The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

The general election is less than seven weeks away on Nov. 5, and the presidential race is gaining the most attention. However, for Arizonans, there are some really important races down your ballot that you don't want to skip over. In Maricopa County in particular, there are four races worth your attention: county recorder, sheriff, board of supervisors, and superintendent. In this episode of The...

For the first time in 10 years, Mesa has to choose a new mayor. Politically, Mesa is a study in contrasts. The current mayor, Republican John Giles, is known for his relatively moderate views and willingness to cross party lines, as he has again in the presidential election this year. But it’s also the political base of U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, a MAGA conservative.  Mayoral candidates Scott Smith and...

Slow job growth could be one reason why markets worldwide took a nosedive on Monday. At the beginning of August, the U.S. jobs report showed sluggish growth in July. However, the stock market has been stabilizing. And for those of us in Arizona, things are looking up. At least a little. Inflation is cooling - though that doesn't mean prices are going down, except for gas prices. Those have dropped...

Voters across Arizona headed to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote in the 2024 primary election. A low voter turnout resulted in few complications on primary election day. There were no noteworthy technology glitches or long lines deferring voters from participating. But that doesn't mean that everything will be smooth sailing on the big day in November. This week on The Gaggle, a politics podca...

The election process is being carefully watched. From security cameras at county offices to candidates monitoring polling places, there are eyes and ears on alert to ensure the safety of the voting process. But another group plays a key role in ensuring the integrity of the vote: election observers. With less than a week before the 2024 primary election in Arizona, these observers are already at w...

The Republican National Convention is underway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week, and Donald Trump is the GOP's official pick for president. But Trump's bombastic attitude and brash words aren't new to American politics. Sixty years ago, another grandiloquent and explicitly extreme presidential candidate appeared on the scene: Barry M. Goldwater. For longtime Arizonans and political historians, th...

On Saturday, former President Donald Trump was shot at during his campaign stop in Butler, Pennsylvania. Three people were injured including the presidential nominee, who suffered an injury to his ear as a bullet skimmed the side of his head. One man died while shielding his family from the gunshots.  The assassination attempt is still under investigation, but the gunman has been identified as Tho...

At the end of July, Arizonans will vote in the primary election to say who will represent them for the Republican and Democratic parties. But the work is already underway on the ballot for the November general election.  A legislative panel signed off on the language that describes what ballot propositions would do, and last week, supporters of three citizen initiatives brought in petitions with a...

This year, Americans will choose their next president and many other lawmakers, and decide which initiatives to enshrine in local law. It's a practice made possible by rebels of the British Crown more than two centuries ago. Since then, America has evolved dramatically, and the stage is set for history to be made once more this November. However, instead of looking ahead, we are looking back at th...

Ballots for the July 30 primary election will soon be arriving in voters' mailboxes. In Maricopa County, a postal worker will drop off a distinctive, light yellow oversized envelope. Some counties will get light green. Others will get light blue. But they will each have been filled right here in the Valley. These ballots get tailor-made for each voter, down to a personalized QR code to ensure that...

On June 13, the U.S. Department of Justice released a long-anticipated report on its investigation into the city of Phoenix and its Police Department.  Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division laid out the results of the 126-page report after a nearly three-year investigation. Thus far, the reaction from the majority of Phoenix City Council has be...

At least $2.3 billion has been milked from Arizona taxpayers since 2019 in a shocking fake rehab program that mainly targeted Indigenous communities.  Scammers posing as legitimate workers or counselors for sober living communities in Phoenix would patrol areas where Native Americans would gather to buy and consume alcohol. They would then pick up people who were intoxicated on drugs or alcohol an...

Judges are getting more scrutiny these days, from the U.S. Supreme Court to Arizona’s top justices to local jurists. U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have been the topic of numerous news stories that raise ethical questions about the justices' actions as members of the high court.  In southeastern Arizona, Cochise County Judge John Kelliher Jr. has drawn outsize attenti...

Arizona is just two months away from the July primary. Voters will decide who represents them on the November ballot for the Republican and Democratic parties. But the results of that election will require a little bit of patience. All 15 Arizona counties are looking for more poll workers to volunteer before the primary as millions of Arizonans are expected to vote. The state's largest counties sa...

It’s the home stretch of the legislative session. Maybe. Lawmakers are running out of bills to vote on, and budget talks are slogging along behind closed doors. The House is in the midst of a two-week break. But there is one exception to this very unhurried schedule: Ballot referrals. These are proposed laws that go directly to the voters, avoiding the governor and her veto stamp. Others are amend...

The 2024 presidential race, Arizona’s congressional races and potentially several abortion-related measures command a lot of attention this election year. But there’s another set of really important races that are also on the ballot: the Legislature. Republicans have two-seat majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate. That means if Democrats could make a net gain of even one seat in either c...

Republicans have always had the numerical advantage in Arizona. A little more than a third of the state is registered with the GOP. But Republicans have slowly yet steadily lost ground to Democrats in this state. Why is that? It's more than just changing demographics. In this episode of The Gaggle, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl sit down with Samara Klar, a political science professor at the U...

In a U.S. Senate race often dominated by Republican front runner Kari Lake, it’s easy to forget that Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is running for the GOP nomination, too. He’s got a low-key demeanor and his personal style doesn’t seem to linger the way Lake’s combative politics does. When Lake entered the Senate race in November with former President Donald Trump’s prominent endorsement, many peo...

On Wednesday, April 24th, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, announcing that 11 Arizona Republicans and seven others have been charged for falsely certifying that Donald Trump won the state in 2020. This is despite of the fact that Arizonans narrowly favored Joe Biden.  While the names of those charged have yet to be officially revealed, clues in the the 58...

Artificial intelligence is a booming business. With a few dollars anyone can create a deep faked voice online. ChatGPT and other AI writing programs can take a student essay and polish it to a Ph. D. level. Manipulated videos can show an official saying or doing something outrageous -- and fake. With such powerful technology at everyone's fingertips the question arises: how can we keep our electio...

In her second year, Gov. Katie Hobbs has used her veto stamp much less than her first year. By this time last year, the Democratic governor had denied a record-breaking 63 bills presented by the GOP-dominated Legislature. This year, Hobbs is at 42 vetoes. Her second red stamp came across House Bill 2570, or the Arizona Starter Homes Act. Introduced by Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, it was...

On Tuesday, April 9, the Arizona state Supreme Court ruled to uphold near total-ban on abortions dating back to 1864. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the exact parameters for Arizona went into question. Just months before, then-Governor Republican Doug Ducey signed a law that limited abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, when Roe v. Wade went into effe...

Imagine there is a ballot with several candidates seeking the same seat. And you like most of them. But you can only pick one because that’s what the rules require.  When that happens, the vote in a multi-candidate race is split – and the outcome often is the candidate you least like wins. This is called vote splitting, a phenomenon that happens when a race attracts at least three candidates who h...

Trust in the election system in Arizona is eroding. Some may even say it's broken all together. One side says the vulnerability of voting machines and delay in election results is what makes the system distrustful. This was most obvious during the Maricopa County recount of the 2020 ballots that lasted months. The other side says it's the new found distrust in the system that makes it broken. But...

Rents in Arizona have jumped significantly since the pandemic. In 2021, metro Phoenix made national headlines when rents skyrocketed by 30%. An investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's office reveals that a group of nine landlord companies have been using a software that allows them to see what other properties are charging and thereby "fix" their rental prices to match. Attorney General Kr...