Journalists’ Roundtable: Hobbs and Sunshine residential, Arizona candidates accused of fraud and more

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for the Journalists’ Roundtable, where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Mark Brodie of KJZZ, Jeremy Duda from Axios Phoenix and Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ.

The topics discussed this week:

• Governor Katie Hobbs is cleared of criminal wrongdoing involving bribery allegations
• Attorney General Kris Mayes opens investigations against three Arizona candidates accused of campaign fraud
• Attorney General Mayes calls for a statewide pause on data center approvals

Governor Katie Hobbs’ alleged bribery

Camryn Sanchez: “The latest here comes from ‘Arizona Republic’s’ reporting, and they talked to former DCS employees and leaders who said there was discussion about, ‘Give us this rate increase; we have friendly connections with you.'”

Mark Brodie: “[The director of DCS] did not keep that job. The interesting thing here is that the Republicans in the legislature want to see the Attorney General’s files. They’re asking to release the files, which Kris Mayes said she will do when she’s done, but she’s also pointed out other investigations are going on that, in theory, you maybe don’t want some of the details released publicly when there are other investigations, including by House Republicans, going on at the moment. We don’t know when those are going to wrap up and obviously don’t know what they’re going to say, but they’re still ongoing.”

Jeremy Duda: “What we saw this week is that the Attorney General’s investigation didn’t release last week when Kris Mayes released those findings, because that was one of the big issues that Speaker Montenegro raised when this news first came out. [DCS] knew this; they talked to former Firector Foust, who told you, ‘Give me a rate increase; I have the Governor’s ear, and I can put in a good word for you on the job,’ which is extremely unlikely. He’s a director for an outgoing Republican administration, incoming Democratic administration. It didn’t have anything that implicated the Governor, which is what they really want. They have a couple of DCS employees backing up the claim from the Director, and that keeps this in the news. They don’t have the smoking gun they were hoping for with Katie Hobbs.”