Jim Small, Arizona Mirror

An appeals court on Thursday upheld a former Democratic state legislator’s conviction for a child sex crime.

Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete was a state senator representing a west Phoenix legislative district when he was arrested in 2021 and charged with seven felonies for child sex crimes after allegedly molesting and forcing oral sex on two boys.

He resigned shortly after he was arrested.

Navarrete was tried twice. The first trial in October 2023 ended in a mistrial after jurors couldn’t decide on a verdict.

Prosecutors tried Navarrete again in 2024, and jurors delivered a split verdict, convicting him of one count of sexual conduct with a minor. He was acquitted of another identical count and a count of molestation of a child. In April 2024, he was sentenced to one year in prison.

Navarrete asked the Arizona Court of Appeals to review his case for “fundamental error.” But the three-judge panel unanimously concluded there were no errors and the conviction and sentence should stand.

“Navarette was present and represented by counsel at all critical stages of the proceeding, except when counsel waived his presence. The record reflects that the superior court afforded Navarette all his constitutional and statutory rights, and that the proceedings were conducted in accordance with the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure,” Judge David Weinzweig wrote on behalf of the appellate panel. “The court conducted appropriate pretrial hearings, and the evidence presented at trial and summarized above was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict. Navarette’s sentence is also within the range prescribed by law. We find no error on this record.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is cancelling roughly $1 billion in already-promised spending on local food purchases for schools and food banks nationwide, Politico reported this week.

The Local Food for Schools program provides funding for states to purchase food from local farmers and distribute it to schools and child care programs. A similar initiative, the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, buys and distributes locally-produced food to in-state food banks.

For fiscal year 2025, Arizona had been awarded roughly $13.1 million to purchase food for schools, and an additional $8.1 million to cover products for food banks. Those funds will no longer be distributed.

The programs were initiated under the Biden administration as a way to help farmers, schools and food banks weather the supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arizona received awards for both programs in September 2023.

“We look forward to connecting local farmers and food producers with the Arizona Food Bank Network and Pinnacle Prevention,” then-Arizona Department of Economic Security Director Angie Rodgers said at the time. “These partnerships will help underserved communities and families in need, expand the Friends of the Farm efforts and place healthy and nutritious Arizona-grown food on families’ tables, while boosting our local economy.”

USDA data shows that 392 Arizona farmers and food producers participated in the LFPA program. Those producers will now have to find other markets for their products. The bulk of the money, more than $4.8 million, went to farmers growing produce.

Department of Economic Security spokesman Brett Bezio said USDA had not contacted the state about cancelling the Local Food Purchase Assistance program. And although USDA had announced Arizona would be receiving the $8 million, DES had not yet entered into an agreement for the funding.

He said the $8 million would have been directed to Pinnacle Prevention and the Arizona Food Bank Network to purchase food from almost 400 farmers and community organizations throughout the state. But now that the money won’t be coming, “our partners have communicated that they are pausing purchases to evaluate how to best distribute what remains of the existing $15 million LFPA funding through March 2026,” Bezio said in an email.

The school meal program was designed to improve child nutrition and build relationships between local schools and farmers. The Arizona Department of Education launched the “Try it Local: Arizona’s Local Food for Schools Program” initiative to encourage schools and their food vendors to seek out products from local farmers.

“As Superintendent, I have campaigned for healthy foods in our schools,” Superintendent Tom Horne said when the award was announced. “This includes eliminating sugar, sodas in vending machines, using whole wheat, rather than white bread, etc. This USDA initiative for ‘nutritious, local foods for school meal programs’ will be an important contribution to this important goal of protecting our children’s health.”

Doug Nick, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the agency is still assessing what to do about the lost funding. In the meantime, he said, Horne is trying to communicate the importance of having locally grown and minimally processed foods on school menus.

“Providing healthy food sources is a goal shared by Horne and the Trump administration and we’re hopeful this information will make the case for sustaining the program,” Nick told the Arizona Mirror.

Compounding the effect of the USDA cuts are efforts by Republican lawmakers in Congress to slash school meal funding to help pay for $4.6 trillion in federal tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.

“Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association, in a statement. “These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs.”

Minnesota Reformer reporter Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.

In a move that underscores the high stakes of Arizona’s legislative elections, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced today it will pump nearly $1 million into targeted races across the state, adding to the $8.5 million that’s already been spent by outside groups in a handful of key districts.

The DLCC’s investment, part of a larger $2 million ad buy split between Arizona and Pennsylvania, aims to flip both chambers of the legislature to Democratic control for the first time in nearly 60 years. This latest spending push is the DLCC’s first directly trying to influence voters, though it has previously spent about $350,000 supporting Democratic candidates.

“Control of Pennsylvania and Arizona’s legislatures will come down to just a handful of votes, and abortion could be the driving message that determines who wins in November,” DLCC Communications Director Sam Paisley said in a written statement.

The focus on abortion rights aligns with a key theme Democrats are emphasizing this cycle, especially with a constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights on the Arizona ballot in November.

An Arizona Mirror analysis of independent expenditure data reveals that the infusion of outside money has created a slight overall advantage for Democrats in the most competitive districts. Across 11 key races examined, pro-Democrat IEs totaled about $4.67 million, compared to $3.87 million for pro-Republican efforts.

Notably, the outside spending in these targeted races significantly outpaces the candidates’ own fundraising efforts. For instance, in the hotly contested Legislative District 13 House race, outside groups have spent over $1.6 million to sway voters in the Chandler-based district, more than double the combined $826,310 raised by the four candidates — Democrats Nicholas Gonzales and Brandy Reese and Republicans Jeff Weninger and Julie Willoughby — in that race.

Similarly, in the Senate race for District 2, which includes much of north Phoenix, outside spending has reached nearly $1.42 million, dwarfing the $841,000 raised by GOP Sen. Shawnna Bolick and her Democratic challenger, Rep. Judy Schwiebert — a figure that itself is staggering and far beyond what legislative hopefuls have traditionally raised in Arizona. This pattern repeats across most of the targeted races, highlighting the outsized influence of independent expenditures in shaping these contests.

The data shows some intriguing patterns in the outside spending:

The most expensive race is in Legislative District 13’s House contest, where combined IE spending has exceeded $1.6 million.Senate races generally favor Republicans in IE support, with pro-GOP spending leading in three out of five key Senate races.House races have seen more pro-Democrat IE support, with four out of six key races favoring Democrats in outside spending.

The top outside groups spending in battleground legislative races are:

Future Freedoms ($2.3 million), which is supporting DemocratsResponsible Leadership for AZ ($1.5 million), which is supporting RepublicansHouse Victory Fund ($1.5 million), which is supporting RepublicansArizona Senate Victory Fund PAC ($1.3 million), which is supporting RepublicansStand For Children Arizona ($1.1 million), which is supporting Democrats

!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;rPolitical observers note that this influx of outside money reflects the competitiveness of these races and their potential to decide control of the legislature.

Earlier this year, Marilyn Rodriguez, a progressive lobbyist and campaign veteran, expressed optimism about Democrats’ chances, telling the Mirror, “We have to work hard, but this is gettable,” referring to winning legislative majorities.

The focus on state legislative races has intensified following Democratic successes in 2022, when the party won all top statewide offices, including the governorship. Democrats now aim to provide Gov. Katie Hobbs with legislative majorities to enact her agenda.

Republicans, while outspent overall, have had some bright spots. The primary victory of Vince Leach over incumbent Justine Wadsack in a Tucson-area Senate district has boosted GOP confidence in holding that seat.

Following the July primaries, Barrett Marson, a Republican campaign advisor, told the Mirror, “It was probably as good a primary as Republicans could have hoped for.”

As the general election campaign intensifies, both parties are framing the stakes in stark terms. Democrats are portraying their Republican opponents as “extreme” and aligned with MAGA politics, while Republicans are casting their challengers as socialists who are too radical for Arizona.

With millions in outside spending already shaping these races and more on the way, voters can expect an onslaught of messaging in the coming weeks as both parties vie for control of the state legislature in what promises to be one of the most closely watched and expensive legislative elections in Arizona history.

A group formed by anti-Trump Republicans is spending big in the closing weeks of the election to convince Republicans in the Grand Canyon State to support Vice President Kamala Harris.

Republican Voters Against Trump on Monday announced plans to spend $2.4 million in Arizona — as part of a $15 million blitz in battleground states — to pay for billboards and TV ads featuring first-person testimonials from former Donald Trump supporters who now back Harris, the former president’s Democratic opponent.

The billboards feature local Arizona voters declaring “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m voting for Harris.” The TV ads, meanwhile, are a series of 15- to 30-second testimonials from voters speaking directly to the camera about why they now oppose Trump and support Harris.

This campaign is the capstone of the 2024 Republican Voters Against Trump campaign, and the final major ad push ahead of the November election.

“Many swing voters are going to be making up their minds in the coming weeks, and it’s critical that we let them know what’s at stake,” said Sarah Longwell, Executive Director of Republican Voters Against Trump. “You can repudiate him without renouncing your deeply held conservative values. We’re here to help establish a permission structure for right-leaning swing voters to do the right thing and vote their conscience.”

Arizona is largely viewed as a toss-up in the presidential race, though recent polls show that Trump has reversed some of the gains that Harris made after she entered the race — replacing President Joe Biden, who ended his candidacy after a disastrous debate performance — in late July. According to the polling average compiled by FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes polls, Trump holds a slim one-percentage-point lead over Harris in Arizona.

For Harris to win in Arizona, and in other battleground states, she must attract support from disaffected Republicans who don’t like Trump. Democrats in the Grand Canyon State did exactly that in 2022, when they won most of the statewide contests, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state and U.S. Senate.

That was also key in 2020, when Biden upset Trump and won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes by only about 11,000 votes.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.

Arizona’s top Republican legislators have joined Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador – along with attorneys general and other officials from 20 U.S. states – in accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics of possible “violations of state consumer protection statutes” over its standards and recommendations for gender dysphoria care for children.

In a letter sent by Labrador on Tuesday, Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma and the attorneys general requested information detailing the academy’s evidence for its current recommendations for puberty blockers for gender dysphoria-diagnosed youth.

“Most concerning, AAP claims that the use of puberty blockers on children is safe and reversible,” Labrador’s office said in a press release. “This assertion is not grounded in evidence and therefore may run afoul of consumer protection laws in most states.”

Children with gender dysphoria “need and deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality,” Labrador said in the release.

“It is shameful the most basic tenet of medicine – do no harm – has been abandoned by professional associations when politically pressured,” Labrador said. “These organizations are sacrificing the health and well-being of children with medically unproven treatments that leave a wake of permanent damage.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization made up of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, voted in August to reaffirm its 2018 policy statement on gender-affirming care and authorized development of an expanded set of guidance for pediatricians.

The organization could not immediately be reached for comment. But at the organization’s August 2024 leadership conference in Itasca, Illinois, American Academy of Pediatrics CEO and Executive Vice President Mark Del Monte emphasized that the organization is confident that the principles presented in the original policy statement, “Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents,” remain in the best interest of children, according to an Aug. 4 press release from the academy.

The decision to authorize a systematic review reflects the academy’s board’s concerns about restrictions to access to health care with bans on gender-affirming care in more than 20 states, according to the Aug. 4 release.

In 2022, Arizona enacted a law barring trans youth from obtaining gender reassignment surgery. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey touted the law as protecting trans minors from irreversible procedures that could affect their future ability to have children. Proponents of the law framed it as a reiteration of international standards of care for transgender kids, while critics said it codified old standards — which changed later that year and are adjusted periodically — and forces doctors to choose between following the law and providing best medical care practices for their patients.

What is in the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for gender-affirming care?

As outlined in its policy statement, the academy encourages pediatricians to use a gender-affirmative care model when treating young patients. The model encourages pediatricians to recognize that:

• transgender identities and diverse gender expressions do not constitute a mental disorder;
• variations in gender identity and expression are normal aspects of human diversity, and binary definitions of gender do not always reflect emerging gender identities;
• gender identity evolves as an interplay of biology, development, socialization, and culture; and
• if a mental health issue exists, it most often stems from stigma and negative experiences rather than being intrinsic to the child.

“Many medical interventions can be offered to youth who identify as (transgender and gender diverse) and their families,” the academy notes in its policy statement. “The decision of whether and when to initiate gender-affirmative treatment is personal and involves careful consideration of risks, benefits, and other factors unique to each patient and family.”

However, Labrador said treatments that suppress hormones or use puberty blockers may have adverse health effects to the patient, including interfering with neurocognitive development, compromising bone density and interfering with normal puberty experiences. He said the treatments may cause “harm particularly egregious” to children who “grow out” of the condition by the time they are adults.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics in its policy statement says that research shows that children who assert their transgender identity before puberty and who “know their gender as clearly and as consistently” as their cisgender peers benefit from the same level of social acceptance as those peers.

“More robust and current research suggests that, rather than focusing on who a child will become, valuing them for who they are, even at a young age, fosters secure attachment and resilience, not only for the child but also for the whole family,” the academy wrote in its policy statement.

But Labrador and the other state officials say they want more information on how the academy has come to those conclusions, especially when it comes to puberty blockers.

“The letter requests detailed information from the AAP regarding its communications and practices related to youth gender dysphoria and substantiation of the academy’s claims regarding the safety and reversibility of puberty blockers,” the attorney general’s press release says.

Other states joining Idaho and Arizona in sending the letter to the academy include officials from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

A version of this story was originally published by the Idaho Capital Sun, a sister publication of the Arizona Mirror and a member of the States Newsroom network of local news outlets.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.

Riding high on the recently completed Democratic National Convention and the enthusiasm that has propelled her to a lead in the national polls, Vice President Kamala Harris is launching a campaign to mobilize Generation Z voters on 150 campuses across battleground states.

And Arizona is the tip of the spear in that effort, with the Harris campaign focusing its “Back-to-School” campaign kick-off in the Grand Canyon State, with U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost — the first Gen Z member of Congress — set to join students Wednesday at the University of Arizona in Tucson and then at Arizona State University in Tempe.

“Young voters know the impact that this election will have on their futures, from the freedom to make our own health care decisions to addressing the climate crisis to being safe from gun violence to our ability to find a home and pay the rent,” Frost, a Democrat from Florida, said in a written statement. “The only way we will win is by organizing everywhere and it’s up to us to turn the energy we’re seeing into action to win in November. I am confident that we will see record youth turnout this November.”

Long a group that rarely voted, and did so in small numbers when it did, young voters in Arizona have become a political force to be reckoned with since 2018, when more than one in every four voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot — more than two-and-a-half times the turnout among young voters in 2014 — setting a record for a midterm election.

In 2020, 51% of under-30 voters headed to the polls, an 18-percentage-point increase over 2016’s youth turnout. And 2022 proved that the 2018 figures weren’t a fluke, with 25% of younger Arizona voters showing up at the polls.

And because younger voters increasingly side with Democrats and back liberal policies — in 1998, young voters were evenly split between the GOP and Democrats, but in 2022 backed Democrats 63%-35% — higher turnout among young voters means more wins for Democrats.

‘Let’s fight for it’: Harris vows to chart a new way forward, defeat Trump

In a swing state increasingly defined by close races, every vote counts. Katie Hobbs won the 2022 gubernatorial race by about 17,000 votes out of nearly 2.6 million ballots cast. The race for attorney general was even narrower, with Kris Mayes winning by just 280 votes.

Not only are younger voters far more sympathetic to Democratic candidates, but Gen Z voters are more politically engaged than Millennials were before them. Earlier this year, ASU’s Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy polled Gen Z Arizonans and found that two-thirds say they plan to vote in November.

About half of the Gen Z voters in that poll said they weren’t registered with a political party, and Jackie Salit, the center’s co-director and a professor in ASU’s School of Public Affairs, said that a potential uptick in Gen Z voter turnout this year would come from independents — driven in part by ballot measures to protect abortion rights and do away with partisan primaries.

“Particularly striking was the finding that independent Gen Z voters who did not vote in 2022 were more likely than their Democrat and Republican counterparts to say that ballot initiatives on abortion rights, open primaries and funding for public education would motivate them to vote,” Salit said in June when a report on the poll was released.

While Joe Biden’s reelection campaign was struggling to generate enthusiasm among many core blocs in the Democratic Party, including younger voters, Harris’ emergence as the party’s nominee has been met with a groundswell of excitement and turned things around for the party seemingly overnight. Among the enthusiastic backers of Harris are 17 leading youth organizing groups.

The Harris campaign told the Arizona Mirror that young voters delivered critical margins to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and maintain Democratic control of the Senate in 2022, and Gen Z will be essential in defeating Trump this year in Arizona and other battleground states.

A recent poll of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, and Wisconsin by Voters of Tomorrow found that Harris has surpassed Trump by 32 points among 18- to 29-years-olds.

The campaign has tapped Frost, who was previously the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control advocacy group, to be its chief surrogate with college-age voters. Frost will join Keep AZ Blue Fellow Grady Campbell and young and student voters at the University of Arizona and then head north to Tempe, where he’ll join Young Democrats of Arizona President Armonee Jackson, Keep AZ Blue co-founder Francesca Martin, ASU Young Dems President Isabel Hiserodt, and others.

The Harris campaign’s “Back-to-School” push will feature on-campus advertising and social media outreach, including an ad with Harris speaking directly to students about what’s at stake in this election, from gun reform to reproductive rights. There also will be campus organizing and a college barnstorming tour over the next several weeks, as deadlines approach for registering new voters in many states.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.

Democrats in Arizona have been crystal clear about their goal in 2024: follow up on the successes of 2022, when they won all of the top statewide offices, and wrest control of the legislature in the Grand Canyon State away from Republicans for the first time in nearly 60 years.

And nothing about how the July 30 primary elections went does anything to dampen the enthusiasm they can complete their takeover of Arizona’s government in November and usher in a new era of Democratic rule in a state that has gone from ruby red to deep purple in the last generation.

“It was another banner night for MAGA weirdos up and down the ballot, which can only mean good things for Democrats,” said Marilyn Rodriguez, a progressive lobbyist and campaign veteran. “We have to work hard, but this is gettable.”

Following Katie Hobbs’ election as governor in 2022, state and national Democrats set their sights on giving her a legislature she can partner with instead of fight with endlessly. To that end, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a group committed to winning Democratic majorities in statehouses across the country, swiftly announced that Arizona was among the handful of its top targets in 2024.

The DLCC has said it will spend $60 million in legislative races across the nation, and with Arizona making up one-third of the legislative chambers the group hopes to flip from Republican control to Democratic majorities, there’s little doubt that millions of those dollars will end up flooding into the state.

After four years with both legislative chambers closely divided — Republicans control the state House of Representatives 31-29 and the Senate 16-14 — Democrats worked early to set the stage to give them the best chance to win the two seats they need in each chamber to take the reins away from the GOP.

They devised a roadmap for how to do that, then set about recruiting candidates in their targeted districts. They’ve helped those candidates organize their campaigns, canvass neighborhoods and win local support.

Perhaps most importantly, they’ve helped them raise money — tons of it, as every Democratic candidate in target legislative districts ended the second quarter with more money raised than their GOP opponents. And since many of those Republicans had primary challengers of their own, Democrats in some races have hit the general election home stretch with significant financial advantages.

Republicans have been working for months to raise the money to compete with the well-funded effort from Democrats, though few expect they’ll be able to go dollar-for-dollar against the challengers. As of mid-July, when the most recent campaign finance reports were due, political committees lining up to boost Democratic legislative candidates had almost $2 million in the bank, while PACs created to defend the GOP majorities were sitting just shy of $1.4 million on hand.

That monetary advantage will be needed for Democrats to succeed, though some Republicans are breathing a bit easier this week than they had been before the primary election.

“It was probably as good a primary as Republicans could have hoped for,” said Barrett Marson, a Republican campaign advisor.

Chief among the reasons that Marson and other Republicans are feeling better about holding the legislative majority is Vince Leach’s victory over incumbent Sen. Justine Wadsack in a Tucson-area district.

Wadsack won election in the new district in 2022 — defeating Leach, who was a sitting senator — and has spent her time in office generating drama and bouncing from one controversy to the next. Among other things, she appeared on an antisemitic talk show, called 9/11 an “inside job,” tried to criminalize homelessness and picked a fight with the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind that threatened to end its operations. Most recently, she claimed political persecution after she was pulled over for going 71 mph in a 35 mph zone back in March and refused to sign a traffic citation for criminal speeding.

Leach is conservative, but built his legislative career on being a business-first Republican. Marson said his politics and policy positions will, in many cases, be identical to Wadsack’s, but he’s a markedly better candidate in what should be a safe Republican district because he doesn’t have “the crazy baggage” that Wadsack does.

“Wadsack is so bad, she put it in play,” he said. “But that district now is probably unwinnable for Democrats.”

And that, said GOP campaign consultant and pollster Paul Bentz, makes it much more difficult for Democrats to win a Senate majority because there are just two viable seats they can pick up, and they must win both to take control of the Senate.

Democratic efforts, Bentz said, are likely to shift heavily to Legislative District 2, where Sen. Shawnna Bolick is facing a challenge from state Rep. Judy Schwiebert, and Legislative District 13, which sees Sen. J.D. Mesnard defending his seat from retired teacher Sharon Winters.

“Those will be the two toughest races in the entire state,” Marson said.

For their part, Democrats aren’t convinced that Leach’s victory over Wadsack changes their outlook in the district.

“You’re just replacing a woman conspiracy theorist with an old man conspiracy theorist,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not sure that’s the win Republicans think it is.”

Marcela Taracena, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the local arm of the national DLCC, said there’s no daylight between Leach and Wadsack on the policies they support — policies that aren’t popular in the district and that Democratic nominee John McClean opposes.

“Leach has a long track record, but he’s been much better at hiding it because he’s quieter,” she said.

While Wadsack’s controversies and record was high-profile, Taracena said it’s the job of Democrats to let voters know how Leach is cut from the same political cloth. To that end, the ADLCC has already sought to paint him as “extreme” and “corrupt,” pointing to his many votes as a legislator to restrict abortion, cut school funding and gut health care coverage for Arizonans.

And even in a more general sense, Democrats see a lot of good news in Tuesday’s primary election. The MAGA purge of more moderate Republicans continued unabated, said Ben Scheel, a political strategist for Opportunity Arizona, a liberal advocacy organization. He said victories by Sen. Wendy Rogers and Mark Finchem over pragmatic GOP lawmakers who sometimes bucked their party shows that the Republican Party continues to “get more extreme.”

And there were clear signs of weakness among some of the Republican candidates that Scheel said would carry over to the general election. For instance, Democrat Stephanie Simacek got more votes in the primary election in the House race for a north Phoenix district than either of the GOP candidates, even though Republicans have a registration advantage. And in Tucson, Rep. Rachel Jones won, but not by much.

“You see a more clear path to victory now,” Scheel said. “I feel very bullish for Democrats taking one or both chambers because Republicans continue to put up candidates who are not strong.”

Bolstering the Democrats’ efforts are a rejuvenated base following Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race and Kamala Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket. That has translated into more resources and more volunteers for Democrats at all levels.

And abortion, which has proven to be a winning issue for Democrats across the country, will be on the ballot in Arizona in the form of a constitutional amendment to guarantee reproductive rights, and will be a centerpiece of virtually every Democrat’s campaign up and down the ballot.

“Enthusiasm is up,” said Samantha Paisley, the DLCC’s national press secretary. “The stakes couldn’t be higher. Every issue that voters actually care about is decided by the state legislatures.”

Whether the Democratic quest to capture the Arizona Legislature succeeds will hinge on whether they can convince voters the GOP candidates are too extreme.

“The Republicans are just weird and out of the mainstream,” Rodriguez said. “Every Democrat on the ticket is basically running against Trump and his weirdos. They’re all the same.”

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.

A police organization has rescinded its endorsement of a Republican state senator after she accused police of politically targeting her after issuing her a speeding ticket for driving more than 70 miles per hour on a road with a 35 mile per hour speed limit.

Justine Wadsack was pulled over on Friday, March 15, just after 10 p.m., after being observed “traveling at a high rate of speed” heading east on Speedway near North Euclid Avenue by a Tucson police officer on DUI patrol, according to a TPD report.

According to Tucson police, Wadsack was clocked going more than twice the legal limit: 71 mph in a 35 mph zone.

She told the officer she was “racing home” because the battery on her Tesla was low.

Wadsack was not cited at the time, as her immediate introduction of herself as “Senator Justine Wadsack” resulted in the officer contacting his superiors, according to TucsonSentinel.com, which first reported on Wadsack’s citation.

Exceeding the posted speed limit by more than 20 mph is chargeable as a class 3 misdemeanor in Arizona, with possible punishments of up to 30 days in jail and up to a year of probation, up to a $500 fine, and three points charged against a driver’s license.

When Tucson police contacted her in June about the citation, following the end of the legislative session, Wadsack refused to meet and sign the citation.

“She demanded to speak with the chief of police and said that she was under ‘political persecution.’ She also said that I was being aggressive and got upset when I called her Mrs. Wadsack and not Senator Wadsack. She then abruptly ended the conversation and hung up the phone,” an officer’s report on the follow-up conversation with Wadsack said.

In a subsequent social media post, Wadsack claimed that she is “investigating the TPD” and accused the department of acting in a “highly irregular” manner.

On Tuesday, the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police announced that it had retracted its endorsement of Wadsack in her primary election against Vince Leach, a former state senator who she defeated in 2022.

“While Sen. Wadsack has been a consistent supporter of public safety in her official capacity, this incident and her decision to publicly impugning the motives of police personnel is conduct unbecoming an elected representative,” Paul Sheldon, the president of the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, said in a written statement. “Our endorsement committee reviewed this situation carefully, then voted to retract this endorsement. Like everyone else accused of a traffic violation, Sen. Wadsack is innocent until proven guilty. But attacking police personnel for doing their jobs is simply unacceptable.”

Wadsack did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Republican hopeful Neil DeSanti is mounting his fourth campaign for elected office since 2020, hoping to secure a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives for his north Phoenix legislative district. He’s voted in 16 state and local elections since registering to vote in 2012.

There’s just one problem: He appears to be ineligible to vote under state law, which raises serious questions about the many ballots he has cast and his candidacy.

Under Arizona law, DeSanti lost his right to vote in 2010, when he pleaded guilty to felony endangerment related to a 2004 drunk driving arrest. Less than three months later, DeSanti pleaded guilty to felony possession of burglary tools after he and his cousin were caught stealing a metal ramp from a commercial yard near downtown Phoenix.

While people with only one felony will automatically have their rights restored once their sentence is completed and any required restitution is paid, people like DeSanti who have two or more felonies must petition the court to get their rights restored.

There is no record DeSanti ever asked a judge to do that.

He did return to Maricopa County Superior Court court to successfully seek an early end to his probation — he was sentenced to three years probation in December 2010 but the court granted him early release in December 2012 — but there is no indication he ever sought to restore his rights.

“It does not appear that Mr. DeSanti submitted an Application for Restoration of Rights (Civil and/or Firearm) in either case,” Jessica Fotinos, the general counsel for the Clerk of the Maricopa County Superior Court, told the Arizona Mirror.

‘I must have them restored’

In a March 27 interview, DeSanti said he had not applied to have a judge restore his rights. He initially said he thought that process happened automatically seven years after his conviction, then said he was “under the impression” that his plea agreements said his rights would be restored once he completed his sentence.

There is no language in either plea agreement indicating that.

DeSanti insisted that his rights must be restored because he has been registered to vote for years and has cast ballots in many elections.

“I must have them restored, because I can vote and possess a firearm,” he told the Mirror. “I’ve voted numerous times.”

About five weeks before the court approved ending his probation, DeSanti registered to vote in Maricopa County. In doing so, he declared that he is “NOT a convicted FELON or my civil rights are restored.” He repeatedly made that attestation when he updated his voter registration four times after initially registering in November 2012, the latest in October 2021.

Neither of those are true for DeSanti, meaning he can’t run for elected office in Arizona. State law requires candidates for the legislature be “ qualified electors,” which includes being registered to vote.

While Maricopa County elections officials routinely check existing voters against lists of newly convicted felons and remove them from the rolls, they do not compare new registrants against previous lists of convicted felons. Nor do they have any way to check and see which registrants have had their rights restored.

Instead, they rely on the state law requiring people who register to vote to provide accurate information, including about their felony history and any rights restoration. Voters to fail to do so can face a class 6 felony charge for false voter registration.

DeSanti could be exposed to that crime, and he could be charged with a class 5 felony for each of the 16 elections he’s voted in, despite not being entitled to. The standard prison sentence for a class 6 felony is one year, and one-and-a-half years for a class 5 felony.

Even though he says he believes he was allowed to vote, DeSanti could still be guilty of illegally voting if his rights were never restored. Earlier this month, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Kyle Anthony Clark, who was indicted for false registration and illegal voting in 2021, and concluded that prosecutors do not need to prove that a person knew they were voting illegally, just that they were ineligible to vote and did so anyway.

Since 2021, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has prosecuted at least six people with prior felony convictions for registering to vote and casting ballots without first having their rights restored.

For instance, Kenneth Russell Nelson registered to vote in 2018 and cast ballots in the 2018 primary and general elections, then again in the 2020 general election. But he had never had his rights restored following a 2007 drunk driving felony. Nelson was indicted for four felonies: one count of false registration and three counts of illegal voting. He pleaded guilty to attempted illegal voting.

Likewise, a San Tan Valley man named Roberto Garcia pleaded guilty to illegally voting in 2020 because he registered to vote and cast a ballot without having his rights restored.

DeSanti told the Mirror he wasn’t too worried about the legality of his voter registration or the elections he’s voted in, and said he figured someone would have brought it up in 2022, when his candidacy was successfully challenged in court by an opponent.

Who is Neil DeSanti?

Public records on DeSanti’s voter history show he voted in the primary and general elections in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022. He also cast ballots in Phoenix and Scottsdale municipal elections in 2013, 2015, 2016 2017, 2019 and 2023.

He was appointed to be a precinct committeeman in 2023.

In 2020, he mounted a campaign for the Corporation Commission, but failed to qualify for the ballot, so he shifted his sights to Phoenix mayor, though he never submitted signatures to appear on the ballot.

In 2022, DeSanti hoped to be elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in District 2, which includes large portions of north Phoenix. He turned in nominating petitions, but was removed from the ballot after their validity was challenged in court and he fell short of the required number of valid petition signatures.

This year, DeSanti is again running for the House in District 2.

DeSanti, a loyal Donald Trump supporter, has been active on social media decrying the “election fraud” that he says led to Trump’s 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.

“We the people, stormed the Arizona State Capital to show the evidence collected from The Voter registration list and elsewhere that dead People, nonresidential votes and illegal immigrants Votes where (sic) counted and shouldn’t! #ArizonaFirst #AuditTheVote #desantiforaz,” he wrote on Twitter on Dec. 31, 2020.

He praised the work of We the People AZ Alliance, an election denial group at the center of many of the election fraud conspiracy theories in Arizona. In the spring and summer of 2021, as the Arizona Senate was conducting a partisan “audit” of the 2020 election in Maricopa County — an effort that was spurred on by Trump’s campaign in its quixotic pursuit of evidence of election fraud — DeSanti regularly took to social media to tout the latest news.

He frequently posted videos from right-wing conspiracy theorists, including Liz Harris, who would go on to be elected to the Arizona Legislature in 2022 — and then expelled in 2023 after she lied to ethics investigators about the role she played in encouraging testimony baselessly accusing state officials and her fellow lawmakers of crimes.

After the 2022 election, DeSanti wrote on Facebook that Election Day problems with ballot printers and tabulators at voting centers in Maricopa County were “undeniable evidence that tampering accrued (sic) with this election by the McCain & Democrat collaborators.”

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

The attorney for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign who was a leading architect of the plan to organize fake presidential electors in Arizona and other battleground states that the twice-impeached president lost is set to meet with prosecutors in the Grand Canyon State on Monday.

Attorney General Kris Mayes earlier this year launched an investigation into the 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely claimed to be the electors, even though the election was certified showing Joe Biden won by about 10,000 votes.

Former Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who pleaded guilty last month to election interference crimes in Georgia as part of a sprawling racketeering case there, has been cooperating with prosecutors in states with fake Trump electors, including Nevada and Georgia.

Chesebro wrote memos detailing how Republicans in those states could — and should — organize electors to cast votes for Trump, even though he lost the elections.

CNN reported Friday morning that Chesebro was set to meet with Mayes’ investigators to discuss his and the Trump campaign’s role in the fake elector scheme, confirming reporting by a Washington Post reporter earlier in the week that Chesebro would be meeting with Arizona prosecutors on Dec. 11.

Arizona’s fake electors included the then-chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward, and two state legislators, Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern.

Kern on Thursday told Arizona’s Family that Mayes is a “joke” and he won’t cooperate with the investigation.

“There’s no such thing as fake electors,” Kern told the television station. “If it was illegal, we wouldn’t have done it.”

Hoffman has been silent about his role in the fake electors scheme, repeatedly refusing to say how the 11 people knew to convene at the AZGOP’s Phoenix headquarters in December 2020. On at least two occasions, he walked away from reporters who were asking him about his role.