Republicans pick abortion opponent as Arizona House speaker

Steve Montenegro of Goodyear beat out competition from current House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci of Lake Havasu City and Rep. Joseph Chaplik of Scottsdale. He got 18 votes of the 33 Republicans who will be serving in the House when the Legislature reconvenes in January, up from the current 31 in the 60-member chamber.

The post was open because the current speaker, Ben Toma of Peoria, could not seek reelection after serving four two-year terms in the House. Instead, he made a bid to become the GOP nominee for Congress from CD 8 but lost to Abe Hamadeh, who went on to win the general election in the heavily Republican district.

In the other legislative chamber, Senate Republicans decided late Tuesday to retain current President Warren Petersen of Gilbert, who had faced a challenge from David Gowan of Sierra Vista.

This is Montenegro’s second stint in the Legislature.

He was first elected in 2007 to the state House and later to the Senate but resigned in 2017 to make his own unsuccessful bid for Congress. Montenegro, who is a pastor, returned to the House in the 2022 election.

During his first stint at the Capitol, he was the driving force behind a successful 2010 ballot measure to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to, or discriminate, based on race, sex, ethnicity or national origin. It applies to public employment, public education and public contracting.

He also pushed through 2011 legislation that makes it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion when a woman says it’s because of the child’s gender or race. Legal efforts to void that law failed.

Montenegro also backed a 2021 law to ban abortions if they were done because of fetal abnormalities.

This year he voted against repeal of the 1864 law which made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except to save the life of the mother. But he and other foes of repeal were outvoted when several Republicans united with all legislative Democrats to rescind the law.

Montenegro also used his power as chairman of the House Committee on Health and Human Services this year to block Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, from getting a hearing on her proposal to enshrine the right to contraceptives in Arizona law.

The measure would have created a law saying individuals had the right to obtain “any drug, device or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy.” It also listed various items that would have been protected, including oral contraceptives.

In 2016, Montenegro, then the House majority leader, played a role in action by then-Speaker David Gowan that resulted in the temporary loss of news reporters’ privileges to be on the House floor. That was because members of the press corps would not agree to background checks.

Montenegro insisted it wasn’t a ban, pointing out that reporters got to remain in the gallery along with other members of the public.

“They have full access to the work we’re doing in this chamber,’’ he said.

But floor access, which has existed for decades, always has been crucial to covering the Legislature because it ensures that reporters can interview lawmakers both before and after the session about the measures they have introduced and the votes they have taken.