With Republican Kari Lake refusing to concede she lost her campaign for governor and Donald Trump calling for do-over elections, Arizona is facing contentious politics and divided government.
Lake lost to current Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, while Republicans maintained a slim control of the legislature, setting up the state's first divided government since Janet Napolitano was governor.
"In her four years as secretary of state, Hobbs has fought with conspiracy theorists in the Legislature and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich over election procedures. As governor, she'll begin her first term with a Legislature that has maintained the same one-vote majority in both the Senate and House as it had last year, but with more Republicans who identify with constitutional conservatives and the Trump wing of the party," The Arizona Republic reported. "Hobbs already has miffed some GOP lawmakers with the ink on ballots barely dried, saying the same week that the vote count sealed her victory that she would call a special session to get rid of the state's pre-statehood abortion ban as one of her first actions."
The newspaper reported Republican state Sen. J.D. Mesnard complained, "he's certainly punching us in the face."
"She can't force us to go along, so she is deliberately, intentionally setting up a showdown," Mesnard said. "If that's her opening move, it's going to be a long four years."
Republicans, meanwhile, seem to be leaning into election fraud conspiracy theories.
"Republican legislative candidates for the state Senate who were ahead in their races as of Nov. 10, plus three who lost their elections, voted to make Sen. Warren Petersen the Senate President for next year. Petersen, R-Gilbert, who helped coordinate last year's partisan audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, appointed Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, to head up the Senate's new election committee," the newspaper reported. "Rogers is known as one of the most avid promoters of election conspiracies in the country and her second year in office was marred by divisive statements that resulted in Republicans voting to censure her and launch an ethics investigation of two incidents."
Hobbs has the ability to veto GOP bills.
GOP Sen. Mesnard said he expects "the first two years, she'll probably do whatever she wants — push the limits to try to excite her base. How it plays in the public, I don't know. ... She's going to be stepping in it, too."
Read the full report.
