Journalists’ Roundtable: Adrian Fontes 2026 challenge to Hobbs

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, we were joined by Mark Brodie and Wayne Schutsky of KJZZ Radio and Mary Jo Pitzl of “The Arizona Republic” and azcentral.com.

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable topics included:

• Fontes considering 2026 Hobbs challenge
• Petersen aiming for Attorney General run
• Lake/ Richer settle a defamation lawsuit
• Maricopa County Canvass
• Delays in ESA reimbursements
• Feds release outline for Colorado River plan

Fontes considering 2026 Hobbs challenge:

Mark Brodie: “There are Democrats who are concerned that Governor Hobbs is maybe not the strongest candidate going into 2026 and are actively looking maybe for somebody else to step forward in a primary. And Fontes didn’t say yes, but he also certainly didn’t say no.”

Wayne Schutsky: “Basically, what I had been hearing, until he made it official, in talking to Stacey over at the “Republic,” was that he’s being wooed. He’s listening to these folks who are concerned that after these election results, the Governor put a lot of eggs in the basket of flipping the legislature and ultimately lost ground. And so that, really, if she had won those seats, I don’t think we’d be hearing these conversations right now.”

Petersen aiming for Attorney General run:

Brodie: “Warren Petersen said he is considering running for AG (Attorney General). Rodney Glassman, who has been on this stage, said he is going to run for AG (Attorney General). So I think, to Mary Jo’s point though about the Democratic primary, the point has been made to me a few times this week that Democrats in this state traditionally have avoided messy primaries.”

Brodie: “Democrats have been kind of careful to have primaries, but usually there’s some sort of one candidate that’s well known, like a Governor Hobbs, and then others who are not as competitive when all is said and done, but Democrats tried to avoid those kids of messy primaries.”