Hobbs says Senate created 'political circus,' then sued her over it

PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs’ attorney says a judge should toss senators’ effort to create a legal battle out of what he calls a “political circus’’ they created over her agency director nominees.

This is a “political dispute” that just needs to be worked out between Hobbs and state lawmakers, without court interference, her attorney Andrew Gaona told a judge in new legal filings.

Gaona pointed out that after the Senate balked at some of Hobbs’ nominees, she withdrew all of their names.

Hobbs was within her rights, he told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney, to use a procedural maneuver to name each of her choices that never got Senate confirmation instead to the positions of “deputy executive directors’’ of each of those same agencies. Those slots are beyond the reach of Senate confirmation or rejection, Gaona argues.

The dispute goes back more than a year to when Republican Senate President Warren Petersen created a new process to review nominations.

For years before that, gubernatorial choices were reviewed by whatever standing committee had purview in that area. So a director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, might go to the Health Committee. And someone tapped to head the Department of Insurance and Financial Services could be reviewed by the Banking Committee.

Instead, Petersen created a new Committee on Director Nominations and named Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, a vocal critic of the Democratic governor and her policies, to head that panel.

The result, said Gaona, was a hearing process focused not on the qualifications of the nominee but on other political issues.

For example, former state Sen. Martin Quezada was nominated as director of the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, an agency that Gaona said is not political.

But GOP lawmakers on the panel peppered him with questions about everything from transgender people in sports and white nationalism to racism, vouchers and Israeli-Palestinian relations, the last having to do with statements Quezada made while a senator — long before the current war — supporting the interests of Palestinians in their political battles for a homeland.

When the panel voted to reject the nomination, Hobbs withdrew it.

Several other nominations did not even get as far as a hearing as Hoffman demanded that Hobbs first rescind various executive orders, including one in June that gave Attorney General Kris Mayes exclusive authority to decide whether to prosecute anyone for violating abortion laws.

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So Hobbs, in a way, outmaneuvered him.

First, she withdrew all the pending nominations that were awaiting action, leaving each agency without a director.

Then she tapped Ben Henderson, operations director of her office, to be the director of the Arizona State Lottery Commission. He, in turn, named Alec Thomson, the former nominee, to be the deputy executive director. And then Henderson quit, leaving the deputy — the person whom Hobbs wanted in the first place — in charge.

Henderson then went on to the next agency, the Department of Administration, and repeated the performance with Elizabeth Alborado-Thorson. And so it went through all 13 agencies.

Hobbs told Petersen she’ll submit their names again for confirmation as the actual agency directors when Hoffman and the Senate are willing to get serious.

Petersen sued a month ago, demanding Hobbs submit those names — and now.

Gaona, in providing the governor’s legal response, said Petersen has no legal basis for his demand.

“She nominated directors for executive agencies, withdrew her nominations, and informed the Senate that she would resume sending nominations when it agrees to consider them in good faith,’’ he told Blaney. “Nothing in (the law) requires her to nominate individuals on the Senate’s preferred timeline.’’

Gaona also said Hobbs did nothing wrong in naming those deputy executive directors to ensure someone was in charge.

“To uphold her constitutional and statutory duties to effectively oversee and manage state government, the governor thus took lawful steps to prevent the Senate’s antics from obstructing the operation of critical executive agencies,’’ he said.

A hearing on the dispute is set for next month.