Could the Arizona Legislature get any more conservative? YES. And it probably will
Buckle in, Arizona. The Legislature is about to take a turn to the right.
Having accomplished their goals of outlawing abortion, making it harder (for certain people) to vote and protecting guns, ensuring that any old Tom, Dick or Dirty Harry can walk around with enough firepower to make war on a congregation or a classroom …
Having chased away good teachers, taken the fight to transgender teens and sabotaged public schools, boosting school budgets but refusing to allow them to actually spend the extra money …
Having kowtowed to the wealthiest among us, conferring upon them not only deep income tax cuts but now also a $6,500 taxpayer-supplied voucher to help pay tuition at the private schools their kids already are attending …
… The Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature are about to become even more conservative.
If that’s even possible.
It's all about candidates' fealty to Trump
Democrats are now just one person short of forcing a tie in each chamber. But unless there’s a Democratic governor, they’ve already rendered themselves irrelevant next year, having made the “strategic” decision not to even compete for seats in some of the state’s precious-few competitive legislative districts.
Look for them to lose seats in November.
Long shots: Democrats hope for election wins to restore abortion rights
Meanwhile, the America First wing of the Republican Party is looking to strengthen its grip on the Legislature and key statewide office
Having already chased away the last of the moderate Republicans (see: retiring Sen. Paul Boyer), they now are working to oust staunch conservatives who suddenly have become “RINOs” due to their insufficiently enthusiastic response to the ultra-MAGA movement.
“The new crop of Republicans mostly define conservatism as fealty to Trump,” Republican political consultant Tyler Montague told me. “Some of the more pragmatic Republicans are leaving, and that could make it very difficult to actually govern.”
Pressure's on to nix traditional conservatives
Trump, himself, has endorsed five Republicans to either fill open seats or replace conservatives who don’t measure up by bowing down to, well, him.
Consider:
House Speaker Rusty Bowers, now running for a state Senate seat, is in the fight for his political life for having dared to demand proof before proceeding with plans to decertify Arizona’s 2020 election. Trump, Rep. Andy Biggs and state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward are all urging Mesa voters to instead elect former state Sen. David Farnsworth, a guy who believes the devil himself stole the election.
Republican Sen. Tyler Pace of Mesa is also on the firing line given that he, at times, strays slightly from the hard line required by the hard right. Trump has endorsed another election denier, Robert Scantlebury, in this, one of the state’s few competitive districts. The winner will face Eva Burch in the general election.
In the West Valley, the Trump-endorsed Janae Shamp is hoping to knock out Republican Rep. Joanne Osborne for an open Senate seat. Osborne, like Pace, is more of a traditional conservative. Shamp, like all other Trump candidates, says the 2020 election was stolen. A third candidate, Ryan Eldridge, also is running in this heavily Republican district.
Trump is also pushing:
Former state Rep. Anthony Kern for the open Senate seat in Glendale being vacated by the more moderate Sen. Boyer. Kern, who was ousted by voters two years ago, was a fake elector who just happened to be in Washington, D.C., for the Jan. 6, 2021, rally-turned insurrection.
Sen. Wendy Rogers, who has transformed the art of election denial into a money making venture. A win by Rogers over her opponent, Sen. Kelly Townsend, won’t really push the Legislature any farther to the right. It just gives the antisemites and white nationalists a pal at the Capitol.
Even more ultra conservatives are running
Add in some of the other ultra conservatives who are hoping to snag seats … Kathy Pearce of Mesa (sister of former Senate President Russell Pearce) comes to mind, as do Steve Zipperman and Liz Harris, a pair of election deniers. Harris ran that absurd door knocking campaign last year that claimed to have found massive fraud in the 2020 election – the one that was debunked in about a minute and a half.
Then there’s Barbara Parker and Darrin Mitchell and and Steve Montenegro. And Austin Smith, who works for Turning Point Action, the pro-Trump youth group that has become a national force in far-right politics.
And Alexander Kolodin, the Arizona Republican Party lawyer who is suing the state to kill the wildly popular early voting program that is – all the sudden after 30 years of Republicans using it to their advantage – rife with fraud. I could go on …
And on.
Arizona Freedom Caucus formed a voting bloc
Mix all that with the newly formed Arizona Freedom Caucus.
It’s a bloc of some of the Legislature’s most extreme Republicans who plan to band together to push Lord knows what next year.
Maybe a bill to block women from going to another state to get an abortion? Or one authorizing the police to start knocking on doors and demanding papers?
Maybe a bill to bar same-sex marriage or outlaw contraception or require Bible study right between homeroom and history class?
Sure, it all sounds unconstitutional, but once upon a time, so did the thought of forcing a rape victim to give birth to her attacker’s baby.
When the GOP fringe becomes the establishment
Axios’ Jeremy Duda reports that Rep. Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek will head the new Freedom Caucus. Hoffman is perhaps best known for being one of Arizona’s fake electors, hoping to hijack the vote for Trump. He also ran an internet troll farm, paying teenagers to dole out disinformation to try to get Trump elected.
Hoffman told reporters the caucus, which he said already has attracted nearly a third of the returning House Republicans with more to come, will vote as a bloc on “non-negotiable” issues.
“In those situations, yes, we will hold the line,” he said. “And there is power in numbers, so we look forward to being able to leverage that on behalf of the people of Arizona.”
On behalf of a third of the state’s voters, that is.
Thanks to gerrymandered political districts and outdated partisan primaries that make it more difficult for independents to vote, Republicans are essentially free to ignore two-thirds of the state’s voters.
Maybe we’ll fix that some day, by reforming the two-party primary system.
Until then, want to know what it looks like when the fringe becomes the establishment?
Just wait.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Legislature could turn (even harder) to the right
