PHOENIX — A decision by a Peoria lawmaker to take a job in the Trump administration could clear the way for Arizona to have its first-ever ban on teen texting while driving.
Republican Rep. Phil Lovas said he will be the regional advocate for the Small Business Administration. Lovas, an early Trump supporter, said he had put his name in for consideration with White House staff.
His last day in office will be the end of this week.
The move does more than set the stage for party workers in his district to recommend a replacement to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which chooses a replacement. That new lawmaker, who would serve out the balance of the term, which runs through the end of next year, has to be a Republican like Lovas.
It also leaves vacant the helm of the powerful House Rules Committee through which all bills must pass to go to the House floor.
One that Lovas has refused to hear is SB 1080. That measure, which passed the Senate 24-6, bans not only texting by new teen drivers but even talking on a cellphone.
The same bill sponsored by Sen. Karen Fann, R-Prescott, also gained approval 7-1 by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
But Lovas told Capitol Media Services last week he was not interested in advancing the measure to the floor. While Lovas said he was “personally ambivalent” about the issue he had heard concerns from colleagues who feared that once teens were forbidden to use cellphones and drive it would be the “camel’s nose under the tent,” paving the way for restrictions on others.
It is now up to House Speaker J.D. Mesnard to choose someone to head the committee; there is no real chance that whoever takes Lovas’ seat will also get the plum position of chairing Rules.
Lovas acknowledged how his resignation affects all that.
“I think the happiest people today would probably be Karen Fann and others whose bills I have held,” he laughed. And Lovas, who just a week ago said the texting ban was in a “deep coma” in his committee, said its life signs are now looking healthier.
“It might be coming out of a coma,” he quipped.
Fann, for her part, said she remains hopeful that perhaps Lovas will provide a going-away gift of sorts to her and supporters of SB 1080 and allow the measure to go to the full House, where she says she has the votes.
“I have always been very hopeful that Phil would stand up and put that on there,” meaning the Rules agenda, she said. “The fact that he’s moving onward and upward, that just gives him one more reason to do the right thing and put it on the agenda this week.”
