The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

Arizona is joining 20 other states and Washington, D.C., allowing legal sports betting after Gov. Doug Ducey signed Senate Bill 1797 on April 15, expanding gaming in the state.  The law also allows tribes to operate more slot machines, new tables and more casinos in the state.  When will you be able to place bets on your favorite sports teams? How will this impact Arizona’s economy? And who benefi...

It has been nearly three weeks since Maricopa County started the ballot audit on April 23, 2021. Nearly 2.1 million ballots are being hand-counted more than six months after the election in 2020. The unprecedented political spectacle is drawing attention from national media, from CNN to Comedy Central. Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver commented on the audit on their shows and national new...

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is a central figure in a 50-50 split Senate. Democrats hold control but only with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tiebreaker.  Sinema, a centrist Democrat, holds outsize political power and has the ability to make or break President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.  She ran in 2018 on the promise to work in a bipartisan manner. How is she doing that? What do w...

The Arizona Senate's audit began nearly six months after the 2020 election at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday April 26. Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based company, was contracted by the state Senate to conduct the audit. Journalists had little to no access to observe the audit apart from the right-wing news outlet One America News Network. In order to observe the audit, journalists had to sign...

The first Federal Election Campaign finance reports of the year came out last week. These documents can show how candidates raise and spend money in federal elections and provide insight on who might be running for what offices in the 2022 and 2024 elections. With time on the clock still, the first quarter report shows how the fundraising efforts of key players in the next two elections, including...

Now that Congress has passed the American Rescue Plan of 2021, which will help sustain people and cities financially, Congress is turning its priorities elsewhere, including to issues at the border.  In February, U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed 28,328 migrants. That number more than doubled to over 68,000 in March, most of them families and children. The surge of migrants who are proc...

Georgia became one of the first states to pass a voting restriction law after the 2020 election on March 25. The bill includes new changes like shortening the window to request an absentee ballot, requiring more than a signature on mail-in ballots and making it illegal to hand out water to voters in line.  Arizona is considered one of the next states to possibly follow and implement similar laws....

From 1945 to 1962, the United States conducted nuclear mining in Northern Arizona and nuclear testing in Southern Nevada. Yet the government failed to warn people in the area of the radiation risks posed by that work and the health hazards associated with it, including various forms of cancer. Then in 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. It established a lump sum compensa...

The divide between Arizona's congressional Democrats and its House Republicans is wider than ever in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.  Arizona Democrats said the fallout from the insurrection is testing their will to work together. “If I’m going to advocate to the federal government, to the (President Joe) Biden people, I’m not going to jump on with people that just tried to invalidate...

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick has been representing Arizonans since 2005 and announced Friday that she will not be running for re-election at the end of her term.  In her career, Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz, has used her history in rural Arizona to bring more representation to smaller cities and has been a key member of the House Appropriations Committee. In January of 2020, she took some time off to treat alcohol...

Four months have passed since Arizona certified its election results. In the subsequent months, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Arizona Senate have been in an ongoing legal battle over an audit of 2020 election ballots.   The Arizona Senate subpoenaed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for access to the paper ballots and voting machines to conduct their own audit of the 2020...

After a year of taking heat from the political left and right, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is answering his critics. Democrats such as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema criticized Ducey for being slow to protect Arizonans during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans criticized him for certifying President Joe Biden's narrow victory in Arizona during the 2020 election.  On Monday, Ducey sat down with natio...

Two years ago, Arizona voters rejected a GOP law to expand the state’s school voucher-style program. Despite that rejection, and against the backdrop of at-home learning in the era of the pandemic, Arizona’s Republicans are once again trying to dramatically expand the program.  This year, the Arizona Senate voted not just to expand the voucher system. In fact, SB 1452 is even larger than the expan...

Arizona has been in the national political spotlight recently. It was labeled a swing state heading into the 2020 elections and barely turned blue, handing Joe Biden his narrowest victory in November.  While this was happening, the state's elected leaders were gathering national attention too. Republican Governor Doug Ducey has entered the final two years of his term. His future afterward is uncer...

Former President Donald Trump is the only president to face impeachment twice, after the House of Representatives signed a single article of impeachment on Jan. 25. The Senate began its formal trial on Tuesday, although there isn't a clear consensus on whether Trump should be held accountable for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and what that accountability would look like. Arizona's Ho...

The 2020 election marked the first time in modern Arizona history that Democrats had a lead in early ballots a week before election day. Republicans closed that gap, putting the percentage of ballots returned within 1% of each other.  Still, it was a shock to the system for some Republicans.  Now, Republican lawmakers are looking to change how Arizonans vote, as well as how their votes are counted...

The Arizona Democratic and Republican parties held elections on Jan. 23 to elect their party chair. During an in-person meeting that was largely closed to the media, the Arizona GOP narrowly re-elected the fractious Kelli Ward as its leader. Democrats opted to vote for a new chair in a virtual meeting, electing Raquel Terán overwhelmingly with 75% of the vote. Terán is the state representative for...

Today is the inauguration day for President-elect Joe Biden. He becomes the 46th President of the United States of America. After the two Democratic Senate victories in Georgia, Biden has a clearer path towards setting are more liberal agenda.  Biden has already released plans for his first 100 days in office, including plans for a national COVID-19 response and changes to various immigration poli...

Arizona Republican leaders such as Gov. Doug Ducey and Chair Kelli Ward had opposing reactions to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.  Ducey initially condemned the riots on Twitter and then again addressed it in Monday's State of the State address. "In the United States of America, violence and vandalism have no place in the people’s house. Perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent o...

On Wednesday, during a joint session of Congress, a pro-President Donald Trump mob invaded the Capitol.  The riot spilled into the Capitol as the debate over Arizona’s votes began. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar was on the microphone when debate was halted. As events developed, national political reporters Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen reached out to members of Arizona’s congressional de...

Following a year of turmoil, the next legislative sessions kicks off on Monday, Jan. 11. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has faced criticism of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic from Republicans and Democrats alike. Although Republicans held onto their majorities in the Arizona House of Representatives and Senate, there’s disunity among both parties’ caucuses.  What issues will the legislature atte...

As we wrap up 2020, The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen look towards 2021. In this week's episode, they'll breakdown five stories they are keeping their eyes on throughout the upcoming year.  That includes how the COVID-19 vaccine will impact the state's recovery from the pandemic. They'll also reflect on the futures of the Republican and Democ...

Hey Gaggle listeners! We're taking this week off. Thanks for joining us this year as we explored Arizona's evolving politics. We've got one more episode coming this year and we'll be back in 2021 with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for many to pay rent. Various government protections were put in place throughout the year to protect renters against evictions, including rental assistance and eviction moratoriums.  However, reporting from The Arizona Republic found that hundreds of Arizona renters may have been wrongfully evicted. And more evictions may be on th...

Season two of Rediscovering, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, explored the events leading up to and following the passage of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona.  The 2010 “show me your papers” law was met with pushback from Latino organizers, grassroots activists, DACA recipients and more. That pushback didn’t end after SB 1070 was signed. Latino activists continued to organize. The...