Arizona Morning Briefing, 9-24: Attorney General Debate, DCS Audit, and More

•ATTORNEY GENERAL CANDIDATES DEBATE–Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes and her Republican opponent in this fall’s election, Senate President Warren Petersen, spent much of Wednesday night’s hour-long debate interrupting each other and accusing each other of lying. Mayes defended her roughly four dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration, saying she sues when the federal government harms Arizona or violates the constitution.. Petersen called the litigation political and said he would also challenge unconstitutional action regardless of party.

Mayes again defended her call for a temporary pause on new data centers, citing water, power, heat and neighborhood impacts. Petersen opposed a blanket pause, arguing for local control and saying new facilities should provide or mitigate their own power and water needs. Much more contentiously, Petersen called Mayes’ investigation into the Hobbs/Sunshine Residential matter a “sham” and hit her for not interviewing Hobbs personally. Mayes said party affiliation didn’t affect her prosecutorial decisions and called for stronger laws restricting campaign contributions from state contractors.

Mayes repeatedly attacked Petersen’s relatively short legal career and highlighted more than $600,000 in outside spending connected to BoaVida, a mobile-home operator her office sued. Petersen stressed that the money went to an independent expenditure he doesn’t control. And when moderators pressed Petersen about the 2020 election, he said plainly— twice—“Biden won,” while continuing to argue that  we should take election-security concerns seriously.

•SENATOR, PLEASE–Arizona’s Senate delegation was close to the front page of the Republic today, with Senator Mark Kelly “doubting” AI will kill us, but worrying that it will take our jobs. Meanwhile, Senator Ruben Gallego, who spent much of 2026 deflecting his association with close friend and disgraced Congressman Eric Swallwell, has been visiting such non-Arizona spots as Nevada, Georgia, and Texas, as he continues to take the temperature of a 2028 Presidential run. One random elderly Tucson voter said, of Gallego, “he’s got a little bit of baggage.” It’s going to be a tall hill for the Senator, we think.

•OUR GOOD FRIEND CHINA–KJZZ obtained multiple letters from the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles addressed to Gov. Katie Hobbs protesting Taiwan’s planned Phoenix representative office. One tells Arizona to stop “any gimmicks that harm the friendship” between China and Arizona. The entire Asia-Pacific theater power balance lies in Katie Hobbs’ hands, apparently.

•AUDIT? I HARDLY KNOW IT–While the political season continues to ramble on about Sunshine Residential, a “scandal” that is starting to feel quite hoary to our ears, two new auditor general reports raise genuine concern about child safety. One questions the Department of  Child Services system of protecting children from group-home employees. A second audit says seven county attorney offices haven’t updated their criminal child-abuse/neglect joint-investigation protocols in more than five years. There’s something called the Internet, y’all.

•NOT THE DROIDS YOU’RE LOOKING FOR–Pinal County sheriff Ross Teeple told a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee Wednesday that when he asked Flock whether its equipment used AI, they initially said no. After he confronted the company with contradictory statements, he says they told him. “That wasn’t the AI you were asking about.” Did they think he was asking about ChatGPT memes?

•SHOWDOWN IN CAREFREE–For the first time ever, the town of Carefree is having a runoff for a town council seat. In one corner is retired economist Sharon Smith. In the other is retired special forces veteran and current HUD employee Ted Taylor. The only thing more alliterative would be a third candidate named Roger Rabbit. Taylor, who has a PhD in economics from Rutgers, proposes cutting municipal payroll by as much as 50%, with the town manager’s salary and positions including economic-development director, town engineer and communications manager on the chopping block. Regardless of who wins, they’ll be spectacularly overqualified.

•DAMN FINE PIE–Conservative civic group EZAZ is holding its monthly Pie Club tonight in Phoenix: homemade pie, ice cream from Screamery and conversation about “secure elections,” grassroots activism and what it calls Arizona’s “Golden Age.” Unless they’re planning on bringing back Bill Johnson’s Big Apple, no amount of pie will persuade us.