Stay ConnectedHelping you keep up with what matters in Arizona’s political news. Each week we interview politicians, public figures or journalists to break down one local issue and how it affects your life in Arizona.
Coming to you every Wednesday morning, The Gaggle is hosted by The Arizona Republic’s national political reporters Ron Hansen and Stephanie Murray, and is produced by Amanda Luberto.
On June 19th, 2022, President Joe Biden, by executive order, made this day a federal holiday. Juneteenth, as it’s commonly called, marks the day when U.S. troops entered Galveston, Texas in 1865 to free people who were still suffering enslavement. This is despite the fact that slavery had officially ended two and a half years prior.
The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree.
Juneteenth is considered America's second independence day.
In honor of that, we here on The Gaggle present to you a reading of the 14th Amendment. This amendment grants citizenship to all persons either born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people. The amendment also provides equal protection under law.
Here to read the Amendment are staff and reporters of The Arizona Republic.
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President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck a deal to stave off a default by the federal government.
It passed on a bipartisan basis, with more Democrats voting for it than Republicans, and now some of the most conservative Republicans in the House, many of them in the House Freedom Caucus, are making McCarthy pay for it.
These conservative hardliners, including Representative Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., upset Republican plans to pass bills intended to prevent Biden from outlawing gas stoves. Then they forced the chamber to cancel any votes the next day, leading Republican leadership to cancel more days of votes.
The battle isn't across the aisle, rather between the right and the far right.
This week on The Gaggle, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Ron Hansen is joined by Matthew Green to discuss where this stalemate could lead and why the Freedom Caucus is disproportionately Arizonan.
Green is a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is the author of “Legislative Hardball: The House Freedom Caucus and the Power of Threat-Making in Congress.”
What political topics would you like to hear on The Gaggle? We want to hear from you! Send us a note via email here or leave us a voicemail at 602-444-0804.
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Congress narrowly averted an unprecedented federal default after House Republicans and President Joe Biden reached a deal on trimming government spending over the next two years.
To make it stick, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy received more votes from House Democrats than from his fellow Republicans on a deal few on either side really liked.
It was all part of the reality of a nine-seat GOP majority in the House with a party that has deep divisions.
Voters will reassess that majority next year. With two Arizona seats expected to be among the more competitive races in the country, voters here could play a role in deciding which party controls the House of Representatives.
In this episode, we'll hear about the candidates who have so far tossed their hats into the ring.
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Redistricting is the most important story in America that no one cares about. These political maps shape the power of your vote. Today, The Gaggle sits down the three independent commissioners who have overseen the redrawing of district lines. We hear how it's done and what they would change.
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Throughout 2021, Arizona's dubious review of Maricopa County's 2020 ballots, all 2.1 million of them, was a national spectacle.
Long before that effort concluded that President Joe Biden won by slightly more votes than the certified results showed, it was obvious that Doug Logan and his Cyber Ninjas team were partisans with no experience conducting what Republicans billed as a forensic audit.
Over the nearly two years since then, litigation from the Arizona Republic and others have led to the public release of 39,000 messages involving Logan, the one-time CEO of the now defunct Cyber Ninjas.
Yet despite the immense volume of now public information, we're still missing 3,000 documents from Logan. This in spite of a court order to release them. It's not clear why Logan continues to hold on to these documents. But one thing is certain the state Senate's "audit" was anything but professional or fair.
In this episode of The Gaggle, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl unpack what information Arizonans do have from Dough Logan's documents, what is still missing, and why it matters for voters moving forward. Republic reporter Ryan Randazzo examined documents along with Larry Moore, the founder of the Boston-based election technology company Clear Ballot Group.
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Title 42, the pandemic-era law that authorized the quick expulsion of migrants, has expired.
In its place, the U.S. government is implementing enforcement policies meant to reduce the number of people reaching the U.S.-Mexico border while also creating opportunities for asylum seekers to gain protection within the country.
The transition to the new policies is expected to create significant challenges as border communities, the federal agencies and the non-governmental organizations that cater to the migrant population adapt to the changes that went into effect May 12.
What is next for migrants seeking shelter in the U.S.? And how will Congress handle this political hot potato moving forward?
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Gov. Katie Hobbs signed Arizona's $17.8 billion state budget into law in record time. Among the winners are Republican pet projects such as money for the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo, funding to repair a bridge in Lake Havasu City, and Democratic wins such as more reliable funding for public schools and investment in more services for the unhoused.
But not everyone is happy with the budget or how much of it was constructed behind closed doors.
In this bonus episode of The Gaggle, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by reporters Ray Stern and Stacey Barchenger to hash out the wins and losses in this year's state budget.
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The Arizona Legislature is considering a plan to allow Maricopa County to hold an election on a transportation tax, but it has been a bumpy ride.
Supporters say extending a half-cent tax for transportation for another 20 years will help the county’s transportation network keep pace with continued economic and population growth.
The plan would build out Phoenix's freeway network, improve miles of major streets and expand public transit services.
But the transit provisions of what is called the Proposition 400 extension have Republican lawmakers tapping the brakes, complicating efforts to get the necessary votes to put the issue on the ballot in November 2024.
This week on The Gaggle, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by Arizona State University's Mark Roseland.
He’s a professor at the School of Community Resources and Development at ASU and is a senior sustainability scientist with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU. Roseland explains why good transportation makes a good city.
In the second half of the podcast, the hosts break down the politics of Proposition 400.
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Tempe votes on May 16 to either welcome or boot out the Coyotes hockey team and accompanying entertainment complex.
Proponents of the development claim that the sport and entertainment district will be a huge win for Tempe including generating nearly 7000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.
Opponents claim that the city should put its energy into fixing present issues like creating more affordable housing and tackling the opioid crisis.
If the back and forth between critics and proponents isn’t enough, there’s the ongoing legal battle after Phoenix sued Tempe, alleging the apartments proposed for the project would create a safety hazard with low-flying aircraft at Sky Harbor International Airport.
Today, host Mary Jo Pitzl is joined by The Republic’s Sam Kmack, who covers Tempe and Scottsdale, and Taylor Seely, who covers Phoenix but is a resident of Tempe and recently moderated a debate between the Vote Yes and Vote No groups on the Coyotes area issue.
You can see the full video of the debate here.
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On March 21, the Apache Stronghold’s case against the proposed Resolution Copper mine was reopened. The battle is over a proposed copper mine in Oak Flat, just southeast of metro Phoenix.
The land sits on top of one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper reserves in the world. The mine, if allowed to go forward, would produce an estimated 40 billion pounds of copper over the next four decades. This is according to Rio Tinto, a global mining corporation of which Resolution Copper is a subsidiary.
But the land is sacred to the San Carlos Apache tribe. Tribal members say that Oak Flat is a physical cornerstone of their religious beliefs.
In this episode of The Gaggle, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl sit down with indigenous affairs and environmental reporter Debra Krol to discuss the fate of Oak Flat and Resolution Copper, and how this could end up being one of the biggest religious cases in recent decades.
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