Journalists’ Roundtable: Schweikert’s race for governor 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 Jeremy Duda of Axios Phoenix, Jim Small of Arizona Mirror and Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ.

Top stories this week include:

• Schweikert announces run for Arizona governor
• Ramifications to CD1 race
• Arizona Supreme Court ok’s dark money challenge
• Adrian Fontes submits elections manual
• John Gillette
• Wadsack and Tucson attorney fees

Schweikert announces run for Arizona governor:

Jeremy Duda: “He finally made it official…he was tired of Washington, there for 14-15 years representing Northern Phoenix, Scottsdale area…kind of a pretty big shake up into the Republican primary for governor, in what had been looking like a pretty solidified two-way race between Andy Biggs, and Karen Taylor Robson.”

Jim Small: “He sees the Republican party in crisis in Arizona, and doesn’t think that either of the candidates…are really up to the job of leading the state…he has decided that he’s the person to jump in there, and really changed he tone of the race…and potentially laid out a road map for how he sees saving the conservative ideology and the Republican brand in Arizona.”

Camryn Sanchez: “I would say Schweikert jumping in is honestly a little bit of a surprise to me, even though we’ve heard rumors of this on and off…is he expecting Taylor Robson to drop out, and then hopefully pick up her voters, or is he going to be potentially harmful to her, and she’ll be harmful to him, and it’ll just generally help Andy Biggs.”

Jeremy Duda: “…he’s not MAGA, he does not have the Trump endorsement unlike his two opponents here…I haven’t heard a lot of consensus on who he hurts more.”