by Daniel Stefanski | Mar 11, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
The Republican-led Senate continues to achieve results in its vetting of appointments from Arizona’s Democrat Governor.
Last month, the Arizona State Senate Republicans announced that Jacob D. Raiford had resigned from his appointment to the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments “just hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
According to Senate Republicans, “while reviewing Mr. Raiford’s background and qualifications in preparation for [the] confirmation hearing, disturbing revelations from his social media activity came to light, showcasing an extreme disdain for conservative public officials and a disrespect for the Senate confirmation process.”
“The Constitution requires these nominees to review judge candidates impartially, and with his public displays on social media, I don’t know how that can be possible,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Anthony Kern. “It’s unfortunate Hobbs once again irresponsibly appointed someone to a position of power who clearly should not be there. In the absence of her conducting due diligence by vetting these nominees before appointment, the Senate will remain the line of defense in protecting our citizens from radical individuals who prefer to be activists for the left instead of serving all Arizonans.”
The news about Raiford’s resignation follows a year in 2023, when Arizona legislative Republicans took serious umbrage over some of Governor Katie Hobbs’ nominees and appointments to cabinet and other positions. At the beginning of the previous legislative session, Senate President Warren Petersen established a Committee on Director Nominations, which was chaired by Senator Jake Hoffman and purposed to vet Hobbs’ nominees. The Governor was slow to transmit several of her nominees to the Senate, leading to Republicans’ demands that she follow the law and fulfill her prescribed duty.
While Hobbs did eventually send her nominees to the Senate chamber, some did not escape enhanced scrutiny by the Republican lawmakers, who ensured that they did due diligence on the backgrounds, statements, and policies of each of the appointments. Many of the governor’s nominees were confirmed, but some resigned or were withdrawn from consideration after receiving undue attention from the legislators’ investigative efforts.
This process slowly continued until mid-summer 2023, when Governor Hobbs issued executive orders that demonstrated a greater propensity for overreach by her office. Senate Republicans, led by Jake Hoffman and others, shut down all remaining nominations hearings until the governor would reverse course on her actions. Hobbs refused to bring her executive orders in line with the state constitution and intensified the situation at hand by pulling all her remaining nominees from consideration before the Senate, reassigning them as Executive Deputy Directors of their respective agencies. The move from the Democrat governor even forced State Treasurer Kimberly Yee to “not recognize employees from the Arizona Department of Administration or the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions as legally participating members” at a regularly scheduled meeting around this time.
At the end of 2023, the Arizona Senate filed a lawsuit in the Maricopa County Superior Court against Hobbs over her refusal “to nominate agency directors, bypassing the Senate’s advice and consent processes.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Mar 9, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Dr. Eugene Livar will serve as Arizona’s first Chief Heat Officer, the state Department of Health announced Wednesday. The position is part of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan.
“I’m excited to take on this role and this important work to make sure Arizona is prepared as possible for this upcoming heat season and beyond,” Livar said.
Hobbs, a Democrat, has named addressing extreme heat in Arizona as one of her most important initiatives. The preparedness plan will involve several state agencies along with the Governor’s Office of Resiliency.
Arizona Republicans have criticized Hobbs for wasting government funding on paying unnecessary employees.
“If Hobbs really cared about making AZ “resilient,” she would start by helping Arizonans keep more $$ in their wallets,” the American Free Enterprise Club said on Twitter. “Instead, she’s flexing her power as governor to create a multi-million-dollar program so her political friends can do phony baloney jobs.”
Livar will oversee the implementation of the plan and work to coordinate partnerships between the state, county health departments, local municipalities, communities, the private sector, and community-based organizations, according to a news release.
“ADHS is proud to play a role in meeting this moment and working to fix a complex problem facing Arizonans and we will handle this responsibility with the care it deserves and in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Resiliency Director Maren Mahoney,” said Jennie Cunico, ADHS Cabinet Executive Officer.
The health department under Hobbs also hired a heat relief coordinator to serve as the statewide point-of-contact for county coordinators and develop training for community navigators focused on improving access to human service providers.
Livar has been part of the ADHS team since 2012. He previously served as the assistant director for public health preparedness and steered the development of the ADHS heat preparedness recommendations, which contributed to the state’s heat plan.
Former legislator and current candidate for Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Michelle Ugenti-Rita said the chief heat officer position sounds like a joke.
“This is an all time level of absurdity – a “chief heat officer,” she said. “It has to be a joke…we live in the DESERT.”
Merissa Hamilton, Republican politician and executive director of Save Arizona, said Hobbs’ agenda must be rejected.
“Democrats manufacture crises for their degrowth death cult,” she tweeted. “We must firmly reject this agenda!”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Mar 6, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Democrat Governor has vetoed her first bill of the legislative session – and it happened to be one of the solutions for the southern border crisis.
On Monday, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1231, the Arizona Border Invasion Act, which was sponsored by Senator Janae Shamp. The bill would have “ma[de] it unlawful for a person who is an alien (unlawful immigrant) to enter Arizona from a foreign nation at any location other than a lawful port of entry and outline[d] penalties for violations of illegally entering Arizona and provide[d] immunity from civil liability and indemnification for state and local government officials, employees and contractors who enforce this prohibition” – according to the purpose from the state Senate.
In her veto letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, Hobbs said, “This bill does not secure our border, will be harmful for communities and businesses in our state, and burdensome for law enforcement personnel and the state judicial system. Further, this bill presents significant constitutional concerns and would be certain to mire the State in costly and protracted litigation.”
Senator Shamp, a second-year lawmaker, expressed her outrage in a statement that followed the Governor’s action. She wrote, “The heart-wrenching February 22 murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley happened at the hands of a criminal who entered our country illegally. Arizona families are being torn apart by similar devastation. The Legislature did its job to protect our citizens, but Governor Hobbs failed to do hers. Vetoing the Arizona Border Invasion Act is a prime example of the chaos Hobbs is unleashing in our state while perpetuating this open border crisis as Biden’s accomplice. Arizonans want and deserve safe communities. Our local, county, and state law enforcement officers are pleading for help, and they support this legislation to protect our citizens. Their blood, sweat, and tears shed while trying to keep our communities safe from the staggering number of border-related crimes hitting our state will not be in vain.”
Shamp vowed that members of her party would continue to push forward solutions to combat the border crisis, saying, “The Republican-controlled Legislature will continue to prioritize closing our border and providing law enforcement with the tools they need. This veto is a slap in the face to them, Arizona’s victims of border-related crimes, and other citizens who will inevitably feel the wrath of this border invasion in one way, shape, or form at the hands of Hobbs and Biden.”
Democrat Senator Catherine Miranda gave Hobbs kudos after the veto, stating, “We were forced to go through this process so our colleagues across the aisle can use it as an opportunity to campaign. But we knew you had our backs with that veto pen.”
The governor’s veto of the border-related proposal comes almost two months after her State of the State address, where she took significant time to address the crisis, blaming both “Democratic and Republican administrations” for “the failure to secure our southern border.” Hobbs railed against “the same old political games that created this crisis and that have continually hurt communities, families and our state.” Also in the speech, she boasted about delivering on multiple fronts to help mitigate the crisis, including the launch of Operation SECURE and the creation of a Border Coordination Office within the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.
Both Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma wasted no time in reacting to the early January speech, releasing a joint statement after the conclusion of Hobbs’ remarks. Toma argued that despite Hobbs’ attempt to make Arizonans “believe she’s all about securing our border and ending the lawlessness caused by Joe Biden’s immigration system…her record is one of open borders…and she’s continued that approach as governor.” Petersen talked about “major mistakes” from Hobbs by vetoing three bills in particular “that would have kept families safe from drugs and crime” (during the 2023 legislative session).
Republicans are continuing to move more border-related pieces of legislation through the state House and Senate, despite the all-but-certain fate of those proposals.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Feb 1, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona legislative Republicans are again standing with state attorneys general over an issue of national importance.
This week, both the Arizona State House and Senate Republican Caucuses announced that Speaker Ben Toma and President Warren Petersen had joined a letter to President Joe Biden, “urging (the administration) to either enforce our immigration laws and protect our southern border or get out of the way so Texas can.”
The letter to the White House follows an escalating disagreement between Texas state officials and the Biden Administration over enforcement of laws and allocation of resources pertaining to illegal immigration into that state. Both sides are looking to the Supreme Court of the United States to adjudicate this politically volatile dispute.
“Arizona is overwhelmed from the same dangers brought on by this invasion as Texas. Biden is literally dismantling our nation as we know it, allowing known terrorists and criminals to enter through our southern border with no consequences,” said President Petersen. “Since our Attorney General is not pushing back against the lawlessness Biden is promoting by working to destroy the border barriers Governor Abbott has built, the Legislature must speak out and stand in solidarity to support our neighbors.”
“Texas has every right to defend itself from the unprecedented flow of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and countless threats at our southern border because of President Biden’s willful refusal to protect this nation,” said Speaker Ben Toma. “I stand with Governor Abbott and call on Governor Hobbs to follow his lead and invoke Arizona’s constitutional right to defend itself.”
The letter that Petersen and Toma co-signed was led by the States of Iowa and Utah and joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
In their letter, the attorneys general and legislators write, “The federal government should be working to stop this crisis, but it is not. And the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause requires that the federal government do so. It must ‘protect each [State] against invasion.’ But it has abandoned its duty. Nothing in the Constitution stops Texas from stepping up and doing its part to protect itself, and in so doing also protecting States across the country. To those that contend this power belongs only in Congress, they should take that up with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who stands with Texas. By following the Constitution, Texas is doing what the federal government has failed to do.”
Over the past few months, the two Republican legislative leaders have signaled a more aggressive shift in taking the reins from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to defend the law and Constitution. Attorneys general are not usually joined by outside parties on their amicus briefs or letters, yet multiple coalitions of Republican state prosecutors have included Petersen and Toma on several major filings. In previews for the 2024 legislative session, both the House and Senate Majority Caucuses indicated more of these efforts are to be expected throughout this year.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 18, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Tuesday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) violated the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause.
Mayes determined that the ACA’s high-dollar “CEO Forums” — in which ACA would court CEOs with accommodations, experiences, and refreshments — were unconstitutional, namely noting the massive expenditures without returns last year under Hobbs. In a letter to ACA general counsel, Mayes explained that the gifts corporate executives were impermissible because they didn’t create concomitant public value.
“The current structure of the CEO Forums confers significant value on invited private executives and their guests without obtaining any identifiable value for the state,” said Mayes.
ACA is a state agency dedicated to growing and diversifying the state economy by attracting, expanding, and retaining businesses. ACA is managed as a public-private partnership.
Mayes’ findings confirmed a report from the auditor general last September which determined that the ACA may have misspent about $2.4 million to court private CEOs between 2018 and 2023. A majority of that — over $2 million — occurred last year alone under Hobbs’ first year as governor.
From 2018 to 2022, ACA spent about $356,000 in total on forums for corporate executives: an average of $89,000 per year, about 4.5 percent of what ACA spent on last year’s forum.
Last year marked the most expensive CEO Forum under investigation. The forum was planned around the Super Bowl and Waste Management Phoenix Open; ACA spent over $2 million on corporate executives, and Gov. Katie Hobbs was one of the recurring featured experiences.
In Mayes’ decision on Tuesday, she pointed out last year’s forum specifically.
“While the ACA may hold forums that confer a nominal value on attendees, its past forums, including last year’s $2 million Super Bowl forum and its planned 2024 Forums, do not come close to meeting that requirement,” said Mayes.
As part of last year’s forum, ACA gifted corporate executives and their guests rooms; in-state transportation; event tickets to the Waste Management Phoenix Open VIP Skybox, an NFL Owners Party, a Super Bowl VIP Tailgate Party, the Super Bowl Experience, private viewing suite for the Super Bowl, and concerts associated with the Phoenix Open and Super Bowl; theater tickets; regular season football game tickets and parking passes; lunch invitations with NFL leadership; and Super Bowl Host Committee VIP Golf Tournament tickets.
ACA admitted in a December response to the attorney general that they couldn’t attribute direct causation between CEO Forum attendance and a decision to locate a project in Arizona. Mayes declared that the inability to show cognizable economic value received for their expenditures constituted a violation of the Gift Clause.
“ACA’s responses to our office’s inquiries demonstrate that it expends considerable funds on simply achieving attendance at the CEO Forums even though there is no public benefit from an executive’s private ‘changing perception and increasing sentiment’ about Arizona,” wrote Mayes. “ACA counts non-binding commitments to locate a project in Arizona as ‘project wins.’”
Up until the Tuesday determination by Mayes, ACA was planning on spending another million on corporate executives this year.
ACA planned to spend over $1 million on two forums this year for the NCAA Final Four Basketball tournament and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. If the costs were split evenly, each forum would cost around $400,000 more than the individual 2018-2022 forums held under former Gov. Doug Ducey.
Mayes pledged to prevent the ACA from issuing future gifts to private entities.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
