Journalists’ Roundtable: Governor Hobbs signs protest bill

May 9

This week’s topics:

Governor Katie Hobbs signs campus encampment bill
Bipartisan support and political strategy
Internal democratic party tensions over Pro-Palestinian protests

Concerns over free speech in the campus encampment bill

Camryn Sanchez: “There were definitely some debates about how specific the bill is and whether or not you know this could be used as too much of a weapon against students because there’s always concerns about I think censorship and first amendment rights with students at universities.”

Jeremy Duda: ” I think there’s some folks that have some concerns over is this going to be used to shut down, you know speech. I think on both sides of the aisle, we had some folks on, a few folks on the right, Republicans who said OK, well if someone is going to use this to shut down political stuff on a university campus who are they really going to be going after?”

How does this reflect on Gov. Hobbs’ preparation for re-election?

Jeremy Duda: “This is an area where perhaps you reach a little bit towards, more towards the middle. She has in some areas tried to take a more kind of centrist tone.”

Camryn Sanchez: “She wants to do anything and everything going into 2026 that’s going to be helpful for her, and where it’s possible look for bipartisanship.”

Will Gov. Hobbs sign a bill that will allow hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status?

Camryn Sanchez: “I feel fairly confident saying that I don’t expect her to sign it. This is definitely a Republican bill it’s pushed by Senator Wendy Rogers, I don’t think most of her bills get through the governor’s office.”

Pushbacks on Sen. Rogers’ bill

Mark Brodie: “One of the criticisms that a lot of Democrats are saying is look, if people know that they’re going to be questioned about their immigration status when they go to the hospital, if they’re nervous about that they’re not going to go to the hospital. Which is sort what the argument that we heard about during Medicaid expansion and others when you know people don’t go to the doctor’s so they end up having to go to the ER for things that could have been treated earlier on.”

Arizona legislature on break

Mark Brodie: “Well they’re basically at that point in the session where they’ve, the committee work has been done for a while. They’ve really gone through a lot of the bills that they have to vote on in either the full house or senate. And they’re kind of at that point where like it’s like the budget and a few outstanding issues that might be tied up in the budget.”

Camryn Sanchez: “Love it or hate it, I think that it is hopefully a time for them to actually hunker down and focus on the budget which needs to get done. There’s a deadline for that unlike some other things.”

Relationship between Gov. Hobbs and the legislature while creating the budget

Jeremy Duda: “There’s going to have to be some bipartisanship on the budget. You can’t get a Democratic governor to sign a budget with only Republican votes. Senator Kavanagh said, leave it to the governor to herd the Democrat cats and we’ll worry about you know our side.”

Backlash against State Chair Robert Branscomb

Mark Brodie: “It seems as though the Democrats, like at least the activists in the party, are more unhappy with how he is running things. In terms of, there’s a controversy about firing the executive director or maybe not. There’s concerns as you mentioned about the budget.”

Could this affect Democrats in the 2026 election?

Jeremy Duda: “It’s 2025, but you know the clock ticks pretty fast. You know sooner, before we know it it’s going to be the election and the last thing you would want if you’re the Democrats, less any political party wants is to have that kind of internal discord, that kind of strife. You know the state party, your job is basically to, you know register voters, spend money, you’re a past through for you know a lot of federal dollars from your national committees. And you gotta wonder how that’s going to go if things don’t change, if Branscomb sticks around.”

Karrin Taylor Robson loses President Trump’s endorsement

Jeremy Duda: “What folks are telling my colleagues is that they wanted Karrin Taylor Robson to start running TV ads very early on about the Trump endorsement. And I think the last time I was on the show we were talking about she had started, finally started running those ads and we were kind of wondering, what’s the point in running TV ads so early in a campaign anyway. Turns out they wanted them a lot earlier, it didn’t happen and finally it sounds like they just said, well if you’re not going to listen to us, we’re going to get out.”

Camryn Sanchez: “I think what maybe happened was, Trump was told by some consultants that he should endorse Taylor Robson and she had a shot at winning and didn’t know if anyone else was jumping in the race. Then got a whole avalanche of pushback from people from the TP USA wing of the party, Charlie Kirk, Jake Hoffman perhaps saying, why would you endorse this lady who went against Kari Lake, who was our like darling”

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap on ballots for the special election in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District

Mark Brodie: “Just a maybe, like a hundred something odd voters in Maricopa County that he said, you know if they’re in really rural areas, if they’re a long way away from voting centers or places we’ll just send them ballots. Which is interesting because when he was in the legislature he was very much opposed to the concept of sending ballots to people who are not on the active early voting list.”