The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors today appointed ex-legislator Rick Gray to replace former state Sen. Debbie Lesko in Legislative District 21.

The resignation of U.S. Rep. Trent Franks has set off a flurry of political activity as Republicans clamor to gauge if they stand a chance of winning a seat in the staunchly conservative 8th Congressional District.

On the day President Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Phoenix next week, two dozen Arizona legislators will be leaving on a goodwill mission to Mexico.

Arizona’s challenges with illegal immigration have been well documented through the years. In Arizona, like many states, you cannot separate our economy from immigration, nor the politics that goes with it.

Soon-to-be-freshmen representatives swarmed the halls of the state House on Dec. 8 and 9 for a two-day crash course, cramming in bits and pieces of what they need to know to be successful lawmakers.

In the upcoming 2015 legislative session, one-third of the lawmakers in the Arizona House of Representatives will be freshmen. The 21 freshmen lawmakers – including four who are returning to the Capitol after absences, some for more than a decade – come from diverse backgrounds. They include a surgeon, a dentist, two teachers, two restaurant owners, a judge and a talk show host, to name a few.