Hobbs pulls her nominees for agency directors from Senate consideration. What's next?

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is making an end run around the state Senate when it comes to state agency leaders, appointing her picks to newly created "executive deputy director" jobs.

Hobbs announced her power play on Monday, with her office putting blame on the Senate's "political circus" and more specifically Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek, who leads a committee created earlier this year that has upended how confirmations have been done for decades at the Capitol.

Hobbs said 13 people she had chosen to lead state agencies would be withdrawn from the Senate confirmation process and named to the newly created roles, framing it as the only way to ensure state government continues to provide services to Arizonans.

Republican leaders objected to the move, claiming it was not allowed in statute, though similar strategies have played out under previous governors.

In a letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, Hobbs wrote it was clear the Committee on Director Nominations "is being used as a weapon, wielded for the personal whim of a few legislators. This Committee, though ostensibly intended to evaluate the fitness for office of my nominees, is instead revealing the complete lack of fitness of the Committee Chair, Senator Jake Hoffman."

Petersen said in a statement that state law requires agencies be helmed by directors who go through the confirmation process.

"The law is very specific on who is to run our state agencies," he said. "Without directors fulfilling these obligations, the legality of every decision made by these state agencies is dubious, and litigation against the state would surely prevail."

That wasn't a concern that boiled up into the public sphere in recent Arizona history. In August 2021, then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, named Don Herrington as interim director of the Department of Health Services. Herrington, a 21-year veteran of the department, followed Cara Christ, who shepherded the agency through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Herrington served in an interim capacity until late December 2022, days before the Hobbs administration took over. He was never confirmed by the Senate.

Petersen said he wasn't aware of Herrington's status, and that "two wrongs don't make a right."

Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a statement supporting Hobbs, saying the governor was "well within her right to move forward with other legal means of keeping state government functioning."

"The Senate’s role in this process is to provide advice and consent — they have now had over nine months to fulfill that role," Mayes said. "The majority party has instead politicized the process and obstructed the functioning of state government."

She said there was no law that prohibited the governor from reappointing nominees as deputy directors.

Petersen said the Committee on Director Nominations would continue to meet, even though Hobbs' agency leaders were not expected to participate. Hobbs said she would essentially re-nominate her agency leaders as directors if the Senate resumes its past practice, where nominees were vetted by a committee based on the topic area.

For example, a choice to lead the Department of Health Services would be assigned for Senate Health and Human Services Committee review. That approach involves more lawmakers with more diverse backgrounds and relevant professional experience in the confirmation process.

Petersen pointed to several nominees who had been withdrawn after appearing before the Committee on Director Nominations as evidence it is working to identify people not fit to serve.

Christian Slater, Hobbs' spokesperson, said nominees who were rejected by the committee and later withdrawn would not be reappointed by Hobbs.

Just six of Hobbs' agency nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, though there are about two dozen that need confirmation. Several have withdrawn or been pulled back by Hobbs after the committee hearings.

Ten days ago, the Republicans on the committee voted against the confirmation of Joan Serviss to lead the Department of Housing, raising allegations of plagiarism that, in their minds, outweighed the recommendations of a dozen people who supported Serviss.

The confirmation battles have emerged as one of the key side effects of split power at the state Capitol, where the Republican-majority Legislature and Democratic governor have grappled to get along, and get meaningful work done. Often the political divide leads to finger pointing, and that continued Monday.

In a statement, Hobbs' spokesperson labeled Hoffman an "extremist" leading a "political circus that puts Hoffman’s radical agenda first at the expense of everyday Arizonans.”

Hoffman charged it was Hobbs having a “temper tantrum” and claimed she had “doubled down on her commitment to weaponizing the government of Arizona to enact her extreme far-left agenda.”

Hoffman is one of a group of individuals who signed false documents claiming to be legitimate electors for President Donald Trump in 2020, when Arizonans voted for Joe Biden, in a scheme that is being investigated by the Arizona attorney general.

"Hobbs is the only person to blame for her nominees struggling to succeed under actual due diligence," Hoffman said in a statement.

Hobbs' announcement impacts the following agencies and leaders:

• Elizabeth Thorson, Arizona Department of Administration

• Angie Rodgers, Arizona Department of Economic Security

• Karen Peters, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

• Carmen Heredia, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System

• David Lujan, Arizona Department of Child Safety

• Jackie Johnson, Arizona Department of Gaming

• Joan Serviss, Arizona Department of Housing

• Barbara Richardson, Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions

• Lt. Col Dana Allmond, Arizona Department of Veterans Services

• Alec Esteban Thomson, Arizona State Lottery

• Cynthia Zwick, Residential Utility Consumer Office

• Lisa Urias, Arizona Office of Tourism

• Robyn Sahid, Arizona State Land Department

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hobbs pulls agency director nominees in protest of Senate panel's work