Veto alert. On Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed SB1305, the attack on teachers passed by Republican lawmakers. Rather than funding Arizona schools, the bill would have opened teachers up to lawsuits and investigations for teaching the truth about our country’s history. The bill is just another example of the far-right’s use of fear-mongering to distract from the fact that they aren’t actually doing anything to serve the people of Arizona.
AG sues Cochise County. Earlier this year, the nonpartisan elections director, Lisa Marra, resigned following threats she received after refusing to go along with conspiracies to try to overturn the 2022 election. Now, the county has transferred this nonpartisan elections role over to the same far-right county recorder who helped to push lies about the election in the first place. AG Kris Mayes is now suing to stop this transfer of duties, calling it an “unqualified handover”.
Calling it what it is. Republicans in the Arizona House Elections committee don’t want speakers to use the phrase “conspiracy theory” when giving testimony on the GOP’s election bills that are based on…actual conspiracy theories. It’s utterly ironic given how many hours have been wasted in House and Senate elections committee meetings on presentations from far-right groups spouting lies about our elections. And Republicans have still failed to take responsibility for allowing unsubstantiated and wildly inappropriate allegations to be made against multiple state leaders during a special joint session a couple weeks ago.
Don’t miss this important op-ed from Lizette Trujillo, the mother of a trans child, on the impacts that anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Arizona has had on her family.
Meet Justine Wadsack. The far-right, first-term state Senator from Tucson acted completely inappropriately, interrupting state Rep. Analise Ortiz during a House Judiciary committee meeting to insist that she didn’t need any evidence for “egregious” claims she was making as part of her testimony on a bill.
Protect bike lanes. Tell lawmakers to vote NO on SB1312 and SB1313, which would limit safe bicycle infrastructure in Arizona.