Can Attorney General Kris Mayes prevent a budget-busting voucher catastrophe?

There is probably something in the regulations, or the Arizona Revised Statutes, or that pesky state Constitution saying a person can’t be Arizona’s attorney general and governor at the same time.

Which is too bad.

Because Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes would be really good at both.

She already is, in a way. Mayes has been doing the things a committed attorney general should be willing to do as well as the things a committed governor should be willing to do.

She’s also not allowing the fact that she’s in the same political party as the governor stop her from doing what needs to be done.

Vouchers are a good fight for Mayes

She told Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services that she’s willing to sue the governor and the Legislature if money meant for her office gets siphoned away, perhaps to pay for the cost of the ridiculous universal voucher program approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey, who got out of Dodge before his pet program bankrupts the state.

More than a few people believe this to be a real possibility.

If Mayes was looking for a fight, this is a good one to pick.

And it’s a necessary one, since Gov. Katie Hobbs agreed in budget negotiations with Republican leaders in the Legislature not to roll back funding for the state’s universal voucher program.

That could be a disaster.

So are Saudi cows and bad laws

Mayes also has gone after the state over contracts that have allowed water to be sucked out of La Paz County in order to grow hay for cattle in Saudi Arabia.

Another view: This water fight could get aggressive. And ugly

And she’s taking on the GOP-dominated Legislature by not defending laws that attack transgender youngsters or restrict the reproductive rights of Arizona’s women.

It’s not that Hobbs, in her own nearly invisible way, isn’t doing some of those same things.

It’s just that those are the kinds of political tussles that should be staged openly and in public, so that regular citizens can get more involved.

Some political fights should be public

Back room deals don’t work on issues this big.

There needs to be a political version of a saloon brawl you’d see in an old Western, where chairs get thrown, bottles are smashed over heads and someone invariably get tossed through the swinging doors of the establishment and into the street.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

If Mayes plays the part of the sheriff in the donnybrook over vouchers, that would be a very good thing.

Then there are the fake electors from 2020 that Mayes said she would look into.

The individuals who tried to disenfranchise Arizona voters by overturning the results of the presidential election. The individuals her predecessor had no interest in investigating, and for whom there should be consequences.

Jail, maybe.

And not the metaphorical kind.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kris Mayes could save Arizona from a looming a voucher disaster