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Tag: Pima County

Local and federal jurisdiction on a collision course in Pima County

Key Points: 
  • Pima County and federal prosecutors clash over access to murder suspect
  • County attorney claims state case in jeopardy without federal collaboration 
  • Legal experts note growing tension between immigration and criminal law 

A power struggle between Pima County and federal prosecutorial agencies over access to a criminal defendant in the country illegally escalated to federal court this week, leaving distinct tension at the intersection of immigration and criminal law, and local and federal jurisdiction. 

Julio Aguirre, 42, faces two sets of charges in both federal and state court for a carjacking and first degree murder in Tucson, but county prosecutors have so far been unable to locate or access the defendant for necessary court hearings after he was taken from a hospital by federal law enforcement after his arrest. 

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover marked it as a distinct departure from a previously collaborative relationship between her office and federal law enforcement partners and a major wrench in the county’s criminal case, especially as the office goes beyond federal charges on behalf of the six people held at gunpoint. 

“We can’t understand why the answer is no,” Conover said. “For the first time — on this case — in decades of collaboration, we just don’t understand it. And so now we’re going to ask a federal judge to help us all understand how we can just get to a just outcome here for all victims, and not just one.” 

On June 30, Aguirre went on what the county attorney described in federal court as a “one man crime spree.” He first broke into a couple’s home and brandished a gun. Then, he fled. 

About 15 minutes later, he held another man, Ricky Miller Sr., at gunpoint in an attempt to take his truck. Aguirre then shot the man, and the victim later died from his injuries. 

As he fled, Aguirre pointed a gun at a witness. After another half hour, Aguirre burglarized another home and held three more people at gunpoint. He was later apprehended by police and transported to the hospital. 

A state grand jury indicted Aguirre on 12 felony counts — one count of first degree murder, one attempt to commit armed robbery, six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two for first degree burglary, one for possession of a deadly weapon by an undocumented alien and one possession of a deadly weapon by a convicted felon. 

Meanwhile, the federal government secured an indictment with five felony counts — one for carjacking, one for the use and discharge of a firearm that resulted in a victim’s death, constituting first degree murder, one of illegal alien in possession of a firearm, illegal reentry of a removed alien and felon in possession of firearm in and affecting interstate commerce. 

According to the Pima County Attorneys Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office originally planned to have the Tucson Police Department book the suspect into Pima County Jail following medical release. Then, there was talk of federal custody, though with county access and transportation of Aguirre to aid the state prosecution. 

But then, federal agents transported the suspect to a federal detention center without notice or information on where Aguirre would be and have since denied the County Attorney’s Office access to the defendant, despite initially agreeing to produce him for an initial appearance. 

Conover said the current posture of the United States is a distinct departure from prior work. She pointed to the state and federal case against Samuel Lopez-Ozuna, a man charged with smuggling seven noncitizens and attempting to flee border patrol, resulting in a vehicle rollover that killed one of the passengers. 

In Lopez-Ozuna’s case, the United States produced the defendant without question. 

Now, according to an email from Christopher Brown, the chief assistant United States attorney, the office “decided it is not in the interests of justice to turn over Aguirre to the County on a writ for an initial appearance, or for any other parallel proceedings in state court.” 

In another email, Raquel Arellano, assistant U.S. attorney and section chief of the Violent Crimes Unit, cited “significant federal interest in this case due to Aguirre being in the country illegally and having been previously removed from the United States.” 

Before his most recent slate of charges, Aguirre was charged ten times between 2007 and 2013 for immigration related crimes and was removed from the United States in 2013. 

The immigration axis of the case continues to lead the conversation. U.S. District Attorney for Arizona Timothy Courchaine expressed the same in a prepared statement. 

“The alleged series of crimes in the indictment, starting with illegal immigration, escalating to prohibited possession of a firearm, and culminating in the death of an innocent individual, is why the United States Attorney’s Office takes this matter so seriously,” Courchaine said. 

For the county attorney’s part, Conover said the lack of access put the state’s case in jeopardy over the inability to take depositions of the victims and witnesses — two of whom are in their late 70s. 

“The United States is aware of this. Its continued obstructionism therefore risks spoliating critical evidence without which Aguirre cannot be held fully accountable for his crimes,” the complaint read.

The conflict forays into the larger conversation over state and federal control, as well as the balance between immigration and criminal law. 

“When the President and the Attorney General of the United States said that they need to go after those who are present illegally in the country and who have committed crimes, this is just not what anyone understood by that, that you would then deprive local crime victims of justice, that that would be the exchange. It’s just a truly kind of absurd outcome,” Conover said. 

Angela Banks, a vice dean for the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and expert in immigration and citizenship law, said the scene playing out is resonant of a larger breakdown in cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement, especially as deportation rises in priority over the criminal process. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say whether deportation was a potential route for Aguirre, but for now, he was charged by a federal grand jury and is currently in federal custody awaiting trial. 

Banks noted the harm if the federal government does opt for removal before the full adjudication of his case. 

“All the purposes and goals of criminal justice in our society are being put to the side,” Banks said. “Rather, that is about retribution, if it’s about ensuring that victims are able to have some closure on the fact that the people who victimize them are being addressed directly by the state. All of those justifications for punishment are left unsatisfied when you prioritize the deportation over the completion of the criminal justice process.”

Pima County Sheriff denies calling ICE during traffic stops, ACLU seeks records

Key Points:
  • ACLU alleges sheriff’s department may be tracking interactions with federal immigration officials
  • Nanos claims his deputies do not cooperate with ICE officials
  • Inherited policy from former sheriffs could be the culprit

The ACLU is seeking records from Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos to determine if his deputies are contacting immigration officials during traffic stops.

In a new lawsuit, attorney John Mitchell claims that his organization requested information in May about the agency’s practices. That, he said, specifically includes a policy about communication with federal officials to verify immigration status.

He also wants to know what policies the sheriff’s department uses to determine whether a traffic stop is extended for the purpose of verifying immigration status or waiting for immigration authorities to arrive.

What he got, Mitchell said, was a series of delays.

Worse yet, he said he has reason to believe that policies about tracking interactions with federal officials were wiped out shortly after the public records request was submitted in May. Now, he wants Pima County Superior Court Judge Greg Sakall to order the documents produced.

Nanos told Capitol Media Services that there was some kind of tracking for interactions with those illegally in the country, but that it was inherited from his predecessor, Mark Napier, when he took office in 2021.

Nanos said Napier was trying to gather that data in his bid to secure federal funds through Operation Stonegarden, a now-defunct program that provided money to local law enforcement agencies for border security operations. County supervisors blocked that move. 

However, Nanos said the no-longer-needed reporting requirements remained on the books — without his knowledge.

He said he ordered their removal not to thwart the ACLU, but because the provisions had been brought to his attention when Arizona Luminaria, an online Tucson newsletter, requested the data the reports were supposed to collect.

What data was being collected since he took office, the sheriff said, were routine things like calls to Border Patrol for help in missing persons cases.

However, Nanos acknowledged that his department does keep records on the ethnicity of those stopped for traffic violations. He said, though, that it is simply “for auditing purposes to guard against racial profiling.”

He also acknowledged that the official policy regarding traffic stops — and the recording of reasonable suspicion by officers requesting immigration status — had changed.

Nanos noted all that was in a section that dealt with working with federal authorities on immigration issues. The language, he claimed, went back to when Napier ran the office. That was part of a larger rewrite of the policy, which he believes had no nefarious intent.

Mitchell, however, said he’s not convinced.

He said there were reports by those in the Tucson community who were trying to observe interactions between community members and federal agencies, specifically Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“They noticed that there were some instances of a Pima sheriff being called to a scene, either for a traffic stop or some sort of investigation and federal immigration showing up as well,” Mitchell told Capitol Media Services. Those federal appearances, he said, led to the request for records of the communications.

“We have yet to understand the extent of communications between the sheriff and federal immigration authorities,” Mitchell said. “We don’t have answers because the Pima sheriff has not given us the records.”

Less clear is whether any calls to the feds — to the extent they exist — are legal. 

“Context matters a great deal,” Mitchell said.

“There may be legitimate reasons, or, at least, lawful reasons for immigration to be called,” he explained. “Or there may be unlawful reasons, like racial profiling or other more nefarious explanations.”

Nanos said it is his policy that none of his deputies call immigration officials in the case where a traffic stop finds someone not here legally. In fact, he said, his agency will not cooperate with ICE, even to the point of refusing to detain someone the agency wants.

“They’re unconstitutional,” the sheriff said. “You want us to hold a prisoner? Then get a warrant.”

Mitchell remains skeptical.

“We can’t say for sure what Pima sheriff is doing,” he said. “But what we can say is they’re not giving us the records we requested so that we can make that determination.”

A Feb. 27 version of the rules does say department members “shall not engage in racial or bias-based profiling.” It also says they can’t consider race, color or national origin except when part of a specific suspect description.

And it says offices “shall document the existing reasonable suspicion in a case report.”

However, the language regarding what can be considered — and the requirement for documentation — was removed in a version of the rules dated May 21. That’s just a week after the ACLU submitted its request for public records.

“They do owe the public answers about the timing,” Mitchell said.

“Obviously, causation isn’t established just by the fact that the sheriff changed their policy after our inquiries,” he said. “We have yet to understand the full circumstances.”

Nanos said it all came about because of the inquiry by Arizona Luminaria.

“Once I heard of this, I immediately had staff remove that policy with the intent being to reflect current practices regarding tracking contacts with immigration officials, something I thought I had stopped when first taking office,” he said.

The sheriff provided Capitol Media Services with some data on traffic stops for the year.

He said there were 5,331 citation issues. Half were classified as white, with 35% identified as Hispanic motorists, 7% as African American, and smaller numbers for other groups, along with about 4% listed as unknown or with the box on the form left blank.

The numbers were pretty similar, with 2,922 warnings, breaking down as follows: 55% for white motorists, 30% for Hispanics, and 4% for African Americans.

“I’m guessing the percentages fall pretty close in line with our county demographics,” Nanos said.

And the issues the ACLU is raising?

“I completely understand their concern,” the sheriff said, saying his staff may have been overly aggressive with the alterations.

“Mea culpa, that’s on me for not being clear,” he said. “But we are not done with that policy review.”

Lake attorney demands answers on Pima County ‘clerical error’

What Pima County officials say was a clerical error led it to reporting incorrect numbers of untallied ballots on Friday.

But it took a complaint by an attorney for Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake to make it public.

In a letter to county officials, Jennifer Wright pointed out that the estimated number of uncounted ballots reported by the county actually went up in a two-hour period on Friday.

“Kari Lake for Arizona demands that Pima County provide an immediate explanation of the discrepancies in the numbers combined with complete and accurate accounting of how the number of uncounted ballots increased between the 1:23 p.m. report and the 3:23 p.m. report,” she wrote to Daniel Jurkowitz, the assistant chief civil deputy in the Pima County Attorney’s Office.

That’s not the only issue.

“Even more strange than the number of uncounted ballots increasing, at one point, the report purported to be uploaded at 3:23 p.m. was initially identical to the report uploaded at 1:23 p.m.,” she wrote  It was only about two hours later, Wright said, that the numbers in report were changed without changing the time stamp.

Those figures have led to criticism on X by Lake’s campaign.

“We should know what the static number of ballots to count is,” the post reads. “Instead, it’s like an accordion.”

“It’s a clerical error,”said Mark Evans, a spokesman for the county.

“It’s an easy explanation,” he said. “But in this age of conspiracy, everything gets blown up into inserted votes.”

Wright told Capitol Media Services she’s willing to give the county the benefit of the doubt.

But she said no one from the county has yet responded to her inquiry or provided her any details about how the number of uncounted ballots suddenly increased by 14,666.

“Show me your work,” Wright said.

She now is seeking detailed numbers from the county broken down by categories including how many are waiting to be processed, how many are waiting for signature verification and how many need to be “cured.”

That refers to situations where the signature on early ballot envelopes appears to not match other signatures the county recorder already has on file from that person. Arizona law gives five days – through Sunday – for individuals to contact the office and cure the ballots, verifying that they did, in fact, come from them.

“I think that it’s really important in our election systems and processes that we have transparency and accountability and the numbers add up,” Wright said. “And that’s how you restore confidence and trust in our electoral system.”

What it comes down to, she said, is getting “clear answers.”

“If there’s a clear explanation that resolves the concern, I’ll check that out,” Wright said.

Evans said the posting error is due to the fact that the number of issues that went to voters required that the ballot be broken into two separate cards.

In some cases, he said, not every voter returned both cards. So the number of cards being counted isn’t always double the number of ballots.

What happened here, said Evans, is related to that two-card issue.

“When we reported the numbers to the secretary of state we read the wrong line,” he said.

“We reported the number of cards we had counted rather than the number of ballots we had counted,” Evans said. “So we reported we had counted 30,687, but that was the number of cards

By contrast, he said, the number of ballots actually counted was 15,492.

“So when we caught it, Constance (Hargrove, the county’s elections director) asked staff to correct it when they reported the second batch of results,” Evans said. And that new tally – the one at 3:23 p.m. – also included a smaller batch that had since been processed.

Wright said she’s still waiting for an answer from the county.

“People are pointing this out to me and it’s not adding up to me, either,” she said

“I hope that there’s a clear, innocent explanation so I can put this issue aside,” Wright said. “People deserve answers. It’s just transparency.”

The desire to verify the numbers comes as Lake is trailing in her bid to be elected Arizona’s next senator.

Reports from the Secretary of State’s Office on Saturday showed Lake trailing Democrat Ruben Gallego by 33,898 votes out of more than 2.7 million ballots already tallied.

Separate reports showed there were still more than 588,000 ballots uncounted statewide. While the lion’s share is in Maricopa County at about 337,000, the most recent report still showed 120,907 in Pima County.

Those uncounted Pima ballots won’t sway the heavily Democratic county her way. That last report showed Gallego with about a 90,000 vote lead over Lake.

Lake also is trailing in Maricopa County by about 60,000 votes.

But her campaign is counting on picking up enough votes in both counties which, combined with strong showings for her in many rural counties, could provide the margin of victory.

On top of that, Lake and her allies in the Republican Party are out looking for people they believed voted for her on that “cure” list to see if they can bolster her numbers by the Sunday deadline.

What remains to be seen is whether what happened with the numbers in Pima County could provide the basis for Lake, who spent two years challenging her 2022 loss in the gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs, to mount another legal challenge if she loses this race.

Last time, however, the focus was on Maricopa County.

Lake filed a 70 page lawsuit after that 2022 race alleging that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election.” She also claimed that Election Day problems the county had with its printers and tabulators at vote centers “could not have occurred absent intentional misconduct.”

That case took two years to resolve, only coming to an end when the Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed her final appeal.

Lake, however, also has other active litigation: A lawsuit filed against her by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer that stems from false allegations she made about his role in that 2022 loss.

Lake made repeated statements that Richer inserted 300,000 “illegal,” “invalid,” “phony” or ”bogus” ballots into the vote count. That was based on Lake’s claim about disparities between preliminary and final counts of ballots dropped off on Election Day, ballots she argued were not within the legal chain of custody.

The other basis for the lawsuit was Lake’s claim that Richer – along with Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates – “sabotaged election day.”

One post by her campaign, for example, said the pair “knew 75% of Kari Lake’s voters would show up on game day, so they programmed the machines to print 19-inch images on 20-inch ballots.” The claim was that the mis-sized ballots created election day problems and long lines, all of which resulted in some voters – Lake argued they were her supporters – leaving before casting a ballot.

Lake admitted in court filings earlier this year that everything Richer said she did in his complaint was true. What remains before the court is the question of financial damages.

But Lake, in a video explaining her decision, insisted it had nothing to do with conceding that her statements were wrong – even though her court papers admit that they were.

Instead, she said it was a strategic move allowing her to focus her attention on her Senate campaign. And Lake said Richer and his attorneys were trying to tie her time up in lawsuits and keep her off the campaign trail.

“It’s called lawfare; weaponizing the legal system to punish, impoverish and destroy political opponents,” Lake said. “We’ve all seen how they’re doing it to President Trump. And here in Arizona, they’re doing the exact same thing to me.”

 

Senate president calls for Friday ballot deadline, critics warn of voter disenfranchisement

Want quicker election results?

Senate President Warren Petersen says the answer is simple: Forbid voters from dropping off their early ballots on Election Day at polling places.

That, he said, is the way they do it in Florida. And he wants to introduce legislation this coming session to make it happen here.

But Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said there are “other systemic problems” that contribute to the fact that it takes days to get a final tally. And he said that shortening the time voters have to return their ballots is not then answer.

“I don’t like any solution that limits access,” Fontes said.

“I don’t like any solution that narrows the ability for voters to vote the way they want, when they want,” he said. “I’m not a fan of doing this on the backs of voters.”

Gabriella Cazares Kelly, the Pima County recorder, agrees.

She said the window for early voting is already small enough. And that window is even smaller than the 27 days that the calendar provides, what with the time it can take the post office to get the ballots from county offices to the voters.

Then there’s the delays in returns through the U.S. Postal Service which she said can take up to five days. And, unlike some states where it is the postmark that counts, any ballot not in the hands of the county by 7 p.m. on Election Day just doesn’t get counted.

But Stephen Richer, her Maricopa County counterpart, has thrown his support behind a proposal to say that early ballots can be dropped off at county offices or voting centers only until 7 p.m. on the Friday prior to the election. And given that early ballots now make up close to 90% of all ballots cast, he said that earlier deadline could mean the state would have 95% of the results within the first 24 hours.

Still, he acknowledged that this would mean inconvenience for some.

“Many Arizonans have been voting by ‘late early ballots’ for many years and could be surprised, confused and angered by a prohibition of this practice,” Richer said in a position paper on election issues.

All this comes as reports Thursday afternoon showed that while more than 2.5 million ballots already have been tabulated, there are close to another 953,000 that are uncounted.

Not surprisingly, the biggest share of that is in Maricopa County, with about 584,000, with another 175,000 in Pima County.

But even small counties are still processing, with Yavapai County showing close to 60,000 yet to be tallied compared with about 95,000 already tabulated.

At the heart of the problem, said Petersen, is voter confusion and consternation about why other states seem to be able to call their races the night of the election while in Arizona several remain undecided. These include not just the high-profile contest for the U.S. Senate between Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake – he was leading by about 50,000 late Thursday – but also who will win in several legislative districts, with the outcome determining whether Republicans will retain control of the House and Senate.

Fontes, however, said there’s another thing to consider if the state were to prohibit people from dropping off their early ballots after Friday night.

He said that, for whatever reason, some people do want to wait until the last minute. That deadline, he said, will mean that all those people now will have to stand in line to vote in person, whether at emergency vote centers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday – and not all counties have such an option – or turn out on Election Day, adding to the already long lines.

“It’s going to have to take them that much longer,” said Fontes.

Richer acknowledged that in 2022, about 290,000 people turned in their early ballots on Election Day.

Now, they simply go in to a polling place, drop their envelopes in a box, and leave. Fontes said these are the people who, if this plan were enacted, would instead have to wait in line to check in, provide their identification and then fill out a ballot.

“And you’re going to have to have more polling places, more equipment,” he continued. “And I’m talking about tables and extension cords and facilities which are hard enough to get. And then people to work in all those facilities.”

But Richer said Florida, which has a larger population than Arizona, shows the process can work.

There, voters can return early ballots on Election Day – but only to the central election office.

“But they cannot drop off early ballots at the voting locations,” he said.

“As a result of this limitation, the largest county in Florida (Miami-Dade) had approximately 4,400 early ballots dropped off on Election Day,” Richer said. That compares with the 290,00 in Maricopa County.

Petersen said voters in the Sunshine State manage to live with the restriction.

“There’s not revolts and riots there,” he said.

Anyway, Petersen said, it’s not like Arizonans don’t understand deadlines.

“You know that you’ve got to have your ballot mailed in Tuesday” to ensure that it is in the hands of election officials by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Postmarks don’t count.

“Everybody seems to have accepted that,” he said.

All this would to, said Petersen, is create a 7 p.m. Friday deadline to drop off an early ballot.

“And then, after that, I’ve got to vote in person,” said the Senate president.”Why is that an issue?”

What’s an issue, said Fontes, is what is the trade-off. He said if lawmakers want to go down that path, then they need to ensure there is greater accessibility than there is now for in-person voting on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday before the election rather than making those affected stand in line on Election Day.

That isn’t the case now.

Cazares Kelly said there are only 18 early voting centers in Pima County. That compares with 126 open on Election Day.

And Maricopa County has its centers open only on the Saturday and Monday before the election, with Sundays not an option.

Petersen said getting earlier results would take care of another problem.

“You have a lot of people that this is breeding mistrust,” he said. “They feel like since we don’t have the results, something is going on.”

That reasoning leaves Fontes cold.

“They’ve got to stop believing in conspiracy theories,” he said. Fontes said the process this year, when he will certify that Donald Trump won the state’s 11 electoral votes, as it was four years ago when he lost to Joe Biden, the year that led to demonstrations and accusations of election fraud and even an audit ordered by the Senate that, in the end, confirmed that Biden outpolled Trump.

“I’m happy to have a conversation with anyone,” Fontes said.

“But if it’s going to be a conversation with anyone that’s pounding their fists on the table, screaming ‘Stop the steal,’ then it’s futile,” he said. “There’s no reason to have that conversation because that person isn’t going to come to this in good faith and they’re not going to have a reasonable conversation.”

Petersen acknowledged that the issue goes beyond those who suspect something sinister. He said many people don’t understand why things don’t happen instantaneously.

“You order something on Amazon, take a shower, and it’s at your door when you get out of the shower,” Petersen said.

“They want to know ‘why are we waiting?’ ” he said. “The question is, why should we wait?”

Fontes acknowledged it might be a “matter of preference” to have earlier returns.

“Now, if that’s going to be a major priority, that’s not a hard problem to solve,” he said.

He said much of the problem is in Maricopa County.

“They need a warehouse or two and a giant pile of people, maybe three or four times the number that they’re using now, and they can process those ballots much, much more quickly,” Fontes said. And he said there are other “systemic issues” that contribute to the amount of time it takes to get a final vote tally.

“But I wouldn’t solve it on the backs of voters,” Fontes said.

Even if Petersen can get such a change through the Legislature, that still would not make it law.

It would have to gain the signature of Gov. Katie Hobbs who had the job that Fontes occupies. And press aide Christian Slater said she doesn’t see the need.

“As the state’s former chief elections officer, Gov. Hobbs opposes any proposal to restrict Arizonans’ freedom to make their voices heard at the ballot box,” Slater said. “She remains committed to a voting process that maintains accessibility and integrity for all Arizona voters and guarantees safe, secure and fair elections.”

That opposition from the governor already was anticipated.

A similar plan for a Friday deadline to drop off early ballots was approved earlier this year by the Senate Government Committee – not as legislation but instead as a plan to send it to the ballot. But the proposal did not survive the legislative process.

Volk leading in LD17 House race

Both incumbent Republicans in Legislative District 17’s state House race trail a Democrat early after Tuesday’s initial election night results.

Democrat Kevin Volk leads both Reps. Rachel Jones, R-Tucson; and Cory McGarr, R-Tucson, at approximately 8:45 p.m.

Volk has received 38.54% of votes in the race while Jones has received 31.37%. McGarr sits just behind Jones with 30.09%.

The race can’t be concluded until more votes have been counted.

Democrats are heavily targeting LD17 after a surprising 2022 when McGarr beat the third-place runner-up Democrat Dana Allmond by just under 1% of votes. Jones beat Allmond by about 1.5% of votes. 

Democrats ran two candidates in the district in 2022 but this year, Volk is running as a single-shot candidate to try and pick up a seat in a Republican district that sits outside the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission’s competitive analysis. 

Republicans hold over an 8% advantage in vote spread favoring their candidates in the district, but some big-name Democrats won the district in 2022, including Sen. Mark Kelly, Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. 

“We’ve always believed that it’s a candidate for at least one Democrat winning the House if they single-shot it,” said GOP consultant Chuck Coughlin. 

Jones and McGarr winning in the district would help foiling Democrat attempts at taking the state House in 2025. Republicans hold a 31-29 majority in the chamber and the district is key for both parties. Both Republican representatives are Freedom Caucus members and their primary election running mate, Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Tucson, lost to former Sen. Vince Leach in the GOP primary.

Parties target pair of swing districts in bid to flip legislature

In two swing districts of the state with bipartisan representation, Republicans and Democrats are seeking legislative majorities by completely flipping districts they have voter advantage in.

Republicans are heavily focusing on winning all three seats in Legislative District 16, which covers a small part of south Maricopa County, Pinal County, and Pima County. With a 3.6% vote spread favoring Republicans, they are attempting to take the House seat occupied by Rep. Keith Seaman, D-Casa Grande.

Seaman, the only Democrat running for the House in the district as a single-shot candidate, won in 2022 by just over half a percent of votes, finishing ahead of Republican Rob Hudelson by more than 600 votes. 

“We give (voters) something new to think about and something to vote for,” Seaman said.

House Majority Whip Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, and Republican Chris Lopez are running against Seaman.

Martinez is a strong incumbent as one of the leaders of the House GOP caucus. She got the most votes in the 2022 House race and finished with more than 4% of votes ahead of Seaman. 

Lopez is a small business owner in Casa Grande running on the same ticket as Martinez and Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge.

Lopez lists the border, increasing teacher pay, and defending the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program as some of his top issues on his campaign website. He did not respond to an interview request from The Arizona Capitol Times.

He specifically cites Democrats not supporting a bill that would have increased teacher pay during the 2023 legislative session. The measure, House Bill 2800, proposed to give Arizona teachers a $10,000 raise over a two-year period but Democrats because the bill offered a one-time funding increase and it didn’t include other classroom support staff. 

Seaman said increasing pay for school staff was one of his top priorities, but he wanted to ensure the legislature finds an equitable solution. 

“We’re seeing teachers leaving and the number one reason they leave the schools, in the middle of the year too, is because they can’t live on those salaries and they have too many kids in the room. They may not have a paraprofessional,” Seaman said. 

Republicans are targeting Seaman heavily in an attempt to get some breathing room with their one-seat majority in the House. The Republican State Leadership Committee recently begun running ads in the district as part of its “Left’s Most Wanted” campaign, attacking Seaman for voting against SB1027 in 2023, which would have increased the penalties to fentanyl manufacturers or dealers if the drug they transferred caused injury to a minor. 

Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the bill and wrote in her veto measure that she felt it undermined the state’s “Good Samaritan Law.” Other Democrats expressed concerns that the bill would prevent people from contacting emergency services in overdose situations out of fears they would be criminally charged. 

“Arizonans deserve to have legislators who will protect their best interests and not obstruct a commonsense agenda,” RSLC spokesperson Stephanie Rivera said in a statement about the committee’s ad campaign. 

Republican consultant Tyler Montague said picking up both seats in LD16 would be significant for the GOP because it might offset a loss in another district. 

“If they’re going to cling to the legislature, they have to sneak a seat or two,” Montague said.

One such district could be Legislative District 23, where incumbent Rep. Michele Pena, R-Yuma, is running as the Republican single shot candidate in a district that the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission has 17% vote spread favoring Democrats and is considered a non-competitive district. 

Despite the commission’s analysis, Pena was able to pick up a win for the GOP that gave Republicans a majority in the House when she beat Democrat Jesus Lugo Jr. by more than 4% of votes in 2022. 

Even before Pena’s win, parts of the district were represented by former Republican state Rep. Joel John before the state was redistricted. 

LD23 is in the southeast region of the state and covers Maricopa County, Pima County, Pinal County and Yuma County. Its House top vote getter in 2022 was Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, who received about 2.5% more votes than Pena. 

Pena’s challenger is Democrat Matias Rosales, a San Luis city councilman who’s served on the council for the last 12 years. 

Rosales was unavailable for comment before the Arizona Capitol Times deadline but recently criticized Pena on a Sept. 5 Clean Elections Commission discussion for voting in support of Prop. 138, a ballot referral that would allow employers to pay tipped workers up to 25% less than the minimum hourly wage if the employer can guarantee a worker’s tips are at least $2 more than the minimum wage hourly earnings. 

“We need to work to expand economic opportunities here in our state and create good paying jobs,” Rosales said.

Pena didn’t respond to the Arizona Capitol Times interview request. She lists the state’s ESA program as one of her top priorities. In 2023, she also sponsored legislation to extend the expiration date for chicken eggs, which she says on her website have created obstacles for rural communities and farmers.

Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, attempted to help Pena defend her seat on Wednesday by sharing a complaint San Luis Mayor Nieves Riedel had previously filed with Attorney General Kris Mayes accusing Rosales of mishandling public funds for Greater Yuma Port Authority on social media. 

Rosales has been a board member of the authority for the last decade and Riedel accused Rosales of conflict of interest and public monies violations by influencing the authority into renting office space from his real estate firm Realty One.

The complaint was submitted to the attorney general’s office on June 2, 2023. Attorney General Communications Director Richie Taylor confirmed to the Arizona Capitol Times that Mayes’ office investigated and found no violations on Feb. 28. 

Despite no violations, Kolodin still shared the complaint less than a month away from the Nov. 5 general election in a race that will be pivotal in deciding which party controls the House. 

“Though Mr. Rosales’ conduct may constitute a felony … he, like every American, is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Kolodin wrote in his post on X. “Regardless, however, of whether his actions rise to the level of criminal conduct, voters should carefully weigh whether his conflicts of interests allow him to faithfully serve the best interests of the people.”

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