Interest for governor.
But the Republican primary for Kelly’s seat in Congress could get even more crowded, as Blake Masters of the Thiel Foundation and Christopher Landau, who recently served as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, are rumored to be considering a run.
As for Kelly, he appears to have only one Democratic Party challenger at this time- Trista DiGenova-Chang, who also filed a Statement of Interest for Governor.
Independent candidates still have several months to submit a Statement of Interest, which must be filed by a candidate before collecting the petition signatures needed to get on the ballot. However, a Statement of Interest is not a formal declaration of candidacy – which is done by filing a nomination paper.
A consumer fraud lawsuit filed last year by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) against Google was the subject of an important court ruling last week, when a Maricopa County judge appointed to review some of the global tech giant’s internal documents issued an advisory ruling in support of sealing some records.
The June 7 advisory ruling was made by Judge Sally Schneider, who was appointed to serve as a Special Master to review various documents which Google wants sealed or redacted. This keeps Judge Timothy Thomason, who will preside over the jury trial on the AGO’s complaint, from coming into contact with documents which may not be admissible in the case.
Attorneys for the parties will be back in Maricopa County Superior Court on June 22 for a status conference with Thomason at which time he is expected to accept Schneider’s advisory ruling. No trial date has been set yet in the case, but Thomason has already scheduled two pretrial conferences for later this year.
The lawsuit authorized by Attorney General Mark Brnovich in May 2020 alleges Google violated Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act by misleading users of its apps about the company’s data collection and location tracking policies.
National attention -and that of Brnovich- was first drawn to the company’s tracking policies after the Associated Press published an article about the issue in 2018. Public records show more than 250 exhibits were shared between Google and the AGO within six months of the lawsuit being filed.
Since then, several of the documents have been released to the public, providing a better understanding of the steps Google took to ensure it could readily track its customers, even though some employees pointed out concerns with such policies. Other documents have been redacted or sealed based on Schneider’s recommendation.
It is unclear what records or topics were involved in Google’s most recent motion to seal -listed as number 4- but Schneider is advising Thomason to keep something under seal. A redacted version of whatever Schneider believes should not be sealed will not be available until Thomason makes a formal ruling.
Brnovich alleges Google has violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by leading users to believe they can opt-out of location tracking. He contends the company “exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy…It’s nearly impossible to stop Google from tracking your movements without your knowledge or consent,” he said.
The AGO also contends Google is continuing to track and collect location information via a user’s WiFi connectivity.
“Google makes it so a user cannot opt out of this form of location tracking unless the user actually completely disables the WiFi functionality on his or her device…meaning the device cannot connect to the internet through WiFi,” the lawsuit now states. It also alleges location data can be obtained by Google even if a user’s Android phone is shut off.
According to court records, over 80% of Google’s 2019 revenues—$135 billion out of $161 billion total—came from advertising enabled by the company’s collection of detailed information about its users, including their physical locations. Thomason ordered Google last month to continue its “reasonable, good faith investigation into what documents or materials it has with respect to profits from the Arizona user location data.”
Google has issued few public statements in response to the lawsuit. The most recent noted the company is looking forward to setting the record straight about its activities.
“The Attorney General has gone out of his way to mischaracterize our services,” according to the statement. “We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data.”
Some of the Google documents obtained by the AGO played a big role in legal action taken against the company in Australia.
Officials with the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission are seeking an unspecified amount of civil penalties against Google after a judge ruled earlier this year that the company led users who were setting up new Android devices to believe only the “location history” setting allowed location information to be tracked.
The Australian judge determined Google knew it could still collect a user’s location data without their knowledge via a default setting under “web & app activity,” even if the location history setting was turned off.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has initiated several legal maneuvers focused on forcing the Biden Administration to address the immigration crisis impacting Arizona. On Tuesday, he stepped away from the lawbooks and expressed his opinion about how Arizonans are being treated.
“America is a big generous country but what makes this country great is we have a Constitution and a Rule of Law,” Brnovich said. “And that means there is a process -there’s an orderly process- and what the Biden Administration has done is created chaos. They’ve made Arizona like a petri dish.”
To Brnovich, it appears President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “don’t give a damn” about the financial impact to Arizona from thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the border every month. And he suggested they have given Arizonans “the middle finger, essentially” as Harris visited Guatemala this week to pledge U.S. taxpayer money to that country.
Brnovich also discussed the decision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use a former Homewood Suites by Hilton in Scottsdale as a 72-hour Emergency Family Staging Center for asylum seeking families.
“It is absolutely unconscionable what the Biden Administration is doing,” he said about the Scottsdale plan, noting the hotel is one block from a school and in the middle of a neighborhood. “It frustrates me that more people aren’t sounding the alarms or joining us in all of our lawsuits.
Brnovich highlighted the fact the Biden Administration has 1.2 million people on deportation lists but has implemented a policy of no deportations, which is another topic the attorney general is litigating. The new policy allows immigrants with criminal histories to walk free in Arizona without supervision.
And, Brnovich added, federal authorities are refusing to take custody of immigrants as they complete their state prison sentences. Many have been convicted of serious crimes like arson and rape.
The fundamental problem, according to Brnovich, is that the Biden Administration “has incentivized and legalized illegal immigration” and is now monetizing immigration, not only for immigrants but also the Cartels. “We know that the Cartels are taking advantage of the situation,” he said.
Don’t count your chickens until they hatch. That age old adage came into play Monday for Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers when he was unable to secure a yes vote one of the 31 House Republicans, leading to the defeat of three budget bills before the speaker called it a day.
The 60-member House is now recessed until Thursday while budget negotiators are expected to regroup and figure out how to get Rep. David Cook on board with 11 budget bills which need to be passed by June 30 to avoid a state government shutdown.
Cook voted with every Democrat in the House, leading to the defeat the HB2899 and HB2900, which included a cornerstone piece of budget legislation to transition Arizona to a flat rate income tax. His no-vote also led to the defeat of HB2907, a vital transportation budget bill. All three votes died on a 30 to 30 vote.
A major concern is how to garner Cook’s support without renewing an earlier rift among nearly a dozen Republicans who last week were demanding major amendments be made to some of the budget bills. Their dissension led to an 11-day recess that only ended Monday when Bowers called everyone back to work.
It is unclear why Cook remained the only member of the House Republican Caucus to not support any of the bills or amendments put forth for vote Monday. And if Cook had a reason, he wasn’t publicly sharing it.
Others, however, had plenty to say about Cook’s votes, including the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC). In a tweet, the small business groups tweeted “Shame on Rep. David Cook” after he voted with Democrats to protect the Prop 208 tax hike on small business owners.
“If David Cook continues to carry the water for Red4Ed and the Unions, Arizona will remain one of the HIGHEST small business income tax states in the country!” the tweet read.
One longtime lobbyist quipped, “yep, not a good look to seem left of the Lefties.”
Even the Republican Liberty Caucus turned on Cook, stating he helped Democrats “block the tax cuts in the current budget proposal” even though Cook has been open for several weeks about his displeasure with the budget that came to the House and Senate with Gov. Doug Ducey’s blessing.
For AFEC’s president Scot Mussi, the original budget package included some concerning special interest tax incentives, which he described as giveaways benefiting a few select businesses and industries that were unnecessary and unpopular within the Republican majority in the House.
Shame on Rep. David Cook, the ONLY REPUBLICAN voting with Democrats to protect the Prop 208 tax hike on small business. If David Cook continues to carry the water for Red4Ed and the Unions, Arizona will remain one of the HIGHEST small business income tax states in the country! pic.twitter.com/P2QOS8kAHF
Yet Mussi believed those provisions would be removed via amendments on Monday so that all 31 Republicans would be on board. Instead, every amendment put forth for the three bills considered Monday were defeated, as were the bills themselves.
As Republicans attack Cook’s votes, others like Mussi are hopeful a compromise can be worked out, so that tax cuts and tax relief can get approved. That includes the plan to transition Arizona over three years to a flat rate income tax. And Mussi says don’t believe the arguments that the budget bills are simply designed for the rich, particularly with a flat rate tax plan.
It is important to note, Mussi explained, that the recent passage of Proposition 208 now has Arizona with the ninth highest small business tax rate in the country. And Arizona’s rate is higher than nearby Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
“The reality is that even after the tax cuts are implemented, high income earners will still be paying nearly twice as much (4.5%) as low and middle income households (2.5%),” he explained to AZ Free News. “Additionally, opponents of the tax plan leave out the fact that much of the tax relief will go to small business owners. This tax cut package makes Arizona competitive again for small business, something opponents to the plan would not like to see happen.”
