Arizona Attorney General Candidate Kris Mayes is on a crusade.
A crusade to protect a woman’s right to privacy and to choose.
A crusade to make sure no one’s right to vote is compromised.
A crusade to ensure everyone has access to clean water.
The former member of the Corporation Commission graciously took the time to discuss the issues she is running on this election year.
The questions and her responses are below.
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What are three major legal issues facing Arizonans going into the 2022 elections?
“One of the biggest legal questions facing Arizonans today are the Republican-led efforts to criminalize abortion and reproductive care and whether Arizonans are going to have to continue to flee to surrounding states to seek reproductive care. I am the only candidate in the race for attorney general, who is saying that we are never going to prosecute a woman or a doctor or a nurse or a pharmacist under these laws because it’s my view that the Arizona Constitution has an express right to privacy in Article 2, section 8, and that means that we could not enforce the 1901 abortion ban, as current AG Brnovich is pushing for. Those laws are actually unlawful pursuant to the Arizona Constitution.
The second pressing issue I think that is facing our state is this unrelenting attack on our voting rights and on our democracy by anti-democratic forces that want to continue to question the 2020 election and who seem unwilling to accept those results.
All six of my Republican opponents said in their televised debates that they would not have certified the 2020 election, or they seriously questioned the 2020 election results. I think that’s very worrisome for our democracy. We must have an Attorney General who will protect our election system, and stand up for the rule of law.
A third really important legal issue facing Arizona is how we are going to use our laws and, and improve our laws to save our water supplies. We have an existential crisis barreling down on us in the form of a depleted Lake Mead. The potential for Deadpool status at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam will have terrible consequences for the future of our state.
I’m going to be an Attorney General who will crack down on some of the really, outrageous abuses that are happening in the Ducey administration, including this decision by the state land department to lease Arizona land and water far below market rates to Saudi Arabia so that they can grow alfalfa for cows in Saudi Arabia. I think there is a serious question about whether this deal by the State Land Department violates the Arizona Constitution’s gift clause and those kinds of sweetheart deals will be scrutinized by me and will not be tolerated.”
* What did you think of the water deal concluded by the legislature last week?
“I think it’s a step forward in the sense that at least the Democrats were able to add $200 million in funding for conservation programs. I do have a lot of trust in WIFA, the Water Infrastructure Financing Authority, which I’ve worked with as a Corporation Commissioner, quite extensively. But the legislation doesn’t go nearly far enough. I mean $200 million in conservation funding isn’t going to get it done. I hate to use this metaphor, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we need to be doing.
So, it just lacks seriousness, really. I’m glad they did it. I’m glad there was a bipartisan effort, but we need so much more than that.
We’re just facing a lot of hard choices ahead of us and we need an attorney general, a governor, and a legislature that can come together and really, really face up to this problem.”
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Please tell the reader at least three steps you would take to address these issues if you become the next Arizona Attorney General.
“First, let me talk about reproductive rights. I developed a 12-point plan to preserve reproductive rights in Arizona that I will implement on day one to save access to abortion rate and reproductive care, including the fact that we will not prosecute women and doctors under my tenure.
We will also never extradite a woman who has gone to another state for an abortion back to Arizona for prosecution. These are the kinds of things that we may now have to deal with now that Arizona has adopted or has implemented these draconian anti-abortion laws. I will also provide guidance to women and families on how they can keep their reproductive digital data private. We are in an era of increasing criminalization of abortion. People are going to have to know to turn off their cellular tracking functions when they’re going to pharmacies to purchase Plan B or other contraception. People are going to have to be able to maintain their digital privacy if they go to an abortion clinic or they go to a fertility clinic. Again, these are things that we never thought we’d have to be talking about. As Attorney General, I will work hard to protect the women of this state, and their reproductive rights, even in the face of these efforts to deprive us of our Constitutional right to privacy and the ability to control our own bodies.
On the water, I will aggressively enforce existing groundwater laws and I will work with the legislature and the agencies that I would represent like ADWR and an ADEQ to move these agencies along in developing rules that help us preserve groundwater and also to modernize the 1980 Groundwater Act which is badly in need of updating.
On voting rights, I will move to intervene, in court, against any effort to undermine our election laws in an unconstitutional way.”
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Please tell the reader at least two reasons they should vote for you over any Republican opponents.
“I think Arizonans are craving an independent watchdog who will work on behalf of them every day she walks into the Attorney General’s office. I’m running to be an independent watchdog for the people of Arizona who will prosecute elder abuse, prosecute consumer fraud, take politics out of the Attorney General’s office, fight our fentanyl crisis, which is only getting worse in this state and tearing families apart, and work to preserve our water supplies.
None of my Republican opponents are talking about any of those real issues facing Arizonans. All you hear from these Republicans are a bunch of blather about the 2020 election having been stolen. It’s ridiculous. They can’t seem to tear themselves away from the big lie. We need an Attorney General who’s serious about the real issues that we face as a fast-growing state.”
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Please advise how you would handle the Supreme Court ruling on private schools being able to use public monies now.
“I will be an attorney general who will fight for public schools. This is not the time in our state’s history to be giving public money to private schools. It is a time when we need to focus on the massive deficit in funding for our public schools. It is a time when we must be focused on paying our teachers so that we don’t have thousands of teaching vacancies at our schools. It is a time where we should be focusing on getting our per pupil funding from 49th or 50th to number one in this country
The Supreme Court voucher decision is obviously very disappointing. It’s also disappointing to see this legislature year after year after year violate and ignore the will of the voters on public education. The vast majority of Arizonans send their kids to public schools, just like I do. We cannot continue to compete with our surrounding states for high-paying jobs and corporate headquarters if funding for our school system remains in the cellar in this country.
I will be the kind of Attorney General that will work on behalf of public schools in this state.”
* Is there anything not covered in the first four questions you would like the readers to know? Please explain?
“I would just say what we’ve learned over the last few months is that 2022 is one of the most consequential elections of our generation and we have got to win. Whether or not American democracy survives may very well depend on whether we win races like governor and Attorney General in Arizona. The Republicans running for Attorney General have made it clear over the past few months that they don’t believe in democracy. They’re willing to undermine it. They’re willing to aid in a coup or they’re willing to countenance that kind of behavior in the future.
They also have made it clear that they are willing to prosecute women for abortion and reproductive services. We have to win these elections to preserve the privacy rights of Arizonans and to protect American democracy.”
Please read Kris Mayes’ further comments on a woman’s right to choose by clicking here and the decision last week by the United States Supreme Court curtailing the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency by clicking here.
Please access the below social media sites to find out more about Kris Mayes and her candidacy for Arizona Attorney General.
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