Arizona Morning Roundup, 8-17

Now that you’ve done your morning hike, coffee, and protein-powder intake, it’s time to sit down for a couple of minutes with the Arizona Morning Briefing. Here’s the gorp we consumed over the weekend:

•Prop. 212, the “Protect Education Act” is suddenly in serious ballot jeopardy. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David McDowell has tossed thousands of petition signatures and sided with challengers on a key duplicate-signature issue. The final math is still unresolved because Maricopa and Apache counties hadn’t finished their sample reviews when he ruled. Plaintiffs’ attorney Kory Langhofer told Capitol Times that if those counties come in near the other 13 counties’ validity rate, the initiative would miss qualification by roughly 6,300 signatures. As always, lawyers and jurists are deciding the future of your children’s education based on bureaucratic technicalities.

•Governor Hobbs took the John Giles bus for a test spin over the weekend, unveiling her “Arizona First” ticket  to a variety of local TV outlets. Is that what Lieutenant Governor nominee Giles actually wanted to be doing on a Saturday? Hard to say. But he made his bipartisan bed. Now he has to fluff the pillows.

•But we had most of our intention riveted on this Republic story about the political war currently embroiling the city of Gilbert. The reporter spent a lot of time asking sober questions about ethics codes, Open Meeting Law and transition procedure. Fine. But it misses the comedy that Gilbert currently has two Town Councils: the actual one that includes three members who voters just rejected, and a shadow council of four people who won the election but don’t take office until January.

The shadow council immediately started issuing pronouncements calling for a freeze on “non-critical spending,” new fees/taxes and future bond issuance. Mayor Scott Anderson actually issued an official statement reminding them that their “formal role in policy decisions begins” in January and chastising them for communicating through public statements instead of the “appropriate channels.”

Meanwhile, two of the ousted members, Chuck Bongiovanni and Jim Torgeson, announced they were starting a podcast about local politics, satire, and “civic education”. “No one is off limits. No one, including me,” Torgeson announced, the same week that he filed the paperwork for a 2028 mayoral run. Remember: Parks and Recreation was actually a documentary.