It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable, where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ Radio and Jessica Boehm of Axios Phoenix.
This week’s topics included:
- Auditor General’s ESA report
- National Guard nominee advances
- Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) sides with ACLU in abortion challenge
- George Will: What if Doug Ducey (R) ran for president?
Auditor General’s ESA report
Howie Fischer: “They didn’t say 34% of the funds were misspent. A lot of it was, we don’t have the documentation, you know that doesn’t mean it was misspent, it just meant that somebody didn’t follow up.”
Camryn Sanchez: “They have a backlog, which is like an avalanche, that they just don’t have the capacity to deal with. At least that’s what [Tom Horne’s] office has said for why this is the case. They said we don’t have enough time, we don’t have enough staff, we don’t have enough funding for all of these requests and purchases that are coming in, and it’s not something that’s sustainable.”
Jessica Boehm: “[People] are probably going to be thinking about this report in realizing, or in bringing that information to the ballot. I think that, again, this is like coming from a place that’s not partisan, that is a respected agency, and that is going to provide even more sway. But, we also know that these are not extremely popular among people who don’t use them, so, would the outcome have been the same anyway? Maybe, but this is certainly ammunition.”
Howie Fischer: “The fallout… is how does this affect Tom Horne. He has been a big defender, but he also insists… I don’t have the ability to go through expenses, which is why they decided anything under 2,000, we’ll let it go through and we’ll catch up with it later.”
