Journalists’ Roundtable: Jonathan Nez running for CD2 again, RFK Jr. hikes in AZ and more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Mary Jo Pitzl of “The Arizona Republic” and azcentral.com, Mark Brodie of KJZZ and Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services.

This week’s topics included:
• Former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez announces another run in CD2
• Fundraising numbers for 2026 Governor and Attorney General races
• State Representative Jeff Weninger (R) running for Mayor of Chandler
• Senate President Petersen sues to kill movie tax credits
• Secretary of State office’s cybersecurity breach
• Wadsack lawyer withdraws
• RFK Jr. climbs Camelback Mountain in jeans during summer heat

Jonathan Nez announces another run in CD2:

Mary Jo Pitzl: “Well I think he believes he’s got a path there but it’s gonna rely heavily on turnout on the Navajo nation…against a Republican in a congressional district that leads pretty Republican.”

Howie Fischer: “I think a lot of this is gonna come down to what happened nationally…I think his belief is there’s gonna be enough people who are fed up with the Republicans that they’ll say, i’m willing to vote for a Democrat, or, i’m not gonna vote for the Republican.”

Fundraising numbers for 2026 Governor and Attorney General races:

Howie Fischer: “Let’s start with the fact that the governor has a hoover vacuum where she’s just sucking up money like crazy…I think she’s over, approaching $5 million right now…again no primary foe helps”

Mark Brodie: “We are still a while away from any votes being cast even though we are talking about it right now…if that is still an issue at the time, what public opinion is and whether that will seem like a good vote Biggs took now or a troublesome vote.”

Senate President Petersen sues to kill movie tax credits:

Mary Jo Pitzl: “In the big scheme of things the Senate President, the House Speaker, they are known mainly by the title…people don’t really associate names with those individuals but this is an opportunity to build up that name ID.”

Mark Brodie: “It would be kind of surprising to see that as a big issue in the AG’s race…but it might be something that he could say, I’m looking out for the tax payers here.”