The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

With the start of a new fiscal year looming, Republicans and Democrats came to a deal that resulted in a state budget of nearly $18 billion for 2022-23.More money for infrastructure, education and water issues and raises to state employees are included in the spending package.This week on The Gaggle, a podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, guest host Amanda Luberto talks with Arizona Republic state politics reporters Mary Jo Pitzl and Stacey Barchenger to break down how the legislation will affect you, and the whole state, moving forward.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 24th, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the longstanding constitutional right to abortion. It came months after a leaked document suggested the Court’s decision to strike down Roe V. Wade.The 5-4 ruling now leaves it to the states to set their own abortion laws. In some states, abortion rights are protected no matter the national ruling. In others, abortion became immediately illegal. Arizona is in a gray zone.This week on The Gaggle, a podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Ron Hansen in joined by two Arizona Republic reporters to help give a better understanding on where Arizona stands in a post-Roe world.The show is first joined by health reporter Stephanie Innes and later on, state politics reporter Ray Stern.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drive down any street these days and you’re likely to see campaign signs sprouting up like strange mushrooms all along the corners of intersections and roadsides.It can only mean one thing: elections are around the corner. We are picking through the notable races and candidates you should pay attention to ahead of the primaries on Aug. 2. In this episode, we take a closer look at who’s running for a congressional seat in Washington D.C.Lorna Romero of Elevate Strategies and a Republican, and Eric Chalmers of Strategies 360, a Democrat, walk us through who's running, who stands out, and who has the likeliest chance of winning a seat in Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Doug Ducey heads the Republican Governors Association, offering him national relevance in the final year of his tenure in Arizona. Here in Arizona, the race to replace him is in full swing. with no one really offering what he has.As the Aug. 2 primary approaches, The Gaggle is covering the state's most competitive races, including who is running and how they stack up. Last week, the focus was on the state Legislature.This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Ron Hansen is first joined by Republic reporter Stacey Barchenger to discuss the Republicans and Democrats squaring off in the governor's race.Later, Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl joins to inform about the secretary of state's race, a contest getting attention for the first time in a long time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early voting in the Arizona primaries is rapidly approaching. With that in mind, The Gaggle is focusing on the notable contests. While, many eyes are focused on the governor’s race and whether or not Senator Mark Kelly will keep his seat in Congress, we can’t forget that the state legislature can really move Arizona’s political needle.In this episode, our own state politics reporter, Ray Stern will help us make sense of the primaries to watch in the state House and Senate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 24, America experienced another horrible mass shooting. An 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas, massacred 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.Salvador Ramos opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle in a fourth-grade classroom before an officer killed him to end the rampage. It is the deadliest school shooting since the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. The violence in Texas still shocks, but it doesn’t feel new.The political response seemed more combative, more quickly, in another sign of America’s all-too-familiar political stalemate over gun violence.Polling shows large majorities of Americans favor at least some greater restrictions on access to firearms, yet the issue is scarcely discussed on Capitol Hill.At the state level, it’s a different story.In this week's episode of The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Ron Hansen is joined by Republic reporter Rafael Carranza, who reported from Uvalde. UCLA professor Christopher Poliquin also joined the show to discuss how lawmakers react to these tragedies.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Freshman state Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, has been among the most prominent voices lying about the 2020 presidential election. But her bombast goes well past political puffery.After the recent massacre in Buffalo that police believe was at the hands of a white racist, Rogers crossed a line in a vague social media post that fueled a conspiracy that the slayings were part of a federal false-flag operation.Nearly all her Arizona Senate colleagues voted for an ethics investigation, but they limited their scrutiny to a seven-word post after the slayings in which she noted that “Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo.”They rejected a Democratic measure to immediately expel her. The Senate Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday on the investigation into Rogers and her tweet.In this episode, Brian Levin, a national expert on hate and extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, joins The Gaggle. He explains how Rogers and the rise of extremists in Arizona compares to what is happening more widely across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the nation's elections under siege from other nations and their integrity in question from many Americans, Ken Matta, Arizona's longtime elections security director, has stepped down.Matta worked under Republicans and Democrats and oversaw 32 elections. He ran nearly 203,000 test ballots to verify the accuracy of the state's election machines.Now, Matta is moving into the private sector as the state prepares for elections that will again test public confidence.In this episode of The Gaggle, we speak to Matta about his tenure as an elections security officer, what he saw during his years of service and why he trusts our elections process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rate of inflation has been on many people's minds lately, from the gas pump to the housing market to the grocery store.The main driver of inflation has been consumer demand and supply chain issues that have lingered as the COVID-19 pandemic slows down. It is currently affecting Americans day to day, and more than half of the country says it's now impacting their long-term financial goals. In a speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the rising inflation issues but spoke more about putting the blame on Republicans rather than a plan to combat it.Voters have a chance to show their frustration at the polls this election year.In this week's episode of The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen are joined by pollster Paul Bentz. He's senior vice president at High Ground Public Affairs Consultants and joins The Gaggle to discuss how inflation going to impact voters' decisions in the upcoming election.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many regulations and limitations that went into effect around the beginning of COVID-19 are gone. You’re allowed back inside restaurants, you can buy as many rolls of toilet paper at once as you’d like, and you don’t have to wear a mask while doing either.And now added to the list of regulations that will be lifted is Title 42. Title 42 is a public health code that was established in 1944 as a part of the Public Health Services Act. It gives the United States the ability to deny entry of non-citizens in the case of disease that could be seen as a serious danger to the U.S.It was rarely used but was put into effect in March 2020 when the spread of COVID-19 became more serious. Since then, it has been used more than 1.7 million times by Customs and Border Protection. President Joe Biden’s administration announced it will rescind the current policy later in May after more than two years, but not everyone agrees that it’s the right move.In this week's episode of The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen are joined by Arizona Republic reporters Rafael Carranza and Clara Migoya to parse through Title 42, how it is affecting Arizona's border, and what the future holds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices