Journalists’ Roundtable on Brutinel retirement, Trump lead and more

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, we were joined by Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ and Jim Small of Arizona Mirror.

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable topics included:

• Justice Brutinel retirement
• New York Times and Fox News polls: Trump leading Harris
• No pay cut for Hobbs department heads
• Fox News poll: Gallego +14 lead
• Pinal County supervisor sues county
• Wadsack trial delayed

Justice Brutinel retirement

Howie Fischer: “Katie Hobbs is going to get an appointment (to the court). She’s been dying for that all along. We have two other justices, both Doug Ducey appointees, that are up for retention. If they don’t get retained, and the voters defeat Prop 137, which would overturn this whole retention process, she gets three appointments to the seven-member court. That, coupled with Ann Scott Timmer, who’s one of the more moderate justices, gives her a working majority.”

Camryn Sanchez: “It is a big deal, but we aren’t going to know for sure until the election goes through about how many she [Governor Hobbs] is actually going to appoint, but most likely it is going to be a Democrat. I mean that’s the only thing that makes sense for her to do.”

New York Times and Fox News polls: Trump leading Harris

Sanchez: “It could be that this is the dip we all expected. Her initial announcement got everyone excited, and there was a change at the top that probably stirred up some disinterested voters. Now, the excitement of it has faded; it’s not news anymore, and potentially this is the aftermath of that. It makes sense to me that Trump would be up in Arizona by a bit; this is a historically red state and Republicans have been preparing for this since Biden lost.”

Jim Small: “If you look at the national polls, you’ve seen Kamala Harris make inroads on the economy. I think for a long time, Trump has been viewed as the candidate who is favored among voters for the economy. Over the past couple of weeks, you’ve seen in the national polls Kamala Harris in some of them even get to even as to who is better for the economy. For Democrats that is the key, to win on the economy or at least become competitive on the economic issues.”