And the first ones out of the gate are...

The 2025 legislative session has started; sitting legislators are "pre-filing" before the session starts (there are limits on the number of measures that any legislator can introduce *during* the session.  Before the session?  No limits.

Anyway, I digress.

Next year's HB2001 was introduced by Republican Rep. Matt Gress and is about the temporary licensing of college graduates in behavioral health.  I'm not going to take a position on this one (there may be a problematic clause or two in it) but this is the sort of topic our legislators should be discussing.

Om the other hand, next year's SB1001, introduced by Republican Sen J.D. Mesnard is a bunch of proposed restrictions on voters, particularly on early voters.  Its clauses amend 17 pages of AZ law, and most of the clauses are garbage.

IMO, a couple of the sections stand out in terms of  his express of hatred of voters -

From the bill (the blue text indicates Mesnard's proposed changes):

As is, this section would encourage county recorders and/or elections directors to decline to do their jobs and to impose restrictions on others (early voters) if they don't do their jobs.

Maybe this clause would be more palatable if it was amended to include a provision where county recorders and election directors who did such a thing (or, more to the point, *failed* to do such a thing) were deemed to have committed malfeasance in office and were removed from that office and permanently barred from any sort of public employment.

Of course, that wouldn't make another part more palatable.

Also from the bill:

With this language, Mesnard proposes to end both dropping off an early ballot at a voting location other than in the voter's own precinct and that early ballots that were dropped off per Mesnard's language would have to be delivered to the county recorder by 7 p.m. on election day.

As polling place don't close until 7 p.m., that could be a problem.

Well, at least Mesnard has demonstrated his giving spirit, perhaps in commemoration of Thanksgiving.

Of course, he's demonstrating that spirit by delivering a turkey to the people of Arizona.

Sen. JD Mesnard: probably not going to win the Legislative Loon Award, but he's trying

Former House Speaker JD Mesnard is in the state senate now, and while he may have switched chambers, he's still bad news.  He may not win the Legislative Loon Award (he faces LOTS of competition there), but he's doing his level best to undermine AZ, both in revenues and democracy.  He's already proposed

SCR1011, asking the voters to reduce the amount of revenue available to school districts by taking large swaths of property and exempting such property from property taxes.  He has proposed other measures affecting property taxes, but since I'm not certain of their net effect on revenue, they're not included here

SB1094, invalidating signatures on initiative and referendum petitions unless a specific condition is met

SB1096,  with a couple of very specific exceptions, taking all "non-custodial federal monies" from the recipients and giving the funds to the legislature to appropriate any way it wants to.  This one is proposed in nearly every session of the legislature.

SCR1012, asking the voters to expand the membership of the House of Representatives from 60 to 90.  Each representative would be elected from a separate district, while each senate district would contain three house districts.  As written, if approved by the voters, this change wouldn't take effect until 2033.