Robert “Bob” Corbin, a longtime Arizona public official who served as state Attorney General and played a pivotal role in some of the state’s most high-profile legal cases, has died. He was 96.
Corbin’s career in public service spanned decades, beginning as Maricopa County Attorney and later as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. In 1979, he was elected Arizona’s Attorney General, a position he held through the 1980s.
Known for his commitment to integrity in government, Corbin gained recognition for prosecuting public officials accused of corruption and for pursuing justice in the 1976 car-bomb killing of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles — a case that shocked the state and the nation. His work in that era helped shape Arizona’s reputation for taking on organized crime and political misconduct.
Maricopa County Chairman Thomas Galvin expressed condolences, saying Corbin “was a man of integrity and a selfless public servant” whose leadership left a lasting mark on the state. “He played a central role in landmark judicial cases, went after officials who violated the public trust, and prosecuted those responsible for the murder of journalist Don Bolles,” Galvin said in a statement. “As both an attorney and elected official, I am humbled to follow in the footsteps of someone so influential and principled.”
Beyond his courtroom and public service record, Corbin was respected across party lines for his measured approach to law enforcement and governance. He also served as president of the National Rifle Association in the early 1990s, a role that reflected his deep involvement in public policy beyond Arizona.
Corbin is survived by his wife, former state senator Lori Klein Corbin, along with family, friends, and colleagues who remember him as a man deeply devoted to both his work and the people of Arizona.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
This week, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen delivered a clear message: Arizona will not stand by while abortion providers try to dismantle the protections that defend women and children in our state. At the center of the lawsuit Isaacson v. Arizona is a basic truth: our laws were written to protect the vulnerable, not to support the bottom line of the abortion industry.
President Petersen made it plain that this case is about one fundamental question: will women keep their right to informed consent before an abortion? In every other area of medicine, informed consent is a non-negotiable standard of care. Women deserve the right to know their medical situation fully, to see an ultrasound, and to hear their baby’s heartbeat before making a life-altering decision. To deny them that right is not empowerment, it is exploitation.
But the stakes go even further. Arizona’s Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act makes it illegal to end a child’s life simply because of their race, sex, or disability. Just as America rejected slavery and other injustices that denied whole classes of people their humanity, we must not allow a new form of discrimination to take root in the womb. Every life has value, and no child should be targeted for elimination simply for who they are.
President Petersen is a champion for life, and he is willing to speak on hard truths and act to defend laws that reflect the dignity of every human being. His courage stands in sharp contrast to our current Attorney General Kris Mayes, who has made “reproductive rights” one of her central causes and even gone so far as to file consumer fraud reports against pregnancy resource centers that offer help and hope to women.
As Petersen runs to be Arizona’s next Attorney General, voters will have a choice between two very different paths. One leads toward a state where the powerful and profitable abortion industry writes the rules. The other leads toward a state that defends women’s health, protects children, and affirms that equality must extend to every human life, born and unborn.
Discrimination in the womb is still discrimination. Arizona must not go backwards. We must continue to stand on the side of life, justice, and truth. President Petersen has shown he is ready to fight that battle, and Arizona’s future depends on it.
Here’s where the case stands: on September 15th, there will be a motion to dismiss certain aspects of the lawsuit without even needing a hearing. And a trial is scheduled for November 5th through 7th.
Katarina White serves as Board Member for Arizona Right to Life. To get involved and stay informed, visit the Arizona Right to Life website.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen has formally announced his interest in running for State Attorney General and ousting Democrat incumbent AG Kris Mayes in 2026.
Petersen filed his statement of interest with the State of Arizona on last week, and the effort to gather signatures for his nomination has begun according to reporting from KJZZ. Petersen, who has been consistently critical of Mayes’ performance as AG, has regularly opposed her in litigation in his capacity as Senate President, supporting legislation challenged by the AG on largely political grounds.
He has also stepped in to defend state laws that Mayes has refused to defend in good faith, a core tenet of her role as Attorney General, and described her as an “activist.”
“We have been defending laws she has not. Not only have we done our job but hers as well,” Petersen told KJZZ via text.
In a statement reported by AZCentral, Petersen said, “Voters have delivered a message: they want legislators and top law enforcement officials to secure the border and make our neighborhoods safer. They want someone who will abide by and enforce our laws. Unfortunately, we have an activist Attorney General who has blatantly failed to enforce our laws.”
In an op-ed published by AZ Free News in December, Attorney Steve Twist and Phoenix radio host & Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Seth Leibsohn offered a fulsome endorsement of Petersen writing, “Whether as Judiciary Chairman, or now as Senate President; time and time again, he has demonstrated the ability, courage, and leadership to put Arizona first and fight for its interests, whether at the legislature, or in the courts. In many ways, for the last two years, Petersen has been the moral voice for justice in our legal affairs. Now is the right time for him to run to become the actual Attorney General.”
Incredible endorsement from respected lawyer and former Assistant Attorney General Steve Twist and conservative radio show host Seth Leibsohn.
At their behest and that of many in the legal community I have taken the first step to run for AG. Yesterday I filed a statement of…
In a post to X announcing his intent to run, Petersen wrote, “Incredible endorsement from respected lawyer and former Assistant Attorney General Steve Twist and conservative radio show host Seth Leibsohn. At their behest and that of many in the legal community I have taken the first step to run for AG. Yesterday I filed a statement of interest.”
According to AZCentral, former Democrat and 2022 GOP Primary candidate Rodney Glassman has also filed a statement of interest for the 2026 race, and Duwayne Collier of the Green Party has as well.
The State of Arizona has engaged in legal battle against a Saudi Arabian firm: Fondomonte Arizona, LLC., on allegations that the agribusiness has violated public nuisance law by aggressively pumping groundwater from the Ranegras Plain Basin of La Paz County. The move could signal a split between Democrats Attorney General Kris Mayes and Governor Katie Hobbs whose chief campaign advisor is partnered with a lobbyist for the Saudi company.
Announcing the lawsuit on Wednesday, Mayes said the company, which enjoys a strong lobbying connection to Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, does not have “the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” according to KJZZ. She added, “The law is clear on that point.”
Mayes said the consequences are immediate and visible. She cited that the firm has operated in the Ranegras basin since 2014 and has several wells that pump up to 4,000 gallons of water per minute. She also shared that in 2023, it used approximately 31,196-acre feet of water.
“Fondomonte came to Arizona to extract water at an unreasonable and excessive rate because doing so was banned in its home country – another arid desert with limited water,” the lawsuit claims. “Fondomonte is taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource.”
The Saudi firm called Mayes’ allegations “totally unfounded,” according to spokesman Barrett Marson.
“We believe the attorney general is setting a dangerous precedent attempting to penalize farming and the wider agricultural industry within the state of Arizona. The company complies with all state and local regulations.”
The amount of water drawn by the alfalfa farms is reportedly enough to serve approximately 93,000 single family homes. Neighboring wells serving homes less than a mile away went dry about five years ago. Mayes noted that the well for the Friendship Baptist Church a little under two miles away ran dry in 2017.
“The land is literally sinking in La Paz County with as much as 9.8 inches of subsidence documented in the immediate vicinity of Fondomonte’s farms,” she told reporters adding that under the nuisance law, action can be taken. However the AG pointed to what she described as the Arizona legislature’s failure to regulate the water use of corporate farms outside active management areas. “They have been completely AWOL when it comes to addressing rural Arizona’s water needs and these situations where people are being harmed,” she said, according to the outlet.
According to the Associated Press, Mayes said, “While laws regulating groundwater pumping could have prevented this situation, the legislature’s inaction has allowed the crisis to grow. When the legislature fails to protect our most basic resources, the attorney general must step in.”
Republican La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin praised the move, while castigating Arizona lawmakers for failing to weigh in. “That is why we are seeing foreign companies come over to these areas, purchase land and pump water out so that they can supplement their alfalfa and send it back home,” said Holly.
“Attorney General Kris Mayes is the first one who has stepped up and done anything about it. I know my constituents will be thrilled that somebody’s actually paying attention to the real problems here, which are wells that are going dry, the land subsidence that we’ve seen, and the concern that we have for the future of our basin.”
In March, Fondomonte was reportedly stripped of the ability to use Arizona’s water resources when the State Land Department inspected the company’s land leases in western Arizona’s Butler Valley and determined they were no longer irrigating in the area. The company allegedly pumped over 5.3 billion gallons of groundwater in Butler Valley throughout 2022, stopping after Gov. Hobbs canceled their leases on its thousands of acres of land in October according to The Center Square.
Mayes said in a statement at the time, “The Arizona Attorney General’s Office worked closely with Governor Hobbs’ administration on these inspections, which confirmed what we have suspected — Fondomonte has been in violation of its leases for many years.”
However, she was critical of the delayed reaction. “And while today’s announcement is commendable, it should have been taken by state government much earlier. The failure to act sooner underscores the need for greater oversight and accountability in the management of our state’s most vital resource.”
As reported by AZ Free News in July, Chad Guzmán, who co-manages the lobbying firm Fillmore Strategy with Hobbs’ senior campaign advisor, Joe Wolf, is now working as a lobbyist for Fondomonte. The move came after Fondomente enlisted Guzmán’s company, Signal Peak Consulting, according to a Fondomonte spokesman. Wolf referred to the development as a “nothingburger” at the time, telling the Arizona Republic the he is no longer paid by the Hobbs campaign and has no business dealings with Fondomonte.
Speculation is rife that Mayes could seek to challenge Hobbs in the 2026 Democrat Primary for the Governor’s office, though the Arizona Capitol Times reported in November that Mayes said she is looking at running for a second term as AG in 2026. Stacey Barchenger, state politics reporter at the Arizona Republic, confirmed to KJZZ’s Laren Gilger a day later that she had reached out to Mayes who indicated she intends to seek re-election as Attorney General. Despite these assurances, the outlet noted that the groundwater controversy has proven to be a high-profile dispute between the two Democrats.
With Hobbs’ favorability ratings critically low, the divide on groundwater, an issue that often garners bipartisan support for regulation, could prove to be a wedge issue in 2026 that places Mayes in a position to challenge Hobbs on equal footing, despite the Governor’s hefty $3 million war chest.
With the major election season behind us, voters are undoubtedly recovering from the fatigue of non-stop political ads flooding their TVs and social media apps, but potential candidates are already setting their sights on 2026, which—while not the presidential Superbowl—will have hugely impactful consequences for Arizona. Fresh off a nationwide red wave, Republicans in Arizona are hoping to capitalize on this momentum by taking back important statewide offices won by Democrats in 2022. Fortunately for Republicans, Arizonans, and the rule of law, we have an excellent candidate who could be the next Arizona Attorney General. In many ways, he already is.
Both of us have worked with or closely observed every Attorney General since Bob Corbin in 1979. Sadly, we’ve never seen an Attorney General whose decisions about the use of power are more partisan than Attorney General Kris Mayes. Lawlessness, wokeness, and injustice have become recurring themes under her leadership. In response, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen has taken her on, thwarting and mitigating her run-a-way train of progressivism.
Thanks to a law passed by a prior legislature, the Senate President may intervene in cases where the Attorney General refuses to defend the law. Over the past two years, this tool has proven to be invaluable, and Warren Petersen has deployed it, both smartly and aggressively.
When Attorney General Mayes bowed to the radical left and refused to defend Arizona’s law ensuring biological boys and men could not compete on female-only sports teams, President Petersen got involved to protect our girls and women, serving as the last line of defense for the Save Women’s Sports Act. When Mayes gave bogus legal advice to provide cover for the lawlessness of Katie Hobbs and her violations of the separation of powers, Petersen checked Mayes in court and made sure Arizona laws were followed, stopping a Mayes-approved illegal scheme, where Governor Hobbs avoided confirmation of agency directors.
When Mayes tried to hijack the state budget and assert control of $115 million in state opioid settlement funds, Petersen fought back, won, and was awarded over $40,000 in attorneys’ fees against Mayes. Perhaps nothing more clearly demonstrates that Petersen is already fulfilling the role of moral leader of the Attorney General’s Office than his call to Mayes to end her illegal delay in following court ordered executions. Within a week of Petersen’s public statements, Mayes reversed course.
President Petersen has not only filled the void in state court litigation, but he’s also picked up the slack to fight the Biden administration’s big government overreach in federal court, while Mayes has remained silent. Petersen led the legal fight on national issues of importance to Arizona. From Covid vaccine mandates to forced-electric vehicle mandates, infringement of second-amendment rights, homeless encampments, immigration enforcement, and business-crushing federal regulations, Petersen has intervened in a variety of issues important to the lives and livelihoods of our citizens. Meanwhile, Mayes has been AWOL, seemingly driven by a leftist ideology instead of objective law enforcement.
And now comes the astounding revelation that a “far-left” group, the States United Democracy Center, gave Mayes a forty-seven-page memo which served as her “plan” to prosecute the 2020 alternate electors. If true, it represents an unprecedented abdication of the independence we need from our Attorney General.
We do not need four more years of highly partisan bias and selective application of the law for Arizonans to appreciate the value of having a true advocate in the Attorney General’s Office. And while there are two more years to go under Mayes, we should be thankful that we have two more years of Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen there to continue his protection of our state constitution and laws.
We’ve worked with President Petersen on legal issues for over a decade. Whether as Judiciary Chairman, or now as Senate President; time and time again, he has demonstrated the ability, courage, and leadership to put Arizona first and fight for its interests, whether at the legislature, or in the courts. In many ways, for the last two years, Petersen has been the moral voice for justice in our legal affairs. Now is the right time for him to run to become the actual Attorney General.
Steve Twist is a lawyer in Scottsdale. Seth Leibsohn is a radio host in Phoenix and Senior Fellow with the Claremont Institute.
