The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney labeled U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar a moron over the Arizona Republican's association with a political conference organized by a white nationalist. Another participant, Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff, was censured by the Arizona state Senate for threatening comments she made to her colleagues.  It was the first time in three decades a senator was publicly...

Conservatives from Arizona and elsewhere took aim at President Joe Biden while outlining their preferred policy agenda during annual gatherings in Orlando last week. Among those on hand were several notable Arizonans, including U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a former Fox 10 anchor. Also last weekend, far-right extremists heard from U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ari...

In the early weeks after the 2020 election, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, resisted direct appeals by President Donald Trump and key allies to participate in a scheme to set aside the certified election results in Arizona. He’s still getting lobbied by some in that orbit, and Bowers is still pushing back. His support was recently sought He recently received a recent effort to get his...

On Dec. 14, 2020, 11 Republicans met at the Arizona party headquarters. There they signed a document falsely claiming they were the “duly elected and qualified” electors for the state of Arizona.  But the truth of the matter was that they were anything but. Now the House committee investigating the January 6th attack subpoenaed two Arizonans who signed that false document.  In this week's Gaggle r...

Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel's career in the office has been connected to her health since before she was elected. She had been appointed to the position and was recovering from a life-threatening fall and major brain surgery when election results showed she had won the job. She returned to her office in March, only to step away in August 2021 while she entered rehab for anxiety, alcohol...

COVID-19 continues to grip our state as attempts to return to a semblance of normalcy hobble along. After two years of data collection, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that Arizona has the second highest COVID-19 death rate in the country. For most of January, Arizona has reported an average roughly around 20,000 new infections daily.  This is the stage set for schools this sem...

In the past few weeks, parents of school-aged children have all had the same experience of getting their kids ready for school. You grab their backpack, their lunch, a snack and, for the third year in a row, you grab their mask.  The COVID-19 variant omicron is twice as contagious as the delta variant and at least four times as contagious as the first strain we experienced in March 2020. Currently...

The Arizona Legislature is in full swing, marked by several notable highlights. There are a large number of new lawmakers, and it is Doug Ducey’s last year in the governor’s office. Politicians are gearing up for the bills they want to pass in the third straight session affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lots of questions are circling the copper dome at the Capitol. But one in particular is loiter...

This week Gov. Doug Ducey kicked off the 2022 legislative session by delivering his final State of the State. His eight years as governor of Arizona will come to an end in January 2023, and people are closely watching how his last year will unfold.   Tax cuts, COVID-19 response, school choice and school spending and border security are among topics Ducey mentioned in his speech. The governor also...

After an eventful 2021, it's shaping up to be another busy year in Arizona politics. The congressional and legislative district maps have been redrawn for the next 10 years, a U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs, and no matter what happens, Arizona will get a new governor. As we look ahead into 2022, the hosts of The Gaggle, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen, cover some of the biggest stories we...

The Gaggle hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen are taking off this week to celebrate Christmas and New Years. Be sure to catch up on our Democracy in Doubt series where we take a deep dive into Arizona's ballot review. All five episodes are available. Happy Holidays! We'll be with you in the new year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2021 will be known as a big year in Arizona politics. An unprecedented investigation into the voting system in Maricopa County made national headlines and the behavior of Arizona politicians made Saturday Night Live punchlines. As the year comes to a close, the hosts of The Gaggle, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen, cover the biggest stories from 2021. Joined by fellow Arizona Republic reporte...

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs issued a ‘new’ apology and acknowledged discrimination took place at the legislature related to then Democractic Senate Aide, Talonya Adams. Hobbs, who in 2015 was the Senate Democratic leader, said in an interview with The Arizona Republic that she recognized that her initial response fell short of taking accountability and that it was unnecessarily defensiv...

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods died of a heart attack on October 23, 2021, at the age of 67. He spent years as a Republican politician in Arizona, often crossing party lines to side with Democratic causes.  Woods was known as a fighter who stood up for what was right, even when it wasn’t popular. He will forever be remembered as an authentic Arizonan.  The former Republican Arizona At...

In August, when COVID-19 seemed to be receding as a health problem, and as public schools ramped up for in-person education lessons with masking mandates, Gov. Doug Ducey offered parents who didn’t like those rules an alternative. He said the state would provide vouchers worth up to $7,000 per student to those approved for a grant intended to sidestep masking, promote in-person learning and use fe...

The Gaggle hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen are taking off this week to celebrate Thanksgiving. If you didn't catch the series, Democracy in Doubt, last week about Arizona's ballot review, all five episodes are available. Happy Thanksgiving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GOP lawmakers from at least 18 states trekked to the desert during triple-digit heat to study the process, pose for pictures, battle members of the mainstream press and help push former President Donald Trump’s baseless concern for a stolen election. The election review was started almost singlehandedly by Senate President Karen Fann at the behest of Trump, his allies and some members of her own c...

Experts dismissed the 'audit' as worthless. But it also helped the GOP and related interests rake in millions and keep the cause of Donald Trump alive. In episode four of a five-episode series, The Gaggle hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen dig deep to find out if the Arizona election review was about election integrity or just Trump – how Arizona State President Karen Fann chose partisans...

The nearly 8-hour insurrection on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn election results. Congress certified Joe Biden’s presidential win after hours of violence and bloodshed. In episode three of a five-episode series, The Gaggle hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen detail the narrative of a stolen election pressed by Trump, Gosar and Biggs. It was echoed by millions of the preside...

In the second of a five-episode series, The Gaggle hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen break down Rudy Giuliani’s audacious pitch in Dec. 2020 to reverse Arizona election results ­– a plan that would involve the help of Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Senate President Karen Fann. Trump and his allies, including Giuliani, had for weeks pointed to purported irregularities in Arizona,...

Over the course of four months, The Republic examined a trove of text messages, emails and court records, many made public after suing the state for access. Reporters spoke to decision-makers, consultants, staff, contractors, campaign aides and others tied to the review of the presidential and U.S. Senate races. Some talked on the record about their experiences, while others spoke on the condition...

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives ended months of infighting among Democrats to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema helped broker. The historic legislation, along with a still-unfinished social spending bill, serves as a reminder of the Arizona Democrat's central role in what seems politically possible in Washington.   A deal with the liberal wing of House D...

On Oct. 28, 2021, the five-member Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission adopted new lines for political districts in the state. The new legislative and congressional maps had little contention by the bipartisan commission. The general public now has 30 days to look over the proposed maps and share their thoughts before the finalization date of Dec. 22. The final decision will impact Arizona...

Arizona's congressional and legislative boundaries are being redrawn as part of a process that may seem tedious, but carries outsize importance to understanding the state's politics for the next decade.  Arizona is one of the few states that uses an independent commission, rather than having state lawmakers draw their own maps. The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, as it is known, has...

The economics of the proposed spending of two major infrastructure bills along with a debate over raising the debt celling is playing out in Congress.  There are three separate but important things happening. The first is the $1.2 trillion physical infrastructure bill that passed the Senate and waits action in the House.  The second is the broader $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill that compr...