Cops and Heat
By TJ Hernandez
Republicans run on racism. Immigration has long been a go to issue for Republicans to weaponize in order to divide Arizonans, and this election cycle is no different. Candidates like Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh have used white supremacist “invasion” conspiracy theory rhetoric to justify their agenda to militarize the U.S.-Mexico border. At a recent rally, Kari Lake went even further, borrowing some of Trump’s racist talking points to describe immigrants. Their language has real impacts on the Latinx community – the normalization of xenophobic language by politicians contributes to violence against already marginalized communities.
Aggregate Expenditure Limit. Democrats in the state legislature are calling on Gov. Doug Ducey to address limits on public school spending. When Democrats negotiated with Ducey to pass a budget in June, which included a large increase for K-12 schools, Ducey promised to call a special session to address the Aggregate Expenditure Limit, which restricts how much school districts can spend. Now, he’s backtracking. If Republicans won’t come to the table, schools will be forced to cut over $1.3B of funding. This is just another example of the Arizona GOP’s agenda to defund public schools, regardless of what voters want.
Cops and heat. Watch a resident call out the City of Phoenix for trying to spend millions in sustainability funds on fuel tanks for police fleets.
5 days left to sign the petition to stop voucher expansion. Republicans in the Arizona Legislature passed universal ESA vouchers, which will drain funding from education, defying the will of voters who previously voted to reject voucher expansion in 2018. Sign the petition to put this law on hold until the 2024 election, when voters can reject this policy again via ballot referendum.
Phochella is a community arts and culture music festival, focused on joy, activating youth of color, and celebrating the power of the vote. Join us and Fuerte Arts Movement, One Arizona, and Arizona AANHPI for Equity next weekend, September 24th, from 4:30 pm to midnight at Rancho Ochoa in Laveen!
Register to vote! November is coming up quickly and we have a slate of horrible MAGA candidates to vote against. Make sure you’re registered!