Arizona Legislature: The coming week

This week is shaping up to be a relatively quiet one (with "relatively" being the key word here).

While there are a few colorful bills and strike-everything amendments (strikers) going before committee this week, the most interesting lege-related events will be after hours.

Some of the interesting bills/strikers:

A striker to SB1316, bringing back payday loans.  Previously discussed here. (House Ways and Means, Monday)

SB1241, barring the use of photo radar traffic enforcement systems on any state highway

HB2048, mandating that ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) give updates of driver's license records to the SOS (Arizona Secretary of State) (address changes, etc.) for comparison to voter registration records (Senate Transportation, Tuesday)

HB2133, making "agricultural aircraft" (aka - "cropdusters") exempt from sales tax (known in AZ as "transaction privilege tax", TPT), retroactive to 1985 (Senate Appropriations, Tuesday)

HB2030, letting retired police officers carry a gun in a bar (Senate Public Safety, Military, and Technology, Wednesday)

HB2224, barring any "encumberances" on private transactions involving firearms (Senate Government, Wednesday)

HB2402, micromanaging county and municipal bond elections


However interesting some of these bills may be, the most interesting stuff will take place away from the Capitol.

On Monday, many members of the lege will gather at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility for their annual "Cast and Blast" event.  No word if they will be hosting Dick Cheney as a guest speaker...

On Tuesday, many of the same members (and more) will gather at Donovan's Steak and Chop House on Camelback Road in Phoenix for the annual ALEC Membership Drive and Dinner.  As was documented in the past, the meeting is a schmoozefest for lobbyists and unethical public officials to meet.



The rest -
Notes:
All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interested in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.
Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.
Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.
All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Committee schedule (mostly just copied and pasted from the lege's website.  The agenda links work, as of this writing, but may not later in the week if an agenda is modified in some way):

Agenda Date	Committee	Time	Room	Agenda
03/03/16	Agriculture, Water and Lands	10:00 A.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
03/03/16	Government and Higher Education	9:00 A.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/03/16	Military Affairs and Public Safety	9:00 A.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/02/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
03/02/16	Commerce	9:30 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 1	Click Here
03/02/16	Education	2:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
03/02/16	Federalism and States' Rights	NOT MEETING	HHR 5	Click Here
03/02/16	Insurance	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
03/02/16	Judiciary	10:00 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 3	Click Here
03/01/16	Banking and Financial Services	2:00 P.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
03/01/16	Health	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
03/01/16	Rural and Economic Development	2:00 P.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
03/01/16	Transportation and Infrastructure	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
02/29/16	Children and Family Affairs	2:00 P.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
02/29/16	County and Municipal Affairs	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
02/29/16	Elections	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
02/29/16	Energy, Environment and Natural Resources	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
02/29/16	Rules	UPON RECESS OR ADJOURNMENT OF FLOOR	HHR 4	Click Here
02/29/16	Ways and Means	2:00 P.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
02/25/16	Agriculture, Water and Lands	9:00 A.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
Agenda Date	Committee	Time	Room	Agenda
03/03/16	Education	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/03/16	Judiciary	9:30 A.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/02/16	Finance	9:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/02/16	Financial Institutions	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/02/16	Government	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/02/16	Health and Human Services	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/02/16	Public Safety, Military and Technology	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
03/01/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
03/01/16	Federalism, Mandates and Fiscal Responsibility	9:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
03/01/16	Transportation	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
02/29/16	Commerce and Workforce Development	1:45 P.M. OR UPON ADJ OF FLOOR (NOTE TIME CHANGE)	SHR 1	Click Here
02/29/16	Natural Resources	10:00 A.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
02/29/16	Rules	1:00 P.M.	Caucus Room 1	Click Here
02/29/16	State Debt and Budget Reform	NOT MEETING*	SHR 3	Click Here
02/29/16	Water and Energy	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here

Floor Calendars:
The House has four  COW (Committee of the Whole) calendars (here, here, here, and here) and a Third Read calendar scheduled for Monday.
The Senate has both a COW calendar and a Third Read (final approval) calendar posted for Monday.
There will be floor calendars later in the week, but those are generally posted the day before, or even the day of, consideration.

The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here.

Payday loans, like toenail fungus, don't go away unless a thorough cleaning job is done

...And, apparently, Arizona's legislators don't think that Arizona's voters were thorough, or clear, enough in 2008 when we soundly rejected their payday loan legalization proposal in that year's election.

Payday loans were short term cash loans with usurious interest rates (400%!).  The loophole in Arizona law that exempted them from the 36% cap for an annual interest rate expired in 2010, and while there have been periodic efforts by legislators to revive them, those have all failed.

Well, Arizona's legislators are nothing if not persistent.

On Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee will hear a striker to SB1316.

If enacted, it would bring back payday loans by another name, "flexible credit loans".  Such "loans" would carry an annual interest rate of "only" 204%.

The bill is being pimped pushed by an astroturf (fake grassroots, but it doesn't look like that they are putting much effort into hiding who is behind this) group named "Arizona Financial Choice Association' (AFCA) -

From my FB feed, 2/27/2016

A quick check of records at the Arizona Corporation Commission turns up this -

A little quick research into the two listed "directors" turned up strong ties to the legal loansharking industry -

In other words, the FB ad pushed by this group is partially correct - people *should* contact their legislators about this bill.

And let them know that we are watching.

Matt Salmon announces his retirement from Congress: Let the political battle royal begin

On Thursday, Congressman Matt Salmon announced that he will not be seeking reelection to Congress in 2016.

This wasn't a sudden move - senior Salmon staffers have been looking for, and finding, soft landing spots for  weeks now, and his announcement was followed quickly by an endorsement of Andy Biggs, president of the Arizona State Senate, to be his replacement.

While the Biggs endorsement was (presumably) an attempt to preempt a primary battle for the safe R seat, there are a number of Rs looking at the race, or at least being speculated about for the race.

From AZCentral.com, written by Rebekah L. Sanders -

The open seat left by retiring U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., is going to be tempting bait to a school of East Valley Republicans.

When a safely Republican district without an incumbent  came open in Arizona in 2010, that race attracted 10 GOP candidates.

{snip}

The first name on most insiders' lips for Salmon's seat is his former rival, Kirk Adams, who now serves as Gov. Doug Ducey's right-hand man. Adams lost to Salmon in the 5th District primary in 2012 and formerly was leader of the Arizona House.

{snip}


Republicans who say they'll have to think about entering the race include:

• State Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, who said he could scrap a bid for state House Speaker.
• State Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa: "I am seriously considering it. ... I'm going to really have to pray."
• Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Chucri: "Have I been getting calls? Yes. ... I'll have to look at it and talk to my family."
• Aviation businessman and former congressional candidate Travis Grantham: "I'm eyeing that very closely. And also the state House."
• Former GoDaddy executive Christine Jones, who ran for governor in 2014: Salmon's retirement "was the talk of the town (at Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane's state of the city luncheon) today. ... I hadn't had this on my radar at all."
• Mesa Councilman Alex Finter: "My phone's been ringing off the hook. At this point I'm not ruling anything out."

A number of others could run, but they didn't respond to calls from The Arizona Republic. They include:

• Former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, a 2014 gubernatorial candidate
• Maricopa County Supervisor Denny Barney
• Outgoing Gilbert Mayor John Lewis 
• State Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa
• Former Senate President Russell Pearce

Other names being bandied about (some from Sanders' Twitter feed, some from other Twitter feeds, some from people I've spoken to), and my quick takes on them:

Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny - very conservative, but suffers from occasional bouts of sanity, which will disqualify him in any R primary

Former member of Congress Ben Quayle - Hey, he bought his way past low expectations in 2010, it could work again

Perennial candidate Vernon Parker - like Christine Jones, above, he hasn't won anything yet, but he has enough connections, money, and ambition that his name will always be bandied about

Businessman Stephen Viramontes - because in the R worldview, "has money" = "qualified for public office"

Former candidate for governor Gary Tupper (2006) - every large field of candidates needs at least one "Who's that?" candidate

Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema - nominally a Democrat but widely viewed as an aspiring R.  And has been known to at least consider district shopping

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio - because, you know, he throws his name into the discussion for every race



Note: as of this writing, the FEC's website doesn't show CD5 filings by any of the people listed above.

Note2: Travis Grantham, mentioned in the article above, has opened an exploratory committee for a run for the AZ House from LD12 (committee ID - 201600462).  With Biggs running for Congress, LD12 House member Warren Petersen will be running for Biggs' Senate seat, opening up a House slot.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

This is shaping up to be a relatively quiet week at the lege, with the emphasis on "relatively".  Whenever the Arizona Legislature is in session, "colorful" is guaranteed to be on the docket, and this week is no exception.

However, this is one of those weeks where the really juicy stuff will pop up later, in the forms of amended agendas or strikers.

Some of the matters going before committees this week:

- HB2130 and HB2131, banning plastic bag bans and mandatory local recycling programs.  Last year's legislature passed these and they were signed into law by Doug Ducey.  However, they were incorporated into one bill and were the subject of a lawsuit to block them on the grounds that the bill violated the "single subject rule".  The Rs in the lege are now trying to get around that by passed the bans again, only as part of individual bills.  The problem?  Most (all?) of the municipalities that have enacted, or may ever enact, plastic bag bans and/or local recycling programs are "charter" cities, and a court has ruled that the lege's ability to interfere with wholly local matters in charter cities (like the conduct of elections) is very limited. (Senate Water and Energy, Monday)

- HB2023, making the collection of early ballots a class 6 felony (Senate Government, Wednesday)

- HB2152, removing the prohibition for consumer lenders from paying for referrals for consumer loan business (Senate Financial Institutions, Wednesday)

- SCM1007, a love letter to the feds, urging the EPA to stop advocating for cleaner air (House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources, Monday)

However, the most intriguing item of the week looks to be on Thursday's agenda for the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.

If you attend, forget the popcorn.

Bring body armor.



The rest -

Notes:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do.  If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interested in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

All House committee agendas can be found here.

All Senate committee agendas can be found here.

Committee schedule (mostly just copied and pasted from the lege's website.  The agenda links work, as of this writing, but may not later in the week if an agenda is modified in some way):

 

Senate Agendas
Date	Committee	Time	Room	Agenda
02/25/16	Education	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
02/25/16	Judiciary	10:00 A.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
02/24/16	Finance	9:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
02/24/16	Financial Institutions	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
02/24/16	Government	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
02/24/16	Health and Human Services	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
02/24/16	Public Safety, Military and Technology	9:00 A.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
02/23/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	SHR 109	Click Here
02/23/16	Federalism, Mandates and Fiscal Responsibility	NOT MEETING*	SHR 3	Click Here
02/23/16	Transportation	2:00 P.M.	SHR 1	Click Here
02/22/16	Commerce and Workforce Development	NOT MEETING*	SHR 1	Click Here
02/22/16	Natural Resources	NOT MEETING*	SHR 109	Click Here
02/22/16	Rules	1:00 P.M.	Caucus Room 1	Click Here
02/22/16	State Debt and Budget Reform	10:00 A.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
02/22/16	Water and Energy	2:00 P.M.	SHR 3	Click Here
House Agendas
Date	Committee	Time	Room	Agenda
02/25/16	Agriculture, Water and Lands	9:00 A.M.	HHR 3	Click Here
02/25/16	Government and Higher Education	9:00 A.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
02/25/16	Military Affairs and Public Safety	9:00 A.M. (NOTE TIME CHANGE)	HHR 5	Click Here
02/24/16	Appropriations	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
02/24/16	Commerce	CANCELLED - 9:30 A.M. NOTE TIME CHANGE	HHR 1	Click Here
02/24/16	Education	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
02/24/16	Federalism and States' Rights	NOT MEETING	HHR 5	Click Here
02/24/16	Insurance	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
02/24/16	Judiciary	NOT MEETING	HHR 3	Click Here
02/23/16	Banking and Financial Services	NOT MEETING	HHR 3	Click Here
02/23/16	Health	2:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
02/23/16	Rural and Economic Development	NOT MEETING	HHR 5	Click Here
02/23/16	Transportation and Infrastructure	2:00 P.M.	HHR 1	Click Here
02/22/16	Children and Family Affairs	2:00 P.M.	HHR 5	Click Here
02/22/16	County and Municipal Affairs	2:00 P.M. OR UPON ADJOURNMENT OF FLOOR ( NOTE TIME	HHR 4	Click Here
02/22/16	Elections	NOT MEETING	HHR 4	Click Here
02/22/16	Energy, Environment and Natural Resources	2:00 P.M. or Upon Adjournment of Floor	HHR 1	Click Here
02/22/16	Rules	1:00 P.M.	HHR 4	Click Here
02/22/16	Ways and Means	NOT MEETING	HHR 3	Click Here

Floor Calendars:

The House has a COW (Committee of the Whole) calendar scheduled for Monday.

The Senate has both a COW calendar and a Third Read (final approval) calendar posted for Monday.

There will be floor calendars later in the week, but those are generally posted the day before, or even the day of, consideration.

The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here.

Committees and candidates update

While there may be (OK, probably "will be" :) ) some last minute entries, we are now in late February.  Most of Arizona's races are defined.

The most contentious race on the Democratic side of the ballot is shaping up to be the race for the three legislative seats in LD26 (most of Tempe and the much of west Mesa).

Current legislators Andrew Sherwood and Juan Mendez are both going for the state senate slot from the district.  Sherwood was appointed to the slot to fill the vacancy in the Senate left by the resignation of Ed Ableser; Mendez is currently a member of the House.

On the House side of the ballot there, there are six declared candidates (and a few rumored ones, too) for the two seats -

Isela Blanc, who I don't know much about, but looks to be part of the Tempe Community Council

Michael Martinez, president of the Maricopa County Young Democrats

Steve Muratore, blogger (withdrawn)

Cameron Oberlin, who I don't know much about

Celeste Plumlee, current state representative (appointed to fill the vacancy created when Sherwood moved to Senate)

Athena Salman, with First Things First, and a community activist in Tempe

David Lucier, a prominent community advocate for Tempe and for veterans


On the Republican side, and I freely concede that my insight into R internal politics can be a little murky, but it looks like that the legislative races in LD5 (most of western Arizona north of Yuma) may be the most contentious.

The last elected state senator there, Kelli Ward, resigned to spend her time mounting a primary challenge to John McCain, who is up for reelection to the US Senate in 2016.  Susan Donahue was appointed in her place, but she has already stated that she will not seek election to a full term in the Senate.

Running for the R nomination for LD5 Senate:

Sonny Borrelli, a colorful current state representative

Ron Gould, a colorful former state senator


Running for the R nomination for LD5 House:

Regina Cobb, current state representative

Sam Medrano, former member of the city council in Bullhead City

Paul Mosley, a financial advisor in Lake Havasu City



...In Maricopa County, the R nomination for county sheriff will either be the most boring race in the state (if Joe Arpaio is on the ballot) or the wildest race in the state (if Arpaio doesn't, or can't, run).  There are currently four Republicans with open committees for the job, and more may yet enter (depending on what Arpaio does).

Candidates with open committees for the R nomination:

Roger Baldwin

Mike Bodak

Marsha Hill

Dan Saban


...Still at the Maricopa County level, the most "interesting" candidate is one who is running for a seat on the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District.

That's a relatively low profile race at a relatively low profile level (except for the race for sheriff, which will garner national attention, regardless of who's running).

The candidate in question in one Jonathan Gelbart.

To the best of my knowledge, he's not a "bay at the moon" Republican (who tend to get most of the attention in Arizona politics).

Nope, the "interesting" part of his candidacy is listed right on his campaign paperwork -

He's not just a "manager" for BASIS, one of the largest charter school operators in the country, he's the manager of new school development for them.

Insert your own fox/hen house cliche here...


...In Scottsdale, Bob Littlefield, a former member of the Scottsdale City Council, has formed a committee to challenge incumbent mayor Jim Lane.

Littlefield is a staunch Republican, as is Lane.

While Littlefield and I (and for that matter, Lane and I) will disagree on pretty much every issue that Republicans and Democrats will disagree on, Littlefield genuinely cares for Scottsdale.

I can't honestly say that about Lane.


...At the federal level -

- Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has finally filed his paperwork to be a candidate for Congress.  Three months late and listing the wrong district.  But that paperwork has been filed, and corrected, so he is a candidate in CD1.


- A putatively Independent candidate has filed to run against Raul Grijalva for the seat that Grijalva holds, and that candidate has what may be the best committee name of this, or any other cycle -

"Eat Bacon For Congress".


- Perennial candidate Wendy Rogers (LD17 State Senate in 2010, CD9 in 2012 and 2014) has filed to run for the R nomination in CD1.


- Levi Tappan of Page has formed a committee for a run for the D nomination in CD1 in 2016.  Which is interesting, because when he won a seat on the Page City Council in 2013, he was a Libertarian. 

That's an interesting two-step, and an unusual one. Transitions from Green to Democrat, Democrat to Republican, or Republican to Libertarian (or vice-versa in each case) are rare, but not unheard of.  Skipping a step, like going from Green to R, is something that I've never heard of.

"Libertarian to Democrat" is something else that is so rare as to be unheard of. 


- Ross Groen, formerly the campaign manager for Mark Brnovich's campaign for Arizona Attorney General and a former Congressional aide to Trent Franks, has filed for the R nomination in CD9.


After this, unless the situation merits (i.e. - one or more "big names" get into a race, or a campaign gets crazy, like with a candidate mooning an audience [and in the "Year of Trump", that's not out of the realm of possibility]), this will be the last committees update post until ballots are set.

Wednesday at the Capitol: Silly Season arrives at the Arizona Legislature

Friday is the last day for bills at the Arizona Legislature to be heard in committee in their originating chamber.

Bills that haven't been approved in committee by Friday are essentially dead.  There are ways around this rule - bills can still be heard by the respective chambers' Appropriations committee, a bill that passed committee can be amended and changed into an entirely different bill (striker), or, depending on the nature of the bill, the language can be rolled into a budget reconciliation bill (BRB) and be enacted as part of the overall budget.

In other words, it's *possible* for a bill not heard in committee by the end of the week to keep moving (and inevitably, every session, some do), but for most bills, it's "do or die" time.

Which explains some of the items on committee agendas for Wednesday:

Senate Health and Human Services, 2 p.m., SHR1 - SB1324, restricting medication-induced abortions; SB1474, barring nearly all research on fetal tissue or embryos if the fetal tissue or embryos are from abortions; also barring all transfers, of any kind, of fetal tissue or embryos resulting from abortions...OK there are many clauses in this bill, all looking to be based the now-disproved videos that smeared Planned Parenthood (and resulted in criminal charges for the creator of the videos)

Senate Public Safety, Military, and Technology, 9 a.m., SHR1 - a striker to SB1520, barring municipalities from implementing photo radar unless it is specifically approved by voters

House Judiciary, 9:30 a.m., HHR3 - HB2300, barring the state or any of its political subdivisions from doing anything to aid in the enforcement of a federal law, policy, etc. pertaining to firearms


In other words, Wednesday will be a good day to visit the legislature...

Rep. Lela Alston (LD24) discusses HB 2401