Democratic candidate for governor Katie Hobbs declared, โThis debate over debates is overโ during an interview Wednesday that served as a debate substitute.
In reality, that debate probably isnโt over, but the debate issue is finally, formally resolved.
Hobbs did a half-hour interview with Ted Simons of Arizona PBS in Phoenix on Wednesday, and Republican Kari Lake will do a half-hour interview with radio host Mike Broomhead Sunday at 5 p.m. on KAZT, which is Channel 7 in Phoenix. The Lake interview will also be streamed on the stationโs website, aztv.com.
The interviews are the outcome of a dragged-out discussion over whether Hobbs would join Lake in a debate sponsored by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. Lake was enthusiastic, but Hobbs was unwilling.
Hobbs cited the fact that the GOP gubernatorial debate was chaotic and became the source of mockery around the country. She also said she didnโt want to spend a debate trying to refute Lakeโs โlies,โ especially about the 2020 election.
Unstated in the Hobbsโ campaignโs explanation was that Lake is a highly skilled television communicator, after a career as a news anchor, while Hobbsโ has demonstrated only a rough ability to think on her feet and communicate sharply in TV interviews.
Hobbs offered to do half-hour consecutive interviews, one with Lake, then one with her, but the clean elections commission declined and planned to give Lake the entire time set aside for the debate, as it has in the past when candidates decline to debate.
That arrangement blew up last week when it was revealed that Arizona PBS, which is part of Arizona State Universityโs Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, made a separate arrangement to interview Hobbs this week, under pressure from ASU President Michael Crow.
The new Hobbs interview was to happen after Lake took up the debate time slot last week, but Arizona PBS kept its partners at the clean elections commission in the dark on the new arrangement. That led, last week, to the commission aborting the debate arranged at Arizona PBS.
That then led to Lake holding a news conference in front of the Cronkite School last week, which, Hobbs said, led to harassing emails and calls made to the school and the station.
Instead of last weekโs time slot for the debate on Arizona PBS, Lake will appear this Sunday in the interview with Broomhead, a conservative host on KTAR radio. Records from the clean elections commission show that KAZT and the commission went through a variety of possible moderators, but Broomhead was the only one both willing and available.
Ballots damaged at post office
Some early ballots were damaged when going through the automated sorter at the U.S. Postal Service, a process that began Oct. 12, the Pima County Recorderโs Office reported Thursday.
Post office employees saw what was happening and began hand-sorting the ballots, but that delayed processing, meaning that some were not mailed out until Oct. 17, recorderโs office spokesman Micheal Truelsen said in a statement Thursday. Still, all early ballots should arrive on time to be mailed back.
Voters should contact the Pima County Recorderโs Office at 520-724-4330 if any of the following materials are missing from their envelope:
The ballot
The blue instruction sheet with โI Votedโ sticker
Instructions on how to return a ballot, with a list of early voting sites
A list of all statewide and Pima County propositions
The white ballot affidavit envelope
The yellow return envelope
Finchem protests Jan. 6 ads
A law firm representing Mark Finchem, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Arizona TV stations Tuesday, demanding that they stop broadcasting an ad criticizing Finchem for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.
The ad, by the Arizona Democratic Party, opens by calling Finchem โa conspiracy theorist and a member of an extremist militia.โ It goes on to describe his effort to deny and overturn the results of the 2020 election, saying, โHe led the effort to discard legitimate votes, helped organize the Jan. 6 protests where police were attacked, then said politicians should have the right to decide elections, not voters.โ
Finchemโs objection is to the word โorganize.โ Itโs undisputed that he attended Trump-supporting protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. He also promoted attendance at the event, and was in close contact with organizer Ali Alexander, but Finchem says itโs defamatory to claim he helped organize Jan. 6.
โMr. Finchem was not involved with the organization of the January 6 protest,โ the letter from attorney Jack Wilenchik says. โTherefore, Mr. Finchem demands that you immediately cease and desist from further unlawfully defaming Mr. Finchem and retract the defamatory statements described herein.โ
Text messages from Finchem, released after public records requests last year, show he repeatedly discussed plans for Jan. 6 with organizer Alexander in the runup to the event.
Recorders reject Prop. 309
Arizonaโs 15 county recorders, both Republicans and Democrats, unanimously announced this week that they oppose Prop. 309, a referral from the Legislature on this yearโs ballot.
โIt addresses a non-existent problem, it imposes new burdens on voters, it delays tabulation results, it jeopardizes voter data privacy, and it will likely disenfranchise thousands of voters,โ they said this week in a letter from the Arizona Association of County Recorders.
Prop. 309 would change election procedures by, among other things:
Requiring voters to write their birth date, a state-issued identification number and the last four digits of the voterโs Social Security Number on early-ballot affidavits.
Requiring federal, state or tribal identification to receive a ballot at an in-person voting location.
Requiring that the affidavit accompanying an early ballot and return envelope be concealed when returned.
Requiring the state Department of Transportation to provide an identification card for free to people who request them for voting.
โSupporters of Proposition 309 cannot identify a single instance of fraud that the measures would remedy,โ the recorders said.
