The Pima County Board of Supervisors is poised to replace outgoing state Sen. Kirsten Engel next week, in a choice that could send ripples through Tucson’s fast-changing legislative lineup.
The clerk of the board said Thursday that the selection of Engel’s replacement is to be added on Friday, Oct. 1, to the agenda for the board’s Tuesday, Oct. 5, meeting.
The board’s decision could create another legislative vacancy. Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton is one of the three candidates and would have to be replaced in the House if the board puts her in the Senate.
While that upheaval takes place in Legislative District 10, more is coming in a neighboring legislative district. Rep. Randy Friese, who recently dropped out of the race for U.S. Congress, said Thursday he is planning to resign from his seat in the state House in November as well.
Friese, a Democrat, represents Legislative District 9, the district centered on the Catalina foothills and northern Tucson. LD 10 is in central and eastern Tucson.
A trauma surgeon, Friese cited his desire to return to his medical career when he dropped out of the congressional race and noted the same professional reason, as well as family reasons, for planning to resign from the state House before the next session begins.
His seat mate in LD 9, Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, also will not be running for re-election in 2022. She said Thursday that she turned 70 in July and decided to retire, in part to spend more time with her grandchildren, and also to agitate from the outside on the issues she cares about.
Sen. Victoria Steele is still planning to run for re-election, she said Thursday.
In LD 10, the vacancy was created last month when Engel, also a Democrat, decided to step down in order to focus on running for Congress in what is now Congressional District 2.
Under state law, it was up to the legislative district’s Democrats to choose three candidates to replace her, and up to the supervisors to pick one. The candidates chosen are:
Stahl Hamilton, a Presbyterian minister and one-term member of the House who had already announced her intention to run for the state Senate.
Tom Chabin, a former school board member, state legislator and Coconino County supervisor while living in Flagstaff, before he moved to Tucson in January 2013.
Larry Waggoner, second vice chair of the LD 10 Democrats, who spent his career in the Marine Corps and working for NATO in Italy before returning to Tucson, his hometown.
The selection takes place against a shifting backdrop. The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is meeting to draw up new maps that could change these district boundaries dramatically.
Chabin, for example, said he plans to run for Legislature in 2022, but he’s not sure if it will be in the same district as Stahl Hamilton or a different one, because of the uncertainty about where lines will be drawn.
At times, the board has decided to avoid choosing a candidate who plans to run for the seat at the next election. They did that after Supervisor Richard Elías died in early 2020 and was replaced by Betty Villegas until the next election could be held.
But supervisors chair Sharon Bronson said Thursday she has placed no such conditions on which candidate to select.
Tim Steller
Sinema faces censure threat
The Arizona senator at the center of everything these days could soon have a new keepsake for her “maverick” trophy case.
The Arizona Democratic Party is threatening to censure Kyrsten Sinema — and possibly pull its support for her in 2024 — unless she votes in favor of Senate filibuster reform, voting rights legislation and the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that carries most of President Biden’s domestic policy agenda.
Similar demands are being made by a new political action committee in Arizona called Primary Sinema, which is promising to raise money for her possible challenger should she decide to run again in three years.
The trouble at home comes as Sinema plays the central role in ongoing negotiations with the White House over a messy stalemate with congressional Republicans.
Sinema’s office declined to comment on the censure threat, but such a rebuke by her own party could only burnish her favored image as a sensible centrist in the vein of John McCain. The Arizona GOP censured McCain for similar reasons — his perceived liberalism in that case — in 2014.
In 2019, progressives in the Arizona Democratic Party pushed to censure Sinema over several bipartisan votes, including the confirmation of Trump administration Attorney General William Barr.
That effort failed when state party leaders shelved the proposed resolution.
Henry Brean
Bannon headlines GOP dinner
The Pima County GOP’s annual Lincoln Dinner will take place Oct. 23, headlined by Republican media executive and former White House adviser Steve Bannon.
The fundraising event will be held at the Hilton El Conquistador for $65 a ticket, with state Senate President Karen Fann, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels featured as guest speakers.
Bannon, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, has heavily promoted the state Senate’s recently concluded review of the Maricopa County election on his podcast, “War Room.”
He was recently subpoenaed for his alleged support of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot by the House select committee investigating the attack. Bannon’s deposition is scheduled for Oct. 14, a week before the Tucson dinner.
Bannon has a long history in Southern Arizona, having come here in the 1990s to take over management of Biosphere 2.
Tickets for the 2021 Lincoln Dinner are available at pimagop.org.
Nicole Ludden
Glassman resumes electoral odyssey
Often down but never out, Rodney Glassman is ready to run again.
The one-time member of the Tucson City Council announced Thursday he is planning to run for Arizona attorney general.
Glassman was a Democrat when living in Tucson and serving on the City Council, but he became a Republican after moving to Phoenix. In a video announcing his latest run, Glassman played up his political conversion, setting the announcement in a pretend 12-step group for former Democrats.
After winning the Tucson City Council race in 2007, Glassman resigned to run for U.S. Senate in 2010, losing in a landslide to Republican John McCain. He subsequently ran as a Republican and lost a run for Arizona Corporation Commission in 2018 and for Maricopa County assessor in 2020.
He will face Lacy Cooper, Andrew Gould and Tiffany Shedd in the GOP primary race for attorney general.
Tim Steller
