Citing a riveting piece by AZ Mirror’s Jim Small that outlined all the extremist legislative proposals Arizona Republican Legislators are processing at the State Capitol this session (and getting subsequently vetoed on the Ninth Floor,) Governor Katie Hobbs has launched a new political operation, with an initial $500,000 investment designed to turn the State Legislature blue in 2024.
In a social media post following the announcement, the Governor relayed:
Today I’m committing $500k to flipping the Arizona House and Senate in ‘24 to secure a governing majority and deliver results like lowering costs, addressing our water crisis, and fully funding education.
The current GOP legislative majority can play their political games – AZ…
— Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) February 21, 2023
In a press release, Nichole DeMont, Governor Hobb’s chief political strategist, offered:
“In the last election, Arizonans sent a clear message that they want the governor and the legislature to work together on solving our state’s toughest challenges like lowering costs, addressing our water crisis, and fully funding education. But Republicans in the legislature have already shown they have no interest in bipartisan cooperation and aren’t serious about solving problems. We intend to hold these extremist legislators accountable for being uncompromising obstructionists, and we’re confident their constituents will agree.”
The Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (ADLCC) posted its reaction to the announcement, stating:
As the co-founder of the ADLCC, Governor @katiehobbs has always been committed to a Democratic majority. We are so grateful for her continued support of legislative work in this state! https://t.co/cPnb0rkQuU
— ADLCC (@A_DLCC) February 21, 2023
As Laurie Roberts succinctly captured in the title of her column following this announcement: “the war is on.”
Because it is a Presidential election year, 2024 will be a great opportunity for the Democrats to finally flip one or more state legislative houses.
As Small suggested in his AZ Mirror column, Hobbs should just veto every extremist, MAGA, white nationalist, discriminatory, anti-science, anti-public education, and anti-public good legislation that comes from the Republican legislature and campaign on it with legislative district Democratic candidates in 2024.
The Democrats will have the right message. They are, as Governor Hobbs said in her social media post, the people working to move the state forward.
They are the ones looking to fully fund public education.
They are the ones that want to give tax relief to those that need it.
They are the ones that take climate change and the water crisis seriously.
They are the ones who want to do more to expand affordable housing and health care.
What have the Republicans been offering?
- Sham skinny budgets on the pretense that it was bipartisan last year.
- Legislation to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.
- Proposals that are designed to compromise your right to vote and take away your reproductive freedom.
- Tax Cuts disguised as Tax Credits for rich people to take money away from the state treasury to pay for their child’s private school education.
- Mandating gun safety legislation in public schools.
- Punishing teachers by giving extremist parents the flimsiest of excuses to harass them if they teach the positive aspects of diversity or even accurate history.
- Book banning.
The Democrats have a good message and they should run on it every day this year until election day in 2024.
The key will be to get Democratic voters, Independents, and Non-Maga Republicans to remember to vote down ballot instead of just for the Presidential, Senate, and Congressional Races.
If they are to win the Legislature and even local county races, continued effort needs to be made to ensure voters pay attention to every race, not just the perceived headline ones.
If one thinks this is not a worry, go back to 2020 when Democrats lost virtually every county race in Maricopa County and their best chance to capture the State Legislature because the voter turnout levels dropped after the Biden and Kelly contests.
Voting bottom-up is key to success in 2024.
Otherwise, everyone will be right back where they started in January 2025.
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“The key will be to get Democratic voters, Independents, and Non-Maga Republicans to remember to vote down ballot instead of just for the Presidential, Senate, and Congressional Races”
Good! Let’s hope the ADLCC contests every race and runs true Democrats instead of Republican Lite. That just may give more Democratic voters the impetus to get out and vote instead of “staying home”.