Arizona House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding (D-Laveen) claimed Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem would have rigged the 2020 election in favor of former President Donald Trump if he had been in office.
Bolding made the statement during Wednesday’s debate for Arizona’s secretary of state candidates as a response to Arizona Horizon host Ted Simons’ question about preventing politicization of the secretary of state’s office.
“The reality is, is that in 2020 if Mark Finchem was our secretary of state, Donald Trump would’ve stolen the election. How do we know? Because he told us,” said Bolding.
After the debate, Bolding tweeted that voters needed to “move past the 2020 elections” in order to “change the tone” of the upcoming elections.
If we ever to change the tone of this year's elections, we have to move past the 2020 elections. We're going to use the leadership of the office to make sure we improve the system and fight for safe and secure elections.
Bolding’s remark elicited an incredulous expression from his debate opponent, fellow Democratic candidate and former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes.
Simons didn’t respond to Bolding’s accusation. Instead, he addressed a separate question to Fontes about the importance of Democratic voters to select a winning candidate.
A progressive Phoenix-based nonprofit announced it would invest $10 million in Arizona to rally the Latino voter base for the upcoming midterm elections. The nonprofit, Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC), announced the $10 million campaign last Thursday.
Present at the campaign launch was Democrat gubernatorial candidate and former Obama administration official Marco Lopez, discovered in recent months to be tied to an $800 million international political bribery scandal involving a construction conglomerate.
CPLC’s political action committee (PAC) endorsed Lopez last December.
🚨HUGE NEWS!🚨 I’m honored to have the support of @CPLC_ActionFund! I’m running for governor to restore the promise of Arizona and build a state where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are, where they're from, or what their background is. ¡Únete! pic.twitter.com/srXTAPUa0H
As reported, Lopez’s company received $35,000 from the construction conglomerate for several months of work on former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2012 campaign. The $35,000 had ties to a $3 million bribe from a shell company trading campaign money for public works contracts. A shell company from Peña Nieto’s former campaign lieutenant gave a payout to Lopez from the millions afforded by the bribe money.
Lopez denied any wrongdoing. He indicated that his opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, was behind the investigative reports.
This story is outright false. National security checks are a continuous service Intermestic provides, and has conducted hundreds of. The story is filled with innuendo, racial stereotypes and falsehoods. (1/2)
Lopez wasn’t the only controversial face present. Progressive nonprofits Mi Familia Vota (MFV) and Promise Arizona (PAZ) were there as well: they’re helping the CPLC initiative. The nonprofits aim to increase Arizona’s Latino voter base by a minimum of two percentage points, from around 14 to 16 percent.
MFV has kept busy this month. After Governor Doug Ducey approved legislation requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, the social justice organization sued state officials. MFV received the help of Hillary Clinton’s Russiagate hoax lawyer, Marc Elias, to file the lawsuit.
PAZ has recently recovered from connections to a different scandal. Former State Senator Tony Navarrete (D-Phoenix) served as their deputy director for a decade, up until his arrest for molestation. Navarrete faces seven felony charges. According to their leadership, Navarrete apprised the nonprofit of relevant legislation.
According to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates, about 32 percent of Arizona’s population is Hispanic or Latino: around 2.3 out of the 7.3 million people in the state.
During the 2018 midterms, there were over 3.7 million registered voters with nearly 65 percent voter turnout.
As of January, Arizona listed over 4.35 million registered voters: 34.5 percent Republican, nearly 31.4 percent Democratic, and over 33.3 percent “other.” Less than one percent registered as Libertarian.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Tuesday, half of America’s governors launched a strike force to control the ongoing border crisis. The American Governor’s Strike Force was modeled after Governor Doug Ducey’s Arizona Border Strike Force, established in 2015.
“If our entire southern border isn’t secure, our nation isn’t secure,” said Ducey. “As dangerous transnational criminal organizations continue to profit from holes in the border and fill our communities with drugs, it’s no coincidence that we’re seeing historic levels of opioid-related deaths.”
Today we are launching the American Governors’ Border Strike Force – a partnership among 26 governors to do what the federal government won’t: secure the southern border.
The American Governor’s Strike Force aims to improve intelligence on state crimes traceable to the border, cybersecurity, as well as tracking of drug trafficking and human smuggling.
The coalition of 26 governors launched the strike force in an effort to precede the Biden administration’s plan to lift Title 42 at the end of May. The policy allows expedited deportation of illegal immigrants from the country. Title 42 came into play in early 2020 under former President Donald Trump through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as an effort to control the COVID-19 spread.
As of the latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, there have been nearly 2.6 million encounters/apprehensions on the southern border since President Joe Biden took office. That doesn’t include “getaways,” estimated to be tens to hundreds of thousands of times more.
By comparison, there were over 2.4 million encounters/apprehensions under Trump’s entire tenure.
Following a suspected #vehicle incursion at the border near Douglas, AZ, Tucson Sector agents arrested 17 migrants near an abandoned pickup truck. Based on tire tracks, a second vehicle traveling the same route returned to #Mexico. #GreatWork intercepting the smuggling attempt. pic.twitter.com/Nmf4GOStvY
2021 under Biden didn’t only reflect record highs in illegal immigrant apprehensions and encounters. Last year, transnational criminal organizations brought in around $3 billion from human smuggling. Additionally, fentanyl overdoses accounted for a record high of more than 77 percent of adolescent deaths in Arizona, as well as resulting in the leading cause of death for individuals aged 19 and younger.
🚨Massive fentanyl siezure in southern Arizona The Pima County Sheriff's Department said a female, 47, was stopped with approx 371,000 fentanyl pills/$1.4M in her car. Per DEA 42% of pills tested for fentanyl contain at least 2 mg of fentanyl considered a potentially lethal dose pic.twitter.com/dJnrr1DvtQ
Ducey and Texas Governor Greg Abbott teamed up last December to form the governors’ coalition. The pair recruited 24 other governors: those representing Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
In January, Ducey promised the strike force in his State of the State Address. Ducey characterized the strike force as a solution to the Biden administration’s lack of progress on controlling the border crisis.
“Texas Governor Greg Abbott and I are teaming up to form the American Governors’ Border Strike Force: a commitment between states to do what the Biden administration is unwilling to do: patrol and secure our border,” said Ducey.
Ducey and Abbott’s initiative came after months of negotiations and proposals with the Biden administration to mitigate the crisis. Ducey cataloged those efforts in his latest press release announcing the strike force.
Smugglers will try anything to bring narcotics into our communities.
Nogales Station agents at the I-19 Checkpoint seized methamphetamine and fentanyl from two U.S. citizens traveling on a shuttle bus. @Arizona_DPS responded, and both smugglers face criminal charges. pic.twitter.com/b61XTbhBed
Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs offered a more definitive stance on abortion limitations last week. In short — none. Hobbs rejected the notion that the law must determine at what point abortions should be restricted. Rather, Hobbs insisted that such a decision should be left between the mother and doctor.
When pressed by AZFamily Political Editor Dennis Welch on where she drew the line, Hobbs reiterated that the decision wasn’t up to her but to each individual. That could mean up until the point of birth. Hobbs later tweeted that the right to unfettered abortion access was a mark of equality for women in society.
“Women deserve action to abortion care. Abortion is health care,” said Hobbs. “Abortion is a personal decision between a woman and her family and doctor. That’s something that needs to be discussed in the medical exam room, not by politicians.”
Not only is the new abortion ban an extreme assault on Arizonans’ reproductive freedom, it takes us a giant step backwards in our decades long fight for equality. pic.twitter.com/0XAFgYcYTx
Hobbs called the latest law banning abortions after 15 weeks a danger to women. Her arguments reflected her exact sentiments from when Governor Doug Ducey signed the abortion ban into law. Hobbs declared that limiting abortion was depriving women of their constitutional freedom.
“Today marks a giant step backward in the fight for equality for women across Arizona and across the country,” said Hobbs. “With Governor Ducey’s signature, our elected leaders have chosen to turn their backs on the overwhelming majority of Arizonans who support the constitutional right to choose. Make no mistake — stripping away women’s constitutional rights won’t stop women from seeking access to reproductive health care. But the passage of this misogynistic law clarifies the very real and dangerous consequences of electing leaders who are willing to throw away our rights and set us back a generation.”
Abortion up until birth would be consistent with Hobbs’ longstanding views on the subject of abortion. During her time as a state senator, Hobbs said that abortion didn’t equal infanticide and that “abortion” wasn’t a bad word.
According to Hobbs’ cumulative 2021 campaign finance report, she received hundreds from Planned Parenthood of Arizona leaders: $250 from lobbyist Jodi Liggett, $500 from president Bryan Howard, and $75 from their external affairs. Planned Parenthood of Arizona also endorsed Hobbs for her races in the state legislature and for secretary of state.
In a 2012 interview with Planned Parenthood for Arizona, Hobbs claimed that pregnancy was just as dangerous as abortion. She also advocated for the controversial curriculum of comprehensive sex education for K-12 schools.
If elected, Hobbs wouldn’t be the only official to oppose the law. The Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Attorney, Julie Gunnigle, pledged to not enforce Arizona’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Three consumer taxes should be immediately suspended to help Arizonans deal with post-pandemic inflation, and two of those taxes should be abolished altogether, State Sen. Warren Petersen argues.
On Tuesday, Petersen (R-LD12) called for a temporary halt to Arizona’s 19 cents per gallon gasoline tax. He also wants to see the food tax and the residential rental tax not only suspended, but also eventually abolished.
Petersen doubled down on his proposal Wednesday, telling KFYI’s James T. Harris there is “no reason” his proposal cannot be implemented in light of Arizona’s more than $1 billion budget surplus. Especially with a Republican-controlled Legislature and a Republican governor.
“People are absolutely reeling from inflation right now but we have state and local governments that have more cash than they’ve ever had before,” Petersen said, adding that his proposal would bring “immediate relief to some of the people that need it the most.”
Suspending the gas tax until the end of 2022 would help Arizonans at the pump, Peterson explained. He added that the move could bring even further relief for consumers due to high gas prices being integrated into the cost of everything else people buy.
The state’s huge budget surplus is more than enough to supplant the $300-$350 million in gas tax revenues needed to fund transportation projects across the state, Petersen said.
While a gas tax holiday would be temporary, Petersen is calling on his fellow lawmakers to support a permanent end to the food tax in Arizona.
“That just hurts the poor more than anybody, and only some cities charge it,” Petersen told Harris.
As to his third suggestion of the abolishment of residential rental taxes, Petersen questioned why a special consumer tax is charged of those living in a rental unit.
“Nobody should charge this,” he argued. “People don’t pay a tax every single time they pay their mortgage, but yet tenants every single time they pay their rent they pay a tax on their rent.”
Petersen believes the time is right for Gov. Doug Ducey to call a special session so that lawmakers can provide immediate relief through the huge budget surplus.
