pamela powers hannley

Tyranny of the Majority at the Arizona House of Representatives

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A House Committee Hearing on Education was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Monday, January 28. It did not start at 2:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m.

Instead, the people who gathered to attend the hearing (many of whom were members of Save Our Schools Arizona)  were treated to a different educational experience by either watching the House of Representatives session on  ACTV or taking the elevator to see the proceedings on the third-floor gallery.

They were able to witness the Arizona House Republicans demonstrate what tyranny of the majority looks like by attempting to ram through new rules (some of them changed for the first time in 72 years)  for the legislative session, some of them designed to stifle and reduce debate.

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Kyrsten Sinema

Arizona Women Win 42 Legislative, State & Congressional Races

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Kyrsten Sinema
Arizona Senator-elect Kyrsten Sinema

Arizona has a history of electing women to public office. In 1932, Arizona elected Isabella Greenway to the US House of Representatives. In 1972, State Senator Sandra Day O’Connor was the first female president of the Arizona Senate. In 1998, Arizona voters elected five women to run the state government— Jane Hull (Governor), Betsy Bayless (Secretary of State), Janet Napolitano (Attorney General), Carol Springer (Treasurer), and Lisa Graham-Keegan (Superintendent of Public Instruction). To this date, Arizona’s Fab Five remain the most number of women elected to state government at the same time. In 2017, the Arizona Legislature had the highest percentage of women (40 percent) of any state Legislature in the Country.

In 2018, Arizona elected its first female US senator and 41 other women to political office. Out of 108 races, women won 39 percent of them this year. After inauguration in January 2019, half of Arizona’s statewide offices (4/8), 27 percent of our Congressional delegation (3/11), and 39 percent of the Arizona Legislature (35/90) will be women.

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AZ House Democratic Caucus

Blue Wave Washed over #AZLeg: Seven GOP Incumbents Lose Seats

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AZ House Democratic Caucus
Democratic Caucus of the Arizona House– all 29 of us! Our newly elected Minority Leader is Rep. Charlene Fernandez (center in white jacket).

In the week since the 2018 Midterm Election, pundits have been judging the size and very existence of the predicted Blue Wave . To determine if the Blue Wave of newly elected Democrats was a tsunami or a just ripple, the media has focused primarily on Congressional and gubernatorial races–with little or no mention of state legislatures.

With voter turnout at 60%, there is no doubt that a Blue Wave washed over Arizona on Nov. 6, 2018. Democratic women won major victories: US Senate (Kyrsten Sinema), CD2 (Ann Kirkpatrick), Corporation Commission (Sandra Kennedy), Superintendent of Public Instruction (Kathy Hoffman), and maybe but still too close to call Secretary of State (Katie Hobbs). The incumbent Republicans for three of these seats– Corporation Commission (Tom Forese), Superintendent of Public Instruction (Diane Douglas), and Secretary of State (Michelle Reagan)– all lost in the primary. Now, Democrats will hold those seats.

In the Arizona House, the Blue Wave was more of a tsunami. Seven Republican incumbents will not be returning to the Arizona Legislature in January 2019.

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