Primary results are in and general election contests are set*

* = mostly

Curiously, the biggest beneficiaries of the Republican primary may be the Democratic candidates.

The victors in the R primary races were the most extreme candidates in those races.

Will that make it easy for the Ds?  Nope, not even close.

Will that make is easIER?  I think so, but that comes with a big caveat.  Weird things can happen in a general election, even without the cheating the Cheeto and his acolytes plan to bring to bear (I'm still trying to wrap my head around Tom Horne defeating Kathy Hoffman in 2022.  He may be the worst human being in Arizona politics.)

From the website of the Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS), the unofficial results -

For AZGovernor - Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs will face Republican Andy Biggs, who defeated David Schweikert.

For AZSOS - Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes will face Republican Alexander Kolodin, who defeated Gina Swoboda.

For AZAG - Democratic incumbent Kris Mayes will face Republican Warren Petersen, who defeated Rodney Glassman.

For AZTreasurer - Democrat Nick Mansour will face Republican Elijah Norton, who defeated Katherine Haley.

For AZSuperintendent of Public Instruction - Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, who defeated Brett Newby, will face Republican Kimberly Yee, who defeated the aforementioned Tom Horne.  Yee v. Horne is still close enough to flip; I don't believe that it will, though.

For AZCorporation Commission - Democrats Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill will face two of the three Republicans who ran, Kevin Thompson, Ralph Heap, and Nick Myers.  The two current frontrunners are Thompson and Heap. However, while Thompson's spot atop the R ticket seems solid, Heap and Myers could switch spots as they are separated by less than 12,000 votes.

For the CD1 seat in Congress, Democrat Amish Shah, who defeated Marlene Galan-Woods, will face Jay Feely, who defeated Joe Chaplik.

For the CD5 seat in Congress, Democrat Elizabeth Lee, who defeated Chris James, will face Mark Lamb, who defeated Daniel Keenan.

The biggest upset of the night possibly was a down ballot/Maricopa County-only race.  

From the unofficial Maricopa County results -

"JP" = Justice of the Peace.

Former legislator Cheuvront was an incumbent JP in a downtown Phoenix justice precinct.

Justice precincts are crafted to meet two standards -

1. Workload balance.

2. Single party districts.

As such, there are two basic ways for a JP slot to change.- retirement or a primary challenge.

Cheuvront ran into the second one.

Q2 2026 Reports Are In! Statewide

This will cover certain state-level candidates

Some commentary:

Norton is still trying to buy the R nomination for state treasurer - 

R candidate for Arizona treasurer Elijah Norton has just over $300K in cash on hand (COH), which gives him a big advantage in that area over R rival Katherine Haley, who has just over $81K in COH.

Problem?

He's loaned his own campaign...wait for it...$2.75.million over the election cycle (he's repaid $50K).

And that may be undercounting his loans as that is based on his own reporting, and there is some conflict there -

To put his loan amount into some perspective, while he's loaned his own committee over $2.7 million, he's raised under $300 thousand from donors other than himself.

With friends like these...

It's not unheard-of for various industrial concerns to try to influence primary elections in AZ, often through PACs and/or membership organizations.

Usually, though, they're not this brazen or sloppy about it.

Note: While my ballot has already been returned and I did NOT vote for either, I do not blame either candidates for the things that will be called out.

On Wednesday, we received some political literature in the mail.  Not an unusual thing in an even-numbered year this close to an election.

At first glance, the lit wasn't unusual - it expressed support for a couple of candidates in LD8 legislative races by saying some nice things about them.

However, upon closer examination, there were a few problems with the lit.

Ummm....some basic copy editing could have found and fixed this.

Then...

Misspelling a candidate's name?

Bush league, at best.  Actually, here in AZ, we might refer to it as "tumbleweed league." 😀

Could have been resolved by reading the candidates' W-2s (or 1099s) or if that's too much work, I don't know, reading THE OTHER FREAKIN' SIDE OF THE LIT!

But neither of those is worse the outright lie on the piece.

"Not For Sale."

Sounds good...except that it's utterly contradicted by the "Paid for by..." statement on the other side.

R LD27 Senate primary debate

On 6/22, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (AZCCEC) held a "debate" between the two Republican candidates for the R nomination for the State Senate seat in LD27, incumbent Kevin Payne and his challenger, Anthony Kern.

All of AZCCEC's debates are here.

From the website of the AZSOS -

Quotes were used around "debate" because Payne declined to participate and turned it into a Q and A session with Kern.

With either outcome, the R nominee will be a lousy human being.

Payne is already known for his dismissive demeanor toward his Democratic colleagues, often not even acknowledging their existence when encountering one.

Kern can best be described as "fact-dismissive."

At the 40:14 mark of the video, Kern claimed the accused killer of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, was a trans Democrat.

At the 41:02 mark of the video, moderator/interviewer T.J. L'Heureux of the Arizona Agenda advised him that wasn't so.

Kern shrugged off reality.

Earlier, he also called Robinson "deranged."  He may be that, I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist who is qualified to make such a diagnosis.  Kern may want to think twice about categorizing anyone, though.

From AZMirror, written by Jerod Macdonald-Evoy, dated 5/5/2021 -

Where was Anthony Kern on Jan. 6?

Newly reviewed footage by Arizona Mirror raises new questions about former Republican lawmaker Anthony Kern’s activities around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as the lawmaker continues to participate in a recount of Maricopa County’s ballots from the 2020 general election. 

Kern has continually insisted that he did not breach the Capitol and no footage or other evidence suggested otherwise. Photos show Kern on the front steps. 

However, footage reviewed by the Mirror shows that Kern was present at other parts of the Capitol breached by protesters. 

Kern, who was an election denier in 2021, doubles down on that today - 

At the 17:40 mark, Kern stated "...What we saw in 2020 was absolutely ridiculous...I still believe that election was absolutely stolen and I will never sway from that because there's enough out there so we do need to get our election and President Trump..."

He never bothered to provide any evidence.

At 18:08, he stated "Elections have been stolen for the past 40 years."

Ummmm about that...

From Ballotpedia -

It's been over 34 years since Democrats controlled the State Senate and over 60 years since the Ds controlled the State House (control of the Senate was split in 2001/2002).

Should someone bother to inform Kern that if "elections have been stolen", it hasn't been by Ds?

Or will he just shrug that off, too?

While this isn't my district and none of these folks will be on my ballot, in an interesting way, watching this did help me with my choice in the CD1 Democratic primary.

Early on, at the 9:29 mark, Kern was asked if there was a Democratic member of the legislature he could/had worked with.

He named one, and that person is one of the candidates running in the CD1 Democratic primary.

If Kern likes a person, I won't vote for that person.

 

The GOP's Dirty Tricks Brigade has a multifaceted game

Rs like to claim they're in favor of free markets, but in the marketplace of ideas, they know their ideas are morally and ethically bankrupt, so they've resorted to deception.

Got a couple of pieces of campaign lit in the mail on Saturday (the mail was delivered very late Saturday, so I didn't pick it up until Sunday).

Not only is Republican operative Risa Lombardo running as a Green Party candidate in an apparent effort to siphon votes from Democratic incumbent Governor Katie Hobbs, she's fronting an effort to reduce the number of voters registered as Democrats.  From the mail -

The website she's urging people to go to. vote.gov, is a federal website controlled by Cheeto (or more probably, one of his sub-grifters).

The Arizona Green Party has disavowed her.

From their website -

Lombardo is the only candidate for Governor on the ballot for the Green Party primary, but the Green Party has thrown its support behind a write-in candidate, Carlos Melendez.  It's a pattern that repeats itself in the contest for Secretary of State, except there, the write-in that they're supporting is Jon Ralston.

From the website of the AZ SOS -

It's already starting: The Koch network is targeting AZ

Found this hanging on my door on Tuesday -

The "Paid For By" line was on both sides -

The Libre Initiative, from SourceWatch -

The Libre Initiative

The Libre Initiative is a latino front group organized as a project of Charles Koch's Americans for Prosperity. According to the group's website, "LIBRE's mission is to increase economic freedom and prosperity by promoting free enterprise, responsibility and a more constitutionally limited government." 

Neither Americans for Prosperity (AFP) nor The Libre Initiative have filed reports with the Arizona Secretary of State (AZ SOS) for 2026, but that's not a surprise - this activity won't appear on a report until Q2 reports are filed in July.

AZ is consider to be a "swing" state, so we'll see a lot of outside poured into the state in 2026, and not just from the Koch network - any R-favoring group with even a cent to spend will use it here in an effort to elect Rs and keep the grift going.

Election challenges are (mostly) resolved but some are still ongoing

I do have one question (though I believe I already know the answer).

First, the challenges:

From the Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS) (emphasis added by me) -

The "biggest" name to withdraw from a race after the candidate's nominating petitions were challenged was Eric Descheenie, former state legislator, who withdrew from the CD2 Democratic primary.

That sets up a general election contest of Jonathan Nez (now unopposed in the Democratic primary) and incumbent Eli Crane (unopposed in the Republican primary).

On a totally unrelated note, Arizona's "Sore Loser" law seems to preclude a candidate whose petitions were challenged from jumping races and running as a write-in candidate in another race. 

From ARS 16-312 -

F. Except as provided in section 16-343, subsection E, a candidate may not file pursuant to this section if any of the following applies:

1. For a candidate in the general election, the candidate ran in the immediately preceding primary election and failed to be nominated to the office sought in the current election.

2. For a candidate in the general election, the candidate filed a nomination petition for the immediately preceding primary election for the office sought and failed to provide a sufficient number of valid petition signatures as prescribed by section 16-322.

3. For a candidate in the primary election, the candidate filed a nomination petition for the current primary election for the office sought and failed to provide a sufficient number of valid petition signatures as prescribed by section 16-322, withdrew from the primary election after a challenge was filed or was removed from or otherwise determined by court order to be ineligible for the primary election ballot.

4. For a candidate in the general election, the candidate filed a nomination petition for nomination other than by primary election for the office sought and failed to provide a sufficient number of valid petition signatures as prescribed by section 16-341.

G. A person who files a nomination paper pursuant to this section for the office of president of the United States shall designate in writing to the secretary of state at the time of filing the name of the candidate's vice presidential running mate, the names of presidential electors who will represent that candidate and a statement signed by the vice presidential running mate and designated presidential electors that indicates their consent to be designated.  A nomination paper for each presidential elector designated shall be filed with the candidate's nomination paper. The number of presidential electors shall equal the number of United States senators and representatives in Congress from this state.

My question is this: Does this section of Arizona law apply to candidates for Congress?

I ask because someone was a Green Party candidate in CD1 whose petitions were challenged and withdrew from the race is now running as a write-in candidate in CD3.

From the AZ SOS (again, emphasis added by me)

I'm guessing that the "Sore Loser" law doesn't apply to candidates for federal office, but as I'm not an attorney, I don't really know.

It's an election year. Candidate challenges are inevitable

One challenge has already been decided by a court (dismissed), and six candidates have withdrawn.  Per the AZSOS, 18 cases are pending (caveat: some of those cases may yet be consolidated and at least one involves a candidate who has withdrawn as the result of another case)

From the Arizona Secretary of State -

So far, the "biggest" name to withdraw is Christopher Ajluni, the No Labels candidate in CD1.  I expect that to change as the challenge process grinds on.

Schweikert bashes Biggs, and the Maricopa County Republicans remind people

Including me, because I generally avoid paying attention to the internal R machinations.

From Arizona's Family, written by staff and Dennis Welch -

Phoenix-area GOP reignites controversy in Republican governor’s race

A controversy that Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Andy Biggs hoped would fade has returned to the headlines after his own party stepped in.

About a month ago, Biggs found himself the target of a political attack. His Republican opponent in the governor’s race, Rep. David Schweikert, accused him of palling around with racists and anti-Semites. Biggs denied it and moved on.

But it was his own Republican Party that brought it back.

Also from Arizona's Family -

I don't claim to know how this all will play out, but two things seem obvious -

1. Observers should get out their popcorn, as this promises to be entertaining.

2. They should get out their seatbelts, too, as 2026 promises to be a bumpy ride.

This all does beg one question -

What is Schweikert thinking?  

Accusing Biggs of being a white supremacist won't exactly change the minds of the voters in an R primary, aka the people he needs to reach.  It seems to help Biggs more than it does Schweikert.

Online sigs v. in person sigs

This list was pulled from a .pdf that's available on the website of the Arizona Secretary of State.

Caveats:

"Arizona Independent Party" is now "No Labels".

I added the percentage (%) column.

Legislative races were not examined.  I'll wait until all challenges are dispositioned (one already has been)

Prediction: My guess is that while online nominating sigs are almost unchallengeable (at least according to Arizona Agenda), the Democratic candidates who lead their primary opponents in paper sigs will have a leg up in those primaries.  Assuming those sigs are legitimate, that means that doors were knocked and voters talked to (I make no such prediction in the primary contests for other parties.  With them, I'm usually wrong. ☺)

Gina Swoboda, former chair of the AZGOP, causes tumult in not one, but *two* races

...and she did that by switching the office that she's seeking.

Note: I received a head's up on this from watching AZ Family's Politics Unplugged (YouTube link)

She WAS a candidate in Congressional District 1 (CD1), one of the many people looking to replace David Schweikert, who's running for Governor this year.

For a long time, she and Joe Chaplik, a Republican state legislator from that area, were the biggest "names" in R primary in CD1.

Then former NFL placekicker Jay Feely went district shopping and jumped out of the CD5 contest, vying to replace Andy Biggs (like Schweikert, he's also running for Governor) and jumped into the CD1 contest.

So Swoboda looked at the race for Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS).

By filing a statement of interest, she can collect nominating signatures.

While the panelists on Politics Unplugged weren't sure she that she actually intends to enter the AZSOS race, but I think she does - she formed a committee for a run, so she can spend money in order to campaign for the office.

She does have one major problem - nominating sigs.  The signatures needed in order to run for for a statewide office (as AZSOS is) are significantly higher than they are for a CD, and the ones she has collect so far cannot be transferred.

From the sig requirements page -

She has approximately seven weeks to collect almost 7600 sigs (they're due by 3/23), and that will get her to just the minimum number required.  It won't be easy.

And if she turns in just the minimum, that will almost certainly result in one of the other AZSOS candidates filing a challenge.

My guesstimate is that she will need to submit nearly 11K sigs in order to withstand any challenges.

Is the popcorn concession at the office of the Arizona Secretary of State available?  😃

An open letter to Arizona governor Katie Hobbs

Dear Governor Hobbs.

Arizona Democrats have a long history of fielding candidates who are R-lite in general election races.

Arizona Democrats have a long history of losing those races.

Your consultants and advisers may tell you otherwise, but don't be R-lite.

People who face a choice between R and R-lite candidates will almost always vote for the authentic thing.

On January 20, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes observed that Arizona's "stand your ground" laws  and gun culture could help turn encounters between Arizonans and ICE agents violent.

On January 29, Arizona's Senate Republicans enthusiastically clutched their pearls and approved SR1036, calling on Mayes to retract her comments and resign her position.

Also on January 29, you emulated, but went milder than them and called for her to retract her comments.

She shouldn't retract a damn thing - she wasn't wrong.

Also, while there may be Rs worthy of being emulated, AZ Senate Rs aren't among them - they're profoundly lousy public servants and wastes of DNA as human beings.

By going R-lite, you are all but guaranteeing that the person who emerges from the R primary for governor will be victorious in the general election.

Right now, I think that will be Andy Biggs.  Not because I think that he's their strongest candidate electorally, but because he's the worst human being among their "Big Three" (the other two aren't decent human beings, but Biggs is worse).

And R voters have a track record of choosing the lousiest people in their primaries.

Me

Q4 Reports Are In!

This will cover certain state-level candidates; federal candidate reports were due today and are not yet available on the FEC's website.

Some commentary:

R candidate for Arizona treasurer Elijah Norton has just under $2.1 million in cash on hand (COH), which gives him a big advantage in that area over D candidate Nick Mansour, who has just over $245 thousand in COH.

Problem?

He's loaned his own campaign...wait for it...$2.1 million over the election cycle.

It sure looks like he is trying to buy the office.

Another one who isn't doing well in terms of fundraising is incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R-Bigot).  Other than what he gave to himself, he raised just over $41K in the 4th quarter of 2025.

Note: Rodney Glassman (R-Perennial Candidate) loaned himself a million dollars, but did so over a year ago, so it's not included above.

AZ political predictions 2026

 This is completely tongue-in-cheek (except for the parts that come true).  And mostly lege-oriented. 😃

January -

At the opening of the 2026 session of the Arizona State Legislature, Governor Katie Hobbs delivers her annual state of the state address.  When she talks about putting some guardrails on the state's school voucher program, the entire R caucus stands, turns around, drops trou, and moons her.

She responds by pulling out a straw and pelting them with spitballs made up of wads of paper from cut-up Culture War/GOP War on Society.

The GOPers express umbrage at being pelted with spitballs.

Hobbs responds by telling them that spitballs are plan A.

Plan B is a 20 gauge with rock salt loads.

The Rs opine that spitballs are OK with them.

February -

Michael Bidwill, owner of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, announces that the team is so bad that it needs a bigger change than firing a head coach and, as he doesn't want to become Jerry Jones, he will step aside from his day-to-day duties there.

Since that will leave a large gap in his daily schedule, he's going to run for state legislature.

As a Republican (of course).

March -

Rep. Gail Griffin (R-LD19) introduces a bill to give all of Arizona's water and other natural resources to various corporations.

It passes the House on a party line vote.

On another party line vote, they pass a budget that eliminates all taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and pays for their largesse by defunding public education, public health, hell, "public" anything.

Governor Hobbs sends it back to the legislature.  After vetoing it, loudly and publicly.

April -

Candidates for 2026 turn in their nominating signatures...except for termed-out State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a putative candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI).  She announces that she was always more interested in the Lieutenant Governor's gig than an SPI gig.

Griffin's pro-corporate/anti-Arizonan bill passes the Senate on a party line vote.  Governor Hobbs vetoes it and celebrates that veto with a Snoopy dance.

From Zazzle -

The legislature  is still in session with no budget in sight, so they while away the time by sending Governor Hobbs spitball material for next year's state of the state address.

May - 

The legislature finally passes a state budget that Governor Hobbs can sign and adjourns sine die.  The majority of them don't care about the public as much as they care about getting out of Phoenix and hitting the campaign trail as many of them face primary challenges.

June -

Cheeto makes a campaign appearance in Arizona, speechifying for his endorsees.

He makes his speech all about him and his professed grievances.

His endorsees and other MAGAts genuflect.

July -

Andy Biggs wins the R primary for Arizona Governor and almost immediately and publicly starts pondering who should be his running mate as his Lt. Governor candidate.  The field is quickly narrowed to Kimberly Yee and Mark Finchem.

August -

As his Lt. Gov running mate, Biggs selects...Kari Lake.  She can't win a statewide race, but she has one strength - she may be the one person in AZ politics who is more intensely disliked by those who have met her than Biggs.  Biggs thinks he'll look good by comparison.

September -

Cheeto returns to AZ to stump for R candidates. 

During his speech, he shows his solidarity with the Rs in the AZ legislature/dementia by turning around, dropping trou, and mooning the audience.  

The R candidates and other MAGAts swoon.

October -

Reading the falling poll numbers for R officeholders and candidates, Cheeto and his acolytes do some preliminary blame shifting, complaining about fraud in elections.

November -

An electoral bloodbath takes place, with Rs up and down the ballot getting their butts handed to them.

Cheeto and his acolytes try to annul the elections because they don't like the results.

It doesn't work, with most folks saying "welcome to democracy."

December -

Kari Lake is a party to a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2026 results.

She loses that lawsuit.

Most candidates yawn and start preparing for runs in 2030 (statewide races) or 2028 (county or legislative races).

What a difference a day makes!

Yesterday, I wrote a post listing all of the folks who have expressed an interest in being a candidate for Congress in AZCD1.  That's already changed.

From AZFamily -

Former Cardinals kicker Jay Feely switches congressional districts in Arizona race

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely has switched his congressional campaign from the East Valley to Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, joining a crowded Republican primary in Scottsdale.

The move comes after President Donald Trump endorsed former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Fifth Congressional District last month, sending Feely a message to run in a different district.

I think that Feely is able to utilize the same federal committee that he used for his CD5 run as for his CD1 run.  However, I'm not a lawyer, so I could easily be wrong about that.

If he can, he hasn't updated his committee yet.

From the FEC -

Get your popcorn and shock absorbers out - it's going to be entertaining though bumpy ride

Horse Race time - Chaplik is in the AZCD1 race

News broke this week that Republican state representative Joe Chaplik (LD3) has entered the race the outgoing member of Congress in CD1, David Schweikert.  

Schweikert is running for governor of Arizona.

The person most hurt by his entry into the CD1 race may be Gina Swoboda.  She's the current chair of the AZGOP, and prior to Chaplik's entry, the biggest "name" in the race (quotes used because while they have more notoriety/name recognition than the other candidates, it's limited [not everyone is a political geek like me and know who major party chairs and members of the state legislature are])

The person most helped by his entry into the CD1 race may be one of those low name rec candidates.  If Swoboda and Chaplik spend the primary season launching political haymakers at each other, it may open up a path to victory in that race for one the others.

Also, while nominating signatures are due to be submitted by April 6, 2026, it's still early enough for a well-funded "big name" to enter the race.

Currently 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans have filed a Statement of Interest (SOI) in the race (filed with the Arizona Secretary of State)and/or formed a committee for run with the FEC (one Libertarian has an open committee, but is was formed in 2024 and has been receiving letters about a failure to file reports, so that person may not be running this year).

Below is a list of folks who have filed an SOI and/or formed a committee for a run next year.  In the date section, if no year is specified, the year is 2025.  Also, one date format is month (as text) followed by date.  That's because my spreadsheet program kept changing 3/4 to a fraction.

The vast majority of potential D candidates here filed their paperwork before Scheikert exited the race; the vast majority of Rs did so after.

Not all people who express interest/form a committee will be on a ballot.

I'm not going make any prediction regarding the outcome of race for the R nomination here - my prognosticating ability in R races is almost nonexistent.

As for the D race, no prediction until I see who's actually going to be on the ballot.

Caveat: CD1 in my district.

Ol' Reliable, State Sen. John Kavanagh (R-LD3), is back for yet another legislative session

Of course, that may not be a good thing, as he's getting his hate on for poor people, elections, and public schools.

His SB1002 is all about adding verification requirements to TANF/SNAP fund disbursements and prosecuting certain recipients.

His SB1003 proposes to add one phrase to election law in many places (re: canvasses of elections) - 

"ACKNOWLEDGE WITHOUT PREJUDICE"

His using the phrase "without prejudice" probably doesn't mean "without regard to a candidate's ethnicity, race, gender, or gender preference."

Nope.  Not from one of the Center for Arizona Policy's (CAP) favorite legislators (he's already stated he wishes to propose sending CAP's anti-LGBTQ bathroom measure directly to the voters and bypass Governor Katie Hobbs' veto pen).

My guess is that the phrase is his way of saying "if voters don't the way we want, we'll just say the results don't count."

His SB1004 proposes to further the ESA (school voucher) budget-busting scam by mandating that students whose parents are recipients of ESAs be allowed to participate in/try out for "interscholastic activities"  (aka - sports) in the school district that covers the area of their residence (with certain exceptions).

While I don't believe that people, in this case, students, should be punished for the actions of others, neither should they be rewarded.

Bottom line: the parents of the students decided to weaken public schools in order to enhance their personal financial positions, and their children should not be rewarded for that.

Not allowing them to participate in public school sports (et. al.) doesn't qualify as "punishment" because it doesn't take away anything from them that they already have.

Kavanagh is consistent - my guess is that he'll propose many anti-poor people, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-public education bills...as well as one (or more!) bill that's both pro-police and anti society.

AZ legislature 2026: And the first one out of the gate is...

In normal years, sitting legislators usually don't start "prefiling" measures for an upcoming session until December of the prior year.

This year, however, some members have already started filing measures.

While it is still early (obviously), the measures offer some insight into the content of the coming session.

The 2026 session of the Arizona State Legislature will be loaded with MAGA/anti-democracy/anti-society propaganda.

In the House -

The first "Concurrent Resolution" (intended to bypass a gubernatorial veto and go directly to the voters) is HCR2001, prefiled by Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-LD3) and co-sponsored by a rogues' gallery of extremist Rs on 11/15.  Among other things, it would serve to greatly reduce mail-in voting.  One HCR has been filed thus far.

The first "Memorial" (aka - a love letter to Congress, asking them to do something in particular about a specific topic) is HM2001 prefiled by Rep. Khyl Powell (R-LD14) on 11/17.  It asks Congress to withdraw the United States from the UN.  Other HMs from Powell seek to go after the International Monetary Fund, the Bureau of Industry and Security, and the US-Mexico-Canada agreement   Four HMs have been filed thus far.

The first "Bill" (a proposed change to AZ law) is HB2001, prefiled by Rep. Selina Bliss (R-LD1) on 11/17.  It proposes to all but eliminate early voting.  20 HBs have been filed thus far.

There is also some "sneaky" language in the HB2001 -

I expect that if bill fails or otherwise doesn't move forward, this particular language [removal] will be inserted into another bill.

In the Senate -

The first Concurrent Resolution is SCR1001, prefiled by Sen. Shawnna Bolick on 11/15.  It looks to be a duplicate of the previously mentioned HCR2001.  One SCR has been filed thus far.

As of this writing, no Memorials have been filed in the Senate.

The first Bill is SB1001, prefiled by Sen. Frank Carroll on 11/17.  It proposes -

That's it; that's the entire bill.

Note: DES doesn't have a specific program by that name, though if the bill moves forward, it could be amended to include a specific name.

One SB has been filed thus far.

In other words, get ready for a bumpy ride when the lege returns to Phoenix.

That sound you hear is shoes dropping in multiple CDs

...Expect more "names" to enter these races (and more)...

- the former sheriff of Pinal County, Mark Lamb, has filed a Statement of Interest (SOI) with the AZSOS for a run at replacing Andy Biggs in CD5.

...as was widely expected, the current chair of the AZGOP, Gina Swoboda has throw her hat in the CD1 race to replace David Schweikert - she's formed a committee with the FEC -

Both Biggs and Schweikert are running for AZ Governor.

Arizona Mirror has stories up on Lamb and Swoboda.

Q3 Reports Are In! Redux

This covers covers state level candidates only, and then only those candidates that I've deemed as having a legit chance of winning their race or being "interesting". If a reader wants to know the numbers for a candidate not included here, please let me know in a comment.

David Schweikert is listed here, but he entered the Republican primary for AZ Governor outside of Q3, so he had nothing to report.  His Q4 fundraising should be illuminating.

Elijah Norton's (R - AZ Treasurer) robust COH number in spite of raising no funds in this quarter is due to a large loan he made to own campaign in a previous quarter.

Alexander Kolodin (R - AZ SOS) loaned his own campaign $52K during the quarter but paid back $2K during the quarter, so the debt is $50K.

[Edit on 10/19]

Mea Culpa - I made a typo on Rodney Glassman's COH number, as in "I forgot a digit".

His actual COH total is $2,826,323.83, not what I entered in my original post.

I apologize for the error; it was unintentional but regrettable.

[/end edit]