A municipality’s mayor or the chairperson of a county’s board of supervisors would not have the authority to order any business closed during a declared local emergency, if a bill introduced by House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci is signed into law.
“Government should never have their hand in telling who can stay open, and picking winners and losers,” Biasiucci (R-LD5) recently said in support of House Bill 2107, which passed the House on Feb. 17 and was transmitted the next day to the Senate.
On Wednesday, HB2107 cleared the Senate Commerce Committee and now awaits further action in the Senate.
Under current state law, a mayor or county board chairperson has authority to declare proclamations in response to a local emergency, such as from fire, flood, earthquake, explosion, war, bombing, acts of the enemy or other natural or man-made disaster or by reason of riots, routs, affrays or other acts of civil disobedience that endanger life or property.
Once a local emergency is declared, the mayor or chairperson may then impose “all necessary regulations” to preserve the peace and local order through curfews; closing of streets, public places, and build facilities; and utilization of law enforcement agencies. The forced closure of businesses is also currently allowed under state law.
HB2107, however, would amend state law to repeal the authority of local government officials from ordering business closures. The bill is opposed by some cities and towns as well as the County Supervisors Association of Arizona, but many business groups and associations are calling for its passage due to the financial impacts of having to comply with local emergency declarations.
Among the issues is the fact many communities saw small businesses and locally owned businesses forced shut while national corporate businesses like Walmart and Home Depot were allowed to stay open.
On Tuesday, the Arizona House passed a bill allowing only political parties, county recorders, or election officials to distribute early ballots or active early voter list request forms to voters. The bill, HB2786, passed 31-26 along party lines.
State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) sponsored the bill; his other bill barring illegal immigrants from voting passed the House on Monday. Another election integrity bill passed both the House and Senate on Monday, too: a constitutional amendment proposition that will appear on the ballot for voters to decide.
AZ State Rep. Jake Hoffman discusses the latest bill involving voting that ensures only citizens being allowed to v https://t.co/fEbVBDVbkq
House Democrats lamented that nonprofit organizations like Mi Familia Vota would lose the ability to engage more voters. Mi Familia Vota is a national organization based in Phoenix that focuses on voter registration and political activism, with a practice of allowing illegal immigrants to work for them. Last summer, Mi Familia Vota in Nevada engaged in door knocking to coax Hispanic neighborhoods into getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Mi Familia Vota pledged $10 million to increase the Hispanic voters turnout in their #BastaTrump campaign. That resulted in 2.4 first-time or newly-registered voters, bolstering Mi Familia Vota’s targeted key battleground states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida.
The Arizona Senate voted to censure State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) for her statements concerning political opponents and fellow senators, especially those given most recently. The censure motion said that Rogers engaged in unbecoming conduct as a senator, citing specifically her hopes for “violence against and punishment of American citizens.” The Senate passed the measure 24-3.
The censure was prompted by Rogers’ remarks during and following the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in Florida last weekend: a controversial gathering organized by some of the most controversial right-wing political figures in America, primarily Nick Fuentes.
During a speech for AFPAC, Rogers asserted that individuals would be right to try and convict their political opponents who worked to take away their rights these last two years.
“Capitulation is why we are being overrun by the LGBTQ movement; it’s why our border’s being overrun by illegals, and it’s why babies are dying in the womb,” said Rogers. “At this historic point it will take all of us to speak out, to defend each other for standing up for what is right. When we do take back our God-given rights, we will bring these criminals to justice. I’ve said we need to build more gallows. If we try some of these high-level criminals, convict them, and use a newly-built set of gallows, it’ll make an example of these traitors who betrayed our country. They have yet to be justly punished for the crimes they committed.”
When talk of censuring Rogers came on Monday from Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray (R-Sun City), Rogers responded that she was being threatened with punishment for being white and pledged to destroy the careers of those Republicans coming after her.
“I will not apologize for being white. Hit me all you want,” wrote Rogers. “I will personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me simply because of the color of my skin or opinion about a war I don’t want to send our kids to die in.”
I will personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me simply because of the color of my skin or opinion about a war I don’t want to send our kids to die in.
During the Senate floor discussion of her censure, Rogers was first to speak. She declared that the senate was a violation of her freedom of speech. Rogers said that her constituents supported her remarks, and that by censuring her the senate was truly censuring her constituents.
“This censure is nothing more than an attempt to limit my speech,” said Rogers. “I do not apologize, I will not back down, and I’m sorely disappointed in the leadership of this body for colluding with the Democrats in an attempt to destroy my reputation. In the end, I rejoice in knowing I do and say what is right. And I speak as a free American regardless of the actions of this corrupted process today.”
Anti-Semitic and hateful language has no place in Arizona. I have categorically condemned it in the past and condemn it now. 1/
Gray emphasized that he opposed Rogers’ rhetoric and insisted that legislators should separate policy from person.
State Senator Rebecca Rios (D-Phoenix) called Rogers’ beliefs “sickening”: that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a puppet for George Soros, and that Fuentes was a patriot. State Senator Lisa Otondo (D-Yuma) said that free speech doesn’t allow for speech that bullies, slanders, or threatens.
Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) said this wasn’t a measure she wanted to have to take, but freedom of speech doesn’t give senators leeway to disrespect one another by saying whatever they’d like.
“We do support the First Amendment, freedom of speech, we absolutely support it, we fight battles over it. But what we do not condone is members threatening each other, to ruin each other, to incite violence, to call us communist, we don’t do that to each other,” said Fann.
Watch the Arizona Senate discuss and vote on its censure of Rogers here:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Who has authority to settle election related lawsuits involving the State of Arizona, its various agencies, and political subdivisions such as counties is the subject of proposed legislation slated for consideration by the House Committee of the Whole on Monday.
House Bill 2621 introduced by Rep. Jacqueline Parker as a strike everything on an earlier bill seeks to ensure the proper elected officials are aware of and involved in lawsuits in which “the constitutionality, legality or application” of Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 16 Elections and Electors, is questioned.
Parker’s bill creates a new law, ARS 16-194, prohibiting any party representing the State, an agency of the state, or a political subdivision of Arizona from agreeing to or signing a settlement agreement or a consent decree in any civil proceeding involving the state’s election laws, with the exception of disputes arising from the Citizens Clean Elections Act.
HB2621 leaves intact current state law requiring the Arizona Attorney General, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President be served with legal filings involving a constitutional challenge to any state statute. Those three state officers also have the right under current state law to make their positions known to any court presiding over such a lawsuit.
The bill would likely prevent a repeat of the confusion leading up to the 2020 General Election when Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs retained her own legal counsel to respond to a lawsuit filed in federal court to change the application of the state’s voter registration deadline.
The federal court issued an order extending the state’s statutory registration deadline despite the fact Hobbs had not consulted with all 15 of the state’s county recorders who actually conduct voter registration. Hobbs also did not immediately appeal the federal court order until Gov. Doug Ducey, House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and Senate President Karen Fann challenged the deadline extension.
The Arizona Senate passed a bill banning gender reassignment surgeries for minors late last week after State Senator Tyler Pace (R-Mesa) switched his vote. Pace voted against the original version of the bill during the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. At the time, Pace argued that parents should have the right to make those medical decisions for their children.
Pace agreed to support the bill after he authored a strike-all amendment modifying it, which the committee approved. The amendment removed language prohibiting physicians or health care professionals from referring minors to health care professionals for gender transition procedures. It also removed language prohibiting government funds from going to entities, organizations, or individuals that provide gender transition procedures to minors.
When the committee reconsidered the bill as rewritten under Pace’s amendment, Pace cited the international standards of care of World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to justify his changed mind, noting that they don’t support transgender surgeries for minors. Pace clarified that physicians who implement gender reassignment surgeries on minors would be in violation of international best standards of care and subject to sanctions otherwise.
“There’s a certain threshold of irreversibility that can happen during a gender transition. We acknolwedge as a state, and so does other very friendly transgender countries like Finland, like I brought up earlier, as well as the international organizations that say: when you get to this degree of irreversibility, it should not be made as a minor,” said Pace.
There was disagreement in the committee between State Senators Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix) and Raquel Terán (D-Phoenix); Terán wanted to hear more public testimony, but Barto said that they heard almost 3 hours on the same subject the previous week.
The final Senate version of the bill removed the amendment stipulation that a minor must not have lived continuously in the gender role congruent with their gender identity for 12 months in order for the surgical prohibition to apply.
During the Senate floor vote, Democrats said the legislation opposed equality and attacked minors. State Senator Christine Marsh (D-Phoenix) said the bill was an “unnecessary,” masked effort to choose “buzz-words out of thin air” for the true objective of attacking children.
State Senator Rosanna Gabaldon (D-Sahuarita) claimed that transgender procedures merely prevented puberty. Gabaldon didn’t broach the subject of reported adverse effects of hormone blockers and therapies or gender reassignment surgeries.
With the amended language, the bill passed along party lines — no Republicans objected to it.
No gender reassignment surgery under the age of 18 passed the Arizona Senate. On to the house. pic.twitter.com/g7TGnDYjYR
The Arizona House passed a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from voting, HB2492, along party lines on Monday, 31-26. The bill would impact federal-only voters heavily because that class of voters isn’t required by federal law to provide proof of citizenship. Federal-only voters had a significant impact in the 2020 election. The main exception made in this legislation would be for those who submit forms produced by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The bill would require county recorders to rely on local, federal, and state databases to discern whether the applicant is a citizen. Refusal to comply would qualify officials for a class six felony. In the event that an applicant is discovered to be here illegally, officials must notify applicants of their rejection and refer the case to both the county attorney and attorney general for further investigation. Lack of citizenship proof, however, would only require election officials to notify the applicant of their rejection and offer them time to respond with proof of citizenship. A floor amendment removed the 30-day deadline applicants would’ve had to abide by to provide proof of citizenship.
Valid, unexpired driver’s licenses or nonoperating ID numbers would suffice for proof of location requirements to establish residency.
County recorders must also work with the secretary of state to present a list of all individuals who registered to vote and haven’t provided satisfactory evidence of citizenship by Halloween of this year. At that point, the attorney general would have until the end of next March to determine each applicant’s citizenship status and submit a report to the secretary of state, senate president, and house speaker.
As AZ Free News reported, the sponsor of the bill, State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), explained in the House Government and Elections Committee last month that there were over 11,000 individuals who didn’t provide a Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC) to vote in the 2020 election. By contrast, there were about 1,700 individuals who didn’t provide proof of citizenship in 2018.
HB2492 received significant opposition from the illegal immigrant activist community. Those who harassed and stalked Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) into an Arizona State University (ASU) bathroom over her refusal to support President Joe Biden’s reconciliation bill.
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
