Lawmakers halt hearings for Arizona governor's nominees due to abortion issue

PHOENIX — Upset with Gov. Katie Hobbs' executive order on abortion prosecutions, Republican lawmakers who until now have been slow to confirm her nominations are now bringing the process to a dead stop.

In a letter Monday to the Democratic governor, the three Republican members of the Committee on Director Nominations said their role, at least in part, is to ensure that the people she picks to head state agencies will follow the laws as written by the Legislature.

But Sens. Jake Hoffman, Sine Kerr and T.J. Shope said Hobbs' executive order Friday to strip the state's 15 county attorneys of their authority to prosecute abortion cases and give that to Attorney General Kris Mayes, a supporter of abortion rights, gives them "tremendous concerns about your office's future attempts to act outside its vested authority.''

"Based on your recent executive actions, we have grave concern that the direction you intend to provide to your nominees will not allow them to fulfill this obligation,'' wrote the senators from Queen Creek, Buckeye and Coolidge, respectively.

They want to meet with Hobbs, or at least with members of her administration, "to discuss any additional unlawful overreach your office intends to take requiring complicity from executive directors.''

Can serve for year without confirmation

Their decision to halt hearings — the next of which had been scheduled for Tuesday, June 27 — has no immediate effects.

Gubernatorial nominees can serve for up to a year without Senate confirmation. That would allow each of those awaiting Senate action to keep their jobs, and and run the state agencies, into 2024.

But unless resolved before then, the decision would mean the people Hobbs has picked since taking office in January will be out when their year is up. That would force Hobbs to make new picks, submit their names and, depending on the Senate, go through the same thing again.

In a response, Hobbs' press aide Christian Slater did not address the executive order and whether the governor has the legal right to tell the 15 county attorneys they no longer have the authority to prosecute medical professionals who perform abortions. Instead, he lashed out at Hoffman.

"Sen. Hoffman has shown a reckless disrespect for small businesses, veterans, children and everyday Arizonans by failing to fairly consider nominees and holding state agencies hostage to his partisan political games,'' Slater said in a written  statement. He made it clear that, as far as Hobbs is concerned, this latest maneuver by Hoffman isn't a big change from his previous stance on her nominees.

"Based on his current pace, Gov. Hobbs would not have all her nominees confirmed until her second term,'' Slater said. 

Accused of 'conspiring' with Mayes

The ire of the three senators was not directed solely at the governor.

In their letter to Hobbs, they accused her of "conspiring'' with Mayes.

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Mayes, a Democrat, was part of the decision-making process that led to Hobbs concluding that Arizona law entitles her to direct the attorney general to handle all future abortion cases. That effectively decriminalized abortion in Arizona, as Mayes contends the right of privacy built into the Arizona Constitution makes a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy beyond the reach of government.

Hobbs said she is concerned that a legal fight playing out in the Arizona Supreme Court could lead to conflicting conclusions among the 15 county attorneys about which of two state laws is enforceable: One that outlaws all abortions except to save the life of the mother, and the other which makes abortion legal through the 15th week of pregnancy.

An aide to Mayes confirmed she thinks the right to privacy includes so-called "late-term'' abortions which, even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last yer, were not performed in Arizona.

In a separate statement, Hoffman, who chairs the nominations committee, said Hobbs left lawmakers no choice.

"We are now forced to redirect our attention, from confirming directors and creating good policy for the people of Arizona, to examining the fallout of Hobbs' unconstitutional maneuver, as well as the likelihood of future overreaches of her authority,'' Hoffman said.

Hostilities

Hoffman also chairs the Arizona Freedom Caucus, composed of GOP lawmakers who espouse limits on government and taxes. The caucus has become more vocal and combative this year, even saying in its self-description on Twitter that "Katie Hobbs' Democratic Fascism will not win under our watch.''

That hostility has flowed both ways as Hobbs has been openly critical of Hoffman, saying he has slow-walked hearings on her nominees.

"I don't think fake elector Jake Hoffman is interested in good government at all,'' she said in February as he criticized her selection and vetting process of nominees.

That refers to the fact that Hoffman was one of the 11 names sent by the Arizona Republican Party to Congress as electors pledged to vote for Donald Trump after the 2020 election despite the fact Joe Biden won in Arizona and was entitled to the state's 11 electors.

"He's interested in creating a stage for his political theater,'' Hobbs said.

She said what the Senate has been doing is "serving to potentially grind government to a halt.''

Earlier this year the committee recommended that the full Senate not confirm Teresa Cullen, the Pima County health director, to head the Arizona Department of Health Services.

They raised questions because Pima County had some of the most stringent public health rules during the COVID-19 pandemic and often was at odds with former Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican. Hobbs withdrew the nomination, but not before the full Senate, insisting it had not gotten the message, voted to reject Cullen.

Hobbs also was forced to withdraw the nomination of former state Sen. Martin Quezada to be the registrar of contractors after the Republican-dominated screening panel voted 3-2 along party lines not to confirm him. Republicans put out a press release shortly after the hearing calling Quezada an "unqualified extremist." Several trade associations that represent contractors supported Quezada's confirmation.