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.
Critical race theory has become a rallying cry for both Republican politicians and conservative parents alike.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced parents to become more aware of their children’s curriculum as they attended school virtually. While school officials maintain educators are not teaching students that racism is systemic, some parents — and Arizona lawmakers — want to make sure it isn't allowed to happen.
As in-person school board meetings returned, parents packed local school board meetings denouncing critical race theory during public comment. Conservative media and Republican politicians have taken cue from former President Donald Trump as he continues to criticize the study.
But what is critical race theory? When did it begin?
In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen break down the rhetoric surrounding critical race theory.
Joining the show are Jamal K. Donnor, an associate professor at William and Mary School of Education, and Arizona Republic city reporters Joshua Bowling and Renata Cló.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In mid-January this year, Arizona residents over the age of 21 legally were allowed to buy recreational marijuana. Passing Proposition 207, known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, came with the promise of increased economic revenue and new business opportunities.
Since then, new promises have been made. People with pending marijuana charges in most Arizona counties were able to have them dismissed. And those with charges, convictions and arrests on their record can try to get their record expunged.
Arizona has had its recreational marijuana program for about six months. Are those promises being met? In this week's episode of The Gaggle, an Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by business reporter Ryan Randazzo to take a closer look.
Randazzo covers everything from solar energy to sports betting for The Republic. He has covered marijuana news since 2018. He discusses what promises have come to fruition, how much money legal recreational marijuana has made for Arizona, and where that money is going.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Arizona Republic reported that former President Donald Trump and his allies sought to speak directly to members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors after the Nov. 2020 election. The Republic obtained voicemail recordings from Maricopa County through a request under the Arizona Public Records Law, which allows anyone to seek public records from local, county, and state governments.
Listen now to hear these voicemails left by Republican party chair Kelli Ward and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani seeking to speak directly with Republican supervisors.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., isa staunch supporter of passing congressional legislation by bringing both Republicans and Democrats on board, an approach that has taken on increased urgency in the 50-50 split U.S. Senate.
Sinema's first high-profile demonstration of her approach is the framework for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal she recently co-negotiated, and President Joe Biden endorsed. Twenty-one senators, 10 Democrats and 11 Republicans, have also signed on to the tentative framework, which could start soon start making its way through the legislative process.
Sinema has other bipartisan legislative plans in the works. She is working closely with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, on a plan to increase thefederal minimum wage and separately with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that seeks to address the ongoing waves of asylum seekers arriving at the southern border, which have strained the Border Patrol and local communities.
But can Sinema's approach to bipartisanship in an era marked by extreme partisanship help deliver legislation beyond spending money on the nation's roads, bridges and water systems?
In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University.
Binder breaks down Sinema's position in the U.S. Senate to lead negotiations on infrastructure and how she compares to other centrist Democrats.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week is the constitutional deadline to pass the Arizona state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. $2-4 million in surplus and the plan being rejected by 2 Republican members lead to the state budget being decided on at the eleventh-hour.
This week on The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by reporter Mary Jo Pitzl to break down the details of the budget and dissect who it helps most.
Later in the episode, The Gaggle is joined by reporter Rob O'Dell to discuss the failed school vouchers program and deliberate if it could come back again.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., has helped clinch a long-elusive deal on infrastructure. President Joe Biden has endorsed the plan, which was cobbled together over the past weeks behind closed doors by Sinema, and nine other more moderate senators from both parties.
The framework was rolled out Thursday. It calls for massive investments into the nation’s roads and bridges, water systems, internet connectivity, cybersecurity, the buses we use to get across town and get our kids to school. It would clean up lead-filled pipes, upgrade power grids and clean up drinking water for ten million Americans and more than 400,000 schools and child care facilities.
It’s important to note that this framework is not finished legislation. It’s a deal among a segment of the Senate.
Sinema talked with members of Arizona’s press corps after a deal was announced. She maintained on Thursday that the deal she helped broker is evidence that bipartisanship is not dead.
Listen to this bonus episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast for a quick breakdown of what this infrastructure plan would mean for Arizona.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Arizona cliché "it's a dry heat" resonates for a reason. The temperature has been in triple digits for weeks, there are wildfires raging all over the state, the lakes are too low to utilize for the fires, and there's no rain in sight.
It's always hot and dry with little rain in Arizona, but the water crisis is reaching a dire point. Since the turn of the century, Arizona and the West have been in one of the biggest "megadroughts" of the last 1200 years. And it’s being revved up by human caused heating.
This week on The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen talk with Kathy Jacobs to get a sense of what can be done and how bad the situation is really.
Kathy is the director of the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on water policy, climate change adaptation and drought planning among others.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Daniel McCarthy, a successful businessman, made a name for himself in Arizona politics after mounting an unsuccessful U.S. Senate primary run against former Sen. Martha McSally in 2020.
While he lost that race, McCarthy established himself as a voice of a faction of Arizona conservatives who see both major political parties as failing them.
McCarthy viewed his loss to McSally as an early sign of a rigged election, a baseless claim that has wider support after former President Trump has pushed the same narrative following his defeat.
McCarthy is trying to form another political option in Arizona, the Patriot Party, and that has caught the eye of Republicans trying to reshape that party.
During the annual Arizona GOP meeting to elect party leadership he was booed off stage by attendees.
Is McCarthy still a Republican? What does he want for Arizona policy? How will he influence the 2022 elections?
Listen to this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen to hear an unfiltered conversation with McCarthy.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Whether you turn on CNN or Comedy Central, the chances of hearing something about Arizona news on television is high. National news and comedy shows alike are covering the ongoing Maricopa County election audit, political moves from Arizona's senators and more.
This week on The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen talk with Arizona Republic media critic Bill Goodykoontz about what this attention means for the state's national image.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Feb. 24 to hear arguments from federal judges across the country about the need to expand the bench including Diane Humetewa, a federal judge in Arizona and the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.
She testified about the longstanding, unmet need for more federal judges in her state.
Arizona is one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, but the number of judges has been stagnant for most of the past three decades. This has caused a legal backlog. It's been more than 30 years since Congress passed a broad expansion of the judiciary. In that time, the nation’s population has grown, technology has raised an array of previously unimaginable legal concerns and globalization has upended the economy.
Democrats and Republicans agreed at the February hearing that the nation is overdue for more judges.
In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen break down why and how this legal bottleneck affects Arizonans.
Joining the show are Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, and Rep. Greg Staton, D-Ariz., a judiciary committee member.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
