Gov. Katie Hobbs announced her operation with $500,000 to start in hopes of flipping the Arizona state House and Senate blue in 2024, as she’s currently facing challenges with Republican lawmakers.
Republicans currently hold a narrow one-seat majority in both chambers, which has created a divided government after a tumultuous election year in 2022. As the state Senate established a new committee to vet the governor’s nominees and sent her a budget that she later vetoed, the Hobbs campaign has said the Republicans are “uncompromising.”
“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,” Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ chief political strategist, said in a statement.
“We intend to hold these extremist legislators accountable for being uncompromising obstructionists, and we’re confident their constituents will agree,” DeMont continued.
Former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey had a similar operation, but the goal was instead to keep the majority in the Legislature.
Ducey’s former Chief of Staff, Daniel Scarpinato, said that Hobbs had not given Republicans much to work with her on, which he believes will hurt her in the long run.
“I think her announcement today is a declaration of war against legislative Republicans 45 days into the legislative session,” he said. “So it feels right now like it’s pretty much all politics all the time for Gov. Hobbs and her team, and that they’re not even making an attempt to work with the other side, or to govern. And I think that that’s very shortsighted and is going to derail any ability she may have had to get anything done.”
“I do think this is very different from, you know, how Gov. Ducey went about it. First of all, he wasn’t looking to flip the Legislature. He was looking to protect the majorities, and like it or not, you know, you have to work with the majority caucus to get things done,” Scarpinato added.
When it comes to the gridlock at the Capitol, some have said that this is an expected part of the process.
“This is the natural state of things when you have divided government. Voters sent a Democratic governor, but a Republican Legislature to 1700 West Washington, and this is what happens. You get a lot of gridlock,” Republican strategist Barrett Marson said.
Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
