Recent Articles from Julia Shumway
GOP House leaders to appease Townsend with bill to organize national convention
As budget negotiations remain stalled, House GOP leaders decided to grant one conservative holdout a late hearing on a bill to organize a national convention to combat federal policies perceived as threatening “constitutional and traditional rights.”
Some lawmakers question need for special session
A bill moratorium and a budget stalemate meant the House and Senate weren’t conducting any real business before Gov. Doug Ducey called a special session – so why call one?
Lawmakers can call bluff with slim margin
House Republican leaders bent on passing a flat tax and succeeding with threadbare majorities where past Republican supermajorities had failed hatched a plan last week: put the tax bills up for a vote and embarrass their outspoken holdout into voting for it.
House to put budget to vote on Monday
The Arizona House plans to return Monday morning to pass – or fail – a budget, with or without the Senate, a top House Republican confirmed Friday.
From tragedy comes a bill to save lives
Exactly one year after 25-year-old Landon Marsh died of a fentanyl overdose, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill Marsh’s mother drafted to prevent other young people from unknowingly ingesting the drug.
Republican lawmakers propose flat tax, $12.8B budget
House and Senate leaders and Gov. Doug Ducey have agreed on a roughly $12.8 billion spending plan, including the state’s largest tax cut in recent memory – but the budget lacks the Republican votes it needs to pass in its current form.
GOP senators keep distance from election audit
With their ongoing audit, as with all discourse about the 2020 election, almost all Senate Republicans have fallen into one of two camps: banging the drum about election fraud claims believed by huge segments of their base, or ignoring the recount a few blocks north to focus on legislation.
Lawmaker: Retaliation behind Dem votes on vaping bill
A vaping bill backed by the tobacco industry is moving forward in the Arizona Legislature after years of stalemates, and the Republican who led the fight against it blames political retaliation.
Ducey appointee gets money from board she serves on
A White Mountain rancher who received $66,000 in grants from a state board she serves on will get another term on that board.
Reaching sine die mix of cunning, compromise
It remains anyone’s guess when the 55th Legislature will adjourn sine die. But the one thing most lawmakers are certain of is that it will take longer than two weeks.
Controversial abortion bill signed into law
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday signed the state’s most far-reaching anti-abortion measure in years, criminalizing providing abortions sought because of a genetic abnormality.
GOP lawmaker kills election bill, threatens to torpedo session
Vowing to vote against any and all election bills and keep the Legislature in session until the Senate’s audit of 2020 election results is complete, a Mesa Republican dealt an unexpected blow to a bill that could stop tens of thousands of Arizonans from receiving mail ballots.