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Cardon goes from Flake supporter to rival in Senate race
Just four months after serving on a fundraiser committee for U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake’s Senate campaign, wealthy Mesa investor Wil Cardon announced that he would challenge the congressman for the Republican nomination.
Brewer eying earlier presidential primary to put Arizona on the map
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will likely move the state's presidential-preference election up a month to Jan. 31 to draw GOP candidates and national attention to the state.
IRC move gets GOP’s war nerves fired up
Republicans remain on high alert after the IRC last week hired a Democrat firm as a mapping consultant, but they are still lacking actionable intelligence that would warrant an attempt to remove IRC Chair Colleen Mathis.
“Top-two” proposal may favor centrist candidates, but critics fear unintended consequences
In a state where most campaigns are decided in the primary, a group of would-be reformers wants to force political discourse to the center by upending the entire election system.
Debt reduction is next fiscal hurdle
After policymakers borrowed heavily to keep government afloat amid a festering fiscal crisis that blew holes in the state’s budget for four years, a former Senate president tried to put into place a mechanism to rein in politicians’ appetite for debt-financing.
Tobin/Brewer tiff expected to heal
In his first real test in his new role, House Speaker Andy Tobin found himself battling Gov. Jan Brewer.
Six weeks after being chosen by his caucus, Tobin and Brewer squared off over an extension of unemployment insurance: Brewer wanted to extend the benefits by 20 weeks and make some limited reforms, while Tobin publicly challenged her to expand the special session to include corporate[...]
Relationship strained? Special session fiasco may be sign of things to come
After back-to-back legislative sessions in which Gov. Jan Brewer and GOP lawmakers appeared to put their differences behind them, work as a team and strive for a common agenda, the failed special session on unemployment benefits threatens to poison a relationship that has already seen its share of discord.
Legislature adjourns without extending unemployment aid
By the time Republicans called it a day, it almost seemed like a textbook case of what to do — if you don’t want a special session to succeed.
Keep to the right: Does tea party politics mean yesterday’s conservative is today’s moderate — or a statesman?
Months after the red wave from last November, with the tea party gaining steam both in the streets and at the Capitol, some veteran conservative legislators are doing a double-take at where they now stand in their caucuses.
And for some, having a party morph around them, and seeing perceptions shift from “staunch conservative” to “moderate statesman” isn’t necessarily a welcom[...]
Loose ends abound, but few likely to bring lawmakers back to Capitol
Lawmakers enjoyed the relative shortness of their 100-day session, but they may pay for the handful of issues they left unaddressed with one or more special sessions.
Unemployment benefits, tax code changes and Gov. Jan Brewer’s personnel reform plan could bring legislators back to the Capitol.
Few see increase in civility following Giffords’ shooting
The January shooting in Tucson, which occurred just two days before the 2011 legislative session began, inspired soul searching among rattled and emotional lawmakers, who pledged a new era of civility across the partisan divide. Others vowed drastic changes to Arizona’s laws on guns and mental health in response to a mass shooting carried out by a man with documented-but-untreated mental health [...]
Redistricting commission’s attorney selection prompts criticism from Republicans
Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commissioners split along party lines Friday over who will serve as the group’s legal counsel, with the commission’s independent chair siding with the Democrats to select the firms Ballard Spahr and Osborn Maledon.
